Featured Scholarship Applicant - Viviana Lopez in her own words

My name is Viviana Lopez.  I am a senior at Da Vinci School of Science where I have been taking ground school classes from Giving Kids Wings Flight Academy.  This past July, I completed my first hour of flight training at Hawthorne airport towards my life dream of becoming a Pilot. 

I was born on a Monday August 21, 1995 at Centinela Hospital in the city of Inglewood, CA. I have lived in the city of Hawthorne ever since then. I was a healthy and joyful child all the way to pre-school when one day at recess my teacher noticed that I was very tired and with none of my daily energy to play with my peers.  I was taken to the ER the same day and diagnosed with leukemia (ALL). Some may think this is the worst possible thing it could happen to a child but I disagree, I am the type of person that focuses on the important positive stuff rather than the negative, kind of like, the glass is half full :).  I spent close to two months in the hospital getting treated with chemotherapy before I was able to sleep on my own bed again.  What followed was four years of constant trips back and forth to the hospital for various chemotherapy sessions sometimes being hospitalized for a few days at a time. It is now 2012 and I have being in remission for the last eight years with no signs of the decease coming back. Having beat cancer at such an early age changed my life as much as when I was first exposed to the aviation world during my middle school years.

It all started because I live very close to HHR and my middle school took us there to see the little museum they had. I was fascinated about the way an airplane is able to fly. When I was walking around I saw so many cool airplanes and accessories of the early years of aviation that I thought one day I would love to be around all these.  In my high school years I became  more interested in aviation when I entered a contest to make a video about the most brave woman in early american aviation history "Pancho Barnes."  I continued to chase my aviation dream when my school provided me with an aviation class offered through Giving Kids Wings Flight Academy.  Our aviation instructor has been helping me pursue my aviation dream. He has had speakers come in and talk about aviation and provided me with more opportunities to pursue my dream in college.

Now a days, I live in a modest one bedroom apartment with my sister and mom. My mom struggles to pay bills even with Dad's help and with that is hard to succeed on my own.  This is why I am asking for help from someone who is kind enough to see where my dreams to fly are founded and to help me pursue them.

If you would like to help Viviana begin her flight training, you may choose a package donation below or click the "donate" button to the right and designate a specific amount.  Be sure to name her as the recipient of your donation in a letter (address at right) or in an email:  givingkidswings@gmail.com.  

$100 - Orville Wright Level – Covers private pilot ground school textbook, pilot’s kneeboard, Los Angeles Terminal Area Chart, E6B flight computer, and worksheet copying costs of a GKWFA cadet for one year.

$200 - Wilbur Wright Level – Covers private pilot ground school textbook, pilot’s kneeboard, Los Angeles Terminal Area Chart, E6B flight computer, worksheet copying costs, and funds three field trips to local airports for one cadet to fly with The Young Eagles for one year.

$500 - Lindbergh Level –Your donation at the Lindbergh level will supply a GKWFA flight cadet with all of the ground school supplies contained at the Orville and Wilbur Wright Levels, but will sponsor their instruction for an entire semester in the Introductory Private Pilot course.

$1000 - Amelia Earhart Level – Your donation at the Lindbergh level will supply a GKWFA flight cadet with all of the ground school supplies contained at the Orville and Wilbur Wright Levels, but will also sponsor the instruction of a cadet for an entire year in the Introductory Private Pilot course.

$5000 - Fred Pitcher Level – Sponsors a GKWFA flight cadet for two full years during while they complete the Private Pilot and Instrument Pilot courses. Also sponsors additional training for students to begin completing their virtual Commercial Pilots license, requiring 250 total hours of simulated flight time.

$10,000 - Bessie Coleman Level – Sponsors a GKWFA flight cadet through their completion of the virtual Private Pilot, Instrument, and Commercial Pilot training. This level provides additional funds for a scholarship to support a GKWFA cadet as they begin actual career flight training and work toward completing their Private Pilot license, Instrument, and other advanced ratings in preparation for a career as a professional pilot.