By Carmen Pease
For those people who define paradise as a disheveled workbench strewn with grimy gadgets and dissected doodads, tin cans stocked with an enviable collection of nuts and bolts, and a pegboard camouflaged with a jungle of cords and wires, the electronics technology program at Ohio University Lancaster Campus takes the love of tinkering with machinery from a garage hobby to a lucrative career in the real world.
This program has recently teamed up with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to offer the Airway Facilities-Collegiate Training Initiative that will give students the opportunity to embrace their dreams with the knowledge that after acquiring a two-year degree, a stable career is within their reach.
"The technicians, while not pilots or air traffic controllers, keep the planes flying and landing," said Bill Stevens, associate professor of engineering and the program's coordinator. "These are high-tech jobs installing, repairing and maintaining radar systems, communications systems, navigation aid systems and building equipment at major airports and other FAA facilities. It's a great opportunity for students because they are hired with no experience into jobs with starting salaries as high as $56,000 and excellent benefits."
One of only two FAA training sites in Ohio, the campus was selected because of its location in central Ohio and its rigorous program. With courses like robotics, engineering drawing, metal fabrication and computer networking, the program reflects the diversity of the ever-changing field. Another benefit with the Lancaster program is that it hinges on offering students practical, hands-on experience in every class.
"They passed up a lot of other schools to get to us," Stevens said. "They judged our electronics engineering program as 'no less than outstanding.' We're truly honored with this distinction, because the FAA is the envy of other countries."
The 27-year-old program focuses on basic engineering, and under the agreement, electronics technology students from the Lancaster campus will be candidates for FAA full-time positions and FAA internships worth as much as $3,000. This opportunity is exclusive to students who are enrolled in or who have graduated from an FAA training site. Once selected, students receive specialized study at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City.
"What I enjoy the most about the program is the enthusiasm from the instructors," said Jason Craiglow, a student in his second quarter of the program. "It's well organized and the professors always have the time to help. The hands-on aspects and lectures are excellent, and the FAA prospect is an added perk for anyone looking for a promising career."
Stevens, an aviation enthusiast with a piloting license and a two-passenger gyroplane that he recently built, said that he tries to use the aviation field as a way to show practical applications of classroom information. By using flight simulators and taking students up in a real plane, they are given the ability to see firsthand how the instruments and systems work together.
"With our complete lab facilities, quality staff and location in central Ohio, it all just came together," said Jennifer LaRue, public information officer for Ohio University Lancaster Campus. "This program helps students build secure employment in a career that they enjoy, and for folks locally, it is especially critical that we can offer this opportunity to help them meet their needs."
Carmen Pease is a student writer with University Communications and Marketing.
