Building Dreams in Aviation

Written By Beth White

Ensuring a Strong Aviation Industry Workforce, One Youth & Adult Mentor at a Time

Mentor A&P Jane Thomson helps mechanic-in-training Abby Demar with match-drilling on our Rans S-21 horizontal stabilizer frame.

Just a year ago, in the midst of recovering from my last surgery culminating my 10 month battle with breast cancer, I could not have foreseen the incredible journey and strides Habitat for Aviation would make since forming our non-profit. Our progress is a testament to the unwavering support and dedication of our aviation family, our incredible partnerships with Big Picture Learning and BETA Technologies, and the many individuals and organizations that sponsor our work.

Relationships, Relevance, & Practice

At the heart of our mission is the cultivation of meaningful relationships between youth and adults, united by their shared passion for aviation. We've witnessed beautiful connections form when we work together to FLY, BUILD, and FIX airplanes.

Our approach, modeled by our friends at Big Picture Learning, is centered in relevance and practice through real work being done alongside mentors who are experts in the field, is the secret to our early success. 

We are incredibly grateful for George Coy, a fantastic mentor who has opened his hangar to guide Habitat for Aviation youth completing their Harbor Freight Fellowships working on his fleet of aircraft learning from his four decade career in aviation and logging hours towards their FAA mechanics licenses.  

Mentor George Coy working in his Cherokee 140

Beth White

Education Possibilitarian, Artist, Writer, Doula, Mentor, Aviatrix, Breast Cancer Survivor, Pilot-in-Command at Habitat for Aviation


In the spring of 2022, Beth White emerged from a 10-month battle with breast cancer with an idea: to create an apprenticeship program at Franklin County State Airport where youth work alongside adult mentors servicing conventional and electric aircraft. A pilot and airplane mechanic apprentice herself, and with family roots in the trades, Habitat for Aviation provides an taxilane for world learning opportunities for youth and adults who love to work with their hands to enter the FAA’s apprenticeship certification track. Each day she puts systems in place that make real John Dewey’s philosophy that we “learn best what we live” – a deep throughline from her time at Antioch University New England and as Regional Director for Big Picture Learning. Each learning experience is grounded in relationships, relevance, and practice. In October, 2023, Habitat for Aviation launched its Women Build Planes program, where an all-female team of Modern Day Rosies is building an airplane at Franklin County Airport, in northwestern Vermont, to show folks everywhere that despite the fact that only 2.6% of airplane mechanics are female, women BUILD, FLY, and FIX airplanes.

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Meet Our Women Build Planes Team Members
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Habitat for Aviation at Vermont Statehouse