A partnership between Norman Public Schools and OU is reaching new heights.

The program is helping kickstart careers before students graduate high school. The Oklahoma Aviation Academy is preparing to break ground for a new facility voters approved last year. This program fuels a growing industry in Oklahoma. 

A classroom provides space for students to elevate their skills. “I’m very thankful for that opportunity,” said Reid Buss, a sophomore at the Oklahoma Aviation Academy in Norman. “Working hard and taking steps to get to something I want to do in life. See what the world of aviation is in the real world.” 

Director Terry Adams pilots OAA. Students take what they learn in the classroom and apply it to reality. “I don’t know how many high school students get to be right here on an airfield every day,” Buss said. 

In 2022, Norman Public Schools and OU partnered to offer students next-level experience. “Both my aviation instructors are retired military,” Adams said. 

Instructor Jeremy Ralston shares his decades of knowledge with students every day in class. “To be able to go where they want to go and make the money that they wanna make,” Ralston said. 

Voters approved a new facility last spring that will allow students to spread their wings. “Hopefully next year we’ll be in our new facility,” Adams said. 

Buss loves the thrill of flying “It’s really fun,” he said. I mean, it’s like being free, you know.” 

Buss has a dream. “Be really cool to be an astronaut,” Buss said. 

His dream is not just a figure of speech. “Sky’s the limit,” Adams said. 

Adams said Buss’s aspirations are realistic because of a classroom that serves as more of a runway toward a brighter future. “You remember why you started in this career in the first place and that was to impact kids,” Adams said. 

Adams said students over the next couple of years will build an airplane from scratch. They hope to have their new facility built within the next two years.