Epic Flight Academy Awards Flight, Maintenance Training Scholarships

Epic Flight Academy scholarship recipients include (from left) Joseph Lavdas, Qayla Bailey, Russell Shipley, and Wes Glaser. Not pictured are scholarship recipients Jack Carda, Casson Dennison, Anvita Kulkarni, and Brayden Tucker. [Courtesy: Epic Flight Academy]

Epic Flight Academy is helping eight high school students pursue their aviation education goals through the award of more than $80,000 in scholarships.

The New Smyrna, Florida-based company presented its Ninth Annual Aviation Scholarship Awards on November 9.

“The scholarship event is always exciting because we meet so many talented young aviators who are eager to embark on their careers,” said Danny Perna, founder and CEO of Epic Flight Academy. “We’re proud to support and encourage them.”

The flight training company has operations in Texas, Arizona, Kentucky, and multiple locations in Florida. The scholarships are geared toward flight training and aircraft mechanic training at Epic's various campuses.

Qayla Bailey was awarded the $20,000 Captain Judy Rice Pilot Scholarship. Russell Shipley and Brayden Tucker each received $20,000 aircraft mechanic scholarships. Pilot scholarships in the amount of $5,000 each were awarded to Jack Carda, Wes Glaser, Casson Dennison, Anvita Kulkarni, and Joseph Lavdas.

This year's award recipients were chosen from a pool of 50 applications received from 14 states, the flight school said.

“Each year our judges praise the high quality of applicants we receive, which makes their job difficult," said Cindy Lovell, Epic’s director of education. We congratulate each of these students and look forward to watching them excel at Epic."

aircraft mechanic Aviation Maintenance aviation scholarship Epic Flight Academy Flight Training

Meg GodlewskiAuthor

Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.