“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

From dream to realm

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Every kid dreams to be a police officer, a fireman, an engineer, an architect but there is always that one kid who stares at the night sky. You might think that he is just stargazing but the truth is he dreams of becoming a Pilot and instead of just looking up to the stars, he dreams to be with the stars. The feeling of you can’t help yourself but to look up once you hear a plane up above or about to land. Just by seeing planes it makes him happy and ignites his dream of becoming a pilot. Just by seeing a plane makes him happy but what if you immerse him to the Aviation world where real aviators, mechanics, controllers, ground crews works. You guess it! He was mindblown. Seeing planes roll (takeoff) closer and seeing the people behind every passenger’s flight work together. It was a very eye opening experience. Knowing what it takes to be a Pilot. The challenges, the steps that you need to go through. Yes, some may say that it is a very expensive dream but just like what Madam Roosevelt have said “The future belong to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” You just need to believe and it is your passion afterall. There are a lot of ways to achieve your dreams, it is up to your strategy or “diskarte”. The immersion gave him an idea of the different ways or approach to be a pilot. You always start small, you just have think how to make it from a simple dream to a reality. The 10 days immersion really sparked minds. It gave answers to those who are curious about the field and those answers made the student’s excited and had that eagerness to really pursue their dreams. It was like grown up kids in a playground but much more bigger like for pete sake you are fixing an airplane’s engine.

The 10-day journey is starting to end but the instructors suprised them and made sure that the students would have an unforgettable experience. The students were brought to their 2nd hangar and let the students board one of the ATR-42 that they are working on. You think boarding the plane was the surprise? Nope! Each student had the chance to seat in the cockpit and the instructor took the picture. You can see the smiles of every student despite the hot temperature inside the cabin.

Inside the cockpit of ATR 42

And after the photo op inside the cockpit the instructor let the students pose infront of the plane and all you can say is “wow” the future aviators, controllers and mechanics of 12STEM7.

Reactions of the students seeing the picture above:

“Grabe angas talaga natin diyan.”

“Kapag nawawalan ka na ng motivation tignan mo lang yan sapat na eh.”

“Soon titignan natin yang picture na yan tapos nandun yung thinking diyan tayo nagsimula.”

“Nakakahype, nakakaexcite talagaaa!”

Hearing those comments, seeing the students reaction made me conclude that the Immersion was a success. It sparked them joy. It ignited them to pursue their dreams and soon to be their careers. But what’s more important is that you started it with your so called family which is the 12STEM7. 10 years from now and all you can say is “parang kailan lang pangarap lang tapos ngayon trabaho na natin.”