St. Catharines cadet aims for the sky
Brittney Fixon-Owoo has her sights set on the sky.
The 16-year-old from St. Catharines is one of 120 air cadets (aged 12 to 18) across the country who was selected for an advanced aviation technology course at the Canadore Cadet Training Centre in North Bay.
There are two courses available, Airport Operations and Aircraft Maintenance.
Fixon-Owoo is currently taking the Airport Operations course, which started July 9 and ends Aug. 18.
During the six-week period, she is learning about seven topics — military history; airport safety and security; the requirement of airport operations; airport ground services; meteorology; aircraft navigation; and careers in the field, said a backgrounder for the program.
To reinforce their training, participating cadets also visit both civilian and military airports, as well as other aviationrelated operation centres.
Darius Soo Lum, unit public affairs representative and second lieutenant with AATC Canadore and the Canadian Armed Forces, says selection of cadets for the aviation courses is competitive, with each province or territory only being able to send a handful of cadets to each course.
Lum says cadets must submit a written essay, their school transcripts and a cadet career resume before going through an interview process.
He says the course is a partnership between the Department of National Defense and Canadore College, the Canadian Armed Forces taking care of everything from food, housing, activities and logistics and the college providing the academic portion and use of the student residence building.
Everything is federally funded by the defense department, students even making a small amount of money to be there — $60 per week.
He says nearly 700 cadets apply for the course each year.
Fixon-Owoo, who attends Denis Morris Catholic High School in St. Catharines, says although the course has been hard work, she’s enjoying everything she’s learning.
She typically wakes up around 6 a.m. and ends the school day at around 3:30 p.m., followed by some more summer-campstyle activities, such as games and sports, and then recreational time.
She even joined the camp band, playing bells.
One of her favourite parts of the course is meeting new people from across Canada and spending time with them.
She says it feels really good to be the only person chosen from St. Catharines for the course, adding she’s always wanted to do a national course since getting into air cadets, inspired by her sister who also was a cadet.
Fixon-Owoo will be going into her fifth year of cadets in September, though she says she isn’t entirely sure if this is what she wants to do for a living just yet, noting she might pursue a career in the medical field.