Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Portland CC student Sarah Brown is flying high

Photos and story by James Hill

PORTLAND, Ore. – When Sarah Brown was 13, she had what she calls her dream list. "It was a gigantic list of everything I wanted to do and see, from the smallest to big-life things,?she explained. "You know, people to meet, places to go and skills to develop."At age 19, PCC student Sarah Brown has already checked off the top three on her list – she’s a pilot, she’s played Marimba in Portland’s top Marimba band, she’s learned to ride horses and owns one. She is one of the youngest certified flight instructors in the nation, if not the youngest, according to Max Lyons, president and general manager of Hillsboro Aviation, in Hillsboro, Ore. where she has a job as an instructor. Portland Community College has a partnership with the aviation company to train students in aviation science. Brown discovered her love of flying when she was in the eighth grade. The dad of a school friend flew for United Airlines and had his own Cessna 180. "As soon as I went out with him and we began barreling down the runway, I said, ‘this is my place.’ It was so fun,"she said.About the same time, Brown decided that formal schooling would not allow her to fully pursue her interests. She wanted to get going on her dream list. High school would just take up too many hours in the day. She talked her parents into letting her try home schooling after graduating from middle school at the Metropolitan Learning Center, part of Portland Public Schools and located in northwest Portland. "I could be selective about what I was learning and when I was learning it and going to public high school doesn’t allow you that freedom,"she said. On her own, she kept up with her math, and her life centered around writing and tons of reading, with a focus on travel and flight, flight history and other non-fiction works. She did this for two years while working on her music. "I had set my sights on getting into the Boca Marimba band and got in (at age 16)."She began playing the Zimbabwean style Marimba with the Portland band. Flying was still a dream off in the distance.At age 16, Brown stumbled onto PCC’s alternative high school program, Gateway to College, now a national model getting replicated throughout the country with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds. The program brings high school dropouts into the college setting and offers them the opportunity to earn both a high school diploma and a college associate’s degree. "I was convinced this was the way to go,"she said. She is quick to point out that her parents’ "unconditional support"has been a huge help for her. She could do school her way, plus pursue her passions due to the alternative program’s more flexible approach. A year later, while one day flipping through PCC’s catalog, she discovered the college offered aviation science through its Rock Creek Campus. Then it was back to Mom and Dad with a proposal to free up the funds set aside for college to pay for flight lessons and aviation science studies. She also continued to take general education courses through the college’s alternative high school program. Once she began flight training in August of 2001, she admits she pretty much lived out at the airport. "I went from zero flying experience to a fully certified flight instructor in 12 months,"she said. Two weeks after earning her certified flight instructor certificate, Hillsboro Aviation hired her as an instructor.Her instructor and a man she names as her mentor, Aviation Science Department Chair Larry Altree, took her under his wing. He was amazed and delighted by Brown’s focus and willingness to work hard for something she wanted. "She has succeeded spectacularly in a very challenging field,"he said, "and it is due to her attitude as well as her considerable talents. She was a joy to have in the program; her enthusiasm is contagious and has served both her and those she has inspired." Aero Air hired Brown as a medical transport copilot in December, her dream job. She’s 19 and now flies across the state. Her first flight took her across the Cascades to North Bend, Oregon to pick up a child at a medical facility and then on to Redmond in Central Oregon."We were flying over the Cascades when the Western sky lit up in a brilliant gold and rosy-hued light show,"she said. "As we watched the sun drop to the horizon, the full moon was rising over the Oregon high desert ? ultimate aviator’s bliss."PCC’s classes and Altree helped her land the job at Aero Air, she said. In addition to the courses that cover aircraft systems and troubleshooting, the department stages a careers class with help on writing a resume, preparing for job interviews, researching industry employers and setting job goals. "I am certain that class got me the job at Aero Air,"she said. She’s graduating from PCC this term with an associate’s degree in Aviation Science. An online bachelor’s degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is her next stop.So while her friends from middle school are now doing the "traditional college things,"she says, and feeling "sort of in storage, stashed away,"Brown is spending her days flying into the mystic.