By Stina Chang, AsAmNews Intern

Anh-Thu Nguyen grew up in a remote village in Tuy-Hoa, Vietnam. As a young girl, she received her education from a UNICEF-built school. At the age of 12, she immigrated to the United States. Despite the inevitable language barrier for many immigrants, Nguyen was able to overcome numerous struggles and challenges within her educational career. She was valedictorian at her high school and graduated top 10 at Purdue University with honor. At surface level, Nguyen’s story might seem like the typical immigrant story. Unlike this trope, however, Nguyen transcends the model minority label and is aiming for something bigger than a dream.



Nguyen is the founder and president of Women in Aerospace and Aviation, a non-profit organization that focuses on inspiring the next generation of female pilots. Nguyen, herself, is a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI/CFII/MEI) and Airport Transport Pilot (ATP). Even though it took ten years for Nguyen to get her private pilot license, she persevered through many setbacks.



Being an Asian American and a woman pilot, it is not unusual that she gets stereotyped regardless of her uniform attire and achievements in the field. Nguyen says that she sometimes still gets denied entrance to the pilot gates by airport security.

“I would try to go through the gate and was told we don’t open the door to passengers,” Nguyen said to AsAmNews.

These disappointing experiences became a motivation for Nguyen to create her foundation.

Her second inspiration in creating this organization came from meeting Priya Thomas, the logistic officer at Women in Aerospace and Aviation. Thomas and Nguyen met around two years ago. Thomas recalled being too shy and doubtful of her own abilities to become a pilot and instructor. After befriending each other, Nguyen and Thomas encouraged each other to pursue their individual dreams. Therefore, the goal of Women in Aerospace and Aviation is to inspire more young women to choose a career in aviation and to dream big.



“[It is] my mission and civic responsibility to destigmatize this stereotype,” Nguyen said, and there is no other candidate more perfect for this position than her.



Nguyen described three goals the organization wishes to achieve: to promote education within aerospace and aviation, to inspire the next generation of young girls and women who wish to pursue a career in aerospace engineering and aviation, and to combat the “pilot shortage” epidemic.



According to Business Insider, the pilot shortage problem caused more than 300 Horizon flights to be canceled in June 2017.

“This is the biggest challenge in aviation history,” Nguyen said.

With only 6 percent of all pilots in the current aviation industry female, the resolution to the shortage seems simple.

“This is our time to use this opportunity to overcome the underrepresented female pilots and engineers,” Nguyen said.

Major General George Harrison, a team member at Women in Aerospace and Aviation, said that female engineers and pilots are just as smart, so it “doesn’t make any sense to ignore half the population in America” who can do the job. “Why do we want to deprive ourselves in this talent pool?”

He added that Nguyen is “capable and competent” and is the best fit to be the face that inspires young girls everywhere.

In order to raise visibility and awareness to Women in Aerospace and Aviation mission, Nguyen is trying to establish a flight around the world. She calls it “the global flight for every girl on this planet with a dream.” This flight will take her to 26 airports all around the world where she plans to interact with young girls and women about their interest in the aerospace and aviation field as well as inspire them to believe in themselves to dream big.

Through this flight, Nguyen aspires to become the new face for aerospace and aviation industry. “I want to become the new face of aviation; a new face [for] pilot,” she said.

Nguyen is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech. For more information regarding Women in Aerospace and Aviation, visit their website here. To support and donate to their cause, visit their Gofundme page here.

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