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Zephyrhills High senior flies high as she prepares for a career in aviation

 
Faith Elizabeth Wells participated in the 2016 Summer Airport Management and Internship Program at Tampa International.
Faith Elizabeth Wells participated in the 2016 Summer Airport Management and Internship Program at Tampa International.
Published Aug. 31, 2016

ZEPHYRHILLS

In many ways, Faith Elizabeth Wells can be seen as a student of distinction. The Zephyrhills High School 12th-grader is the only female student in her first-period aeronautics class. And she was the only Pasco County student to participate in a summer aviation internship at Tampa International Airport.

A student in the ZHS/Embry-Riddle Aerospace Academy, offered by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at ZHS, Wells has been commended for most literally flying high in the program.

"She's the best we got," said Sam Harris, aeronautics teacher at ZHS. "She's an exemplary student."

Wells put her skills and talents to work this summer, when she took part in a six-week Tampa International Airport internship funded by the Pasco County School District.

"I took what I learned in the classroom and applied it to real life," said Wells, 17.

In addition to taking morning classes during the internship, Wells and other students took part in preparations for airport inspections, shadowed security personnel, helped to check the measurement of lines painted on the runways, observed airplane fuelings and conducted administrative duties.

"There was so much more than you think there is," Wells said. "People underestimate how much work there is to keep an airport going."

Although she originally intended to become an artist, and still participates in art activities at ZHS, Wells says that her lifelong fascination with flying craft led her to choose aviation as her career.

"When I was little, I would see planes flying over my house and ask, 'What is that?' " she said. "Now I can tell."

Wells also loves the peacefulness of flight, and plans to get her pilot's license in the near future. She credits Harris and her aeronautics class with inspiring her ultimate career goal, which is to become a helicopter pilot.

"I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do until this class came along," she said.

Now, Wells is poised to take flight for an aviation career.

"In aeronautics, you make something from nothing," she said. "You make something fly."