West Memphis senior has eye toward the sky

West Memphis senior has eye toward the sky

‘ I saw aviation and I thought, well, that’s something different’

West Memphis School District

As Jeremy Paige sat with his ninth-grade classmates at West Junior High three years ago as the Academies of West Memphis charter concept was being rolled out, he had a decision to make.

The charter would allow local students to choose between various vocations and get a head start in agriculture, nursing, culinary arts, natural resources, arts, audio/visual, hospitality, tourism… and for Paige, aviation engineering.

“We were all sitting in an assembly and the rest of us were picking to go into stuff like the medical field and diesel,” said Paige. “And then I saw aviation and I thought, well, that’s something different.” Now a senior at AWM, Paige is well on his way to landing a prestigious job somewhere in the U.S. as an aviation engineer.

The industry-driven concept has been a wild success three years into it. But Paige is unique in that he started in aviation engineering with six other fellow AWM students. The field is very demanding and difficult.

Paige is the only one left.

Each day during third period, Paige heads out to the ASU-Mid-South’s FedEx Aviation Technology Center near the West Memphis Municipal Airport and works with his instructors, Rodger Williams and Millard Smith, lead instructor of the Aviation Maintenance Technology of ASU-Mid-South. A FedEx jet and seven other planes inside the technology center are there waiting on Paige.

If he chose to, Paige could be fully certified to work on jets by the time he is 21. However, he says he wants to get his Associates degree from Mid-South and then finish up at a four-year university.

“I’ll major in engineering,” he said. “That would look good for aviation.”

The choice to head into aviation engineering has met all his expectations, Paige said. “It’s actually been better than I thought it would be,” he added. “When they explained what the classes were going to be like they told me I’d learn how to repair planes, learn the history of airplanes and how they fly…I was like ‘OK that’s kind of exciting,’ but now that I’ve been in the classes it was way more than they promised.”

And because Paige is the only West Memphis student still in the aviation class, he gets all the attention he can stand.

“I get full hands-on training,” Paige stated. “And that makes it all easier. If it’s something I’m struggling with I get to go back and do it over and over again until it’s right. It would be nice to be in a class with other people, but I’m able to learn more this way.”

Paige stops just short of saying he’s already got offers on the table once he gets out of school. But, let’s just say there are several airlines very interested in him.

“I’ve already talked to several folks and by the time I finish the program there will be openings for me,” Paige said. “They all tell me they’re going to need employees. It’s pretty exciting. I’m ready for it.”

By Billy Woods