Learning and Burning on the Indiana Prairie

Indianapolis’s Leadership In Flight Training (LIFT) Academy, one of America’s largest and most in-the-news flight training schools, has announced a partnership with Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) by which the two institutions seek to create new didactic and practical career pathways for aspiring commercial pilots.

Starting in autumn 2022, students will be able to combine LIFT’s flight training and IWU’s academic curricula to contemporaneously earn two and four-year college degrees and commercial pilot certificates. Graduates of the program are afforded opportunity to move directly from their studies to a defined pathway to the flight deck of a Republic Airways Embraer aircraft.

LIFT Director of Operations and Academic Programs Ed Bagden remarks: “We are truly thrilled to be partnering with IWU on this initiative. IWU shares our passion for learning and for creating curricula that instills strong values and lifelong skills. Students enrolling in either of these programs will emerge with an associate or bachelor’s degree as well as the experience and training to become a commercial airline pilot.”

IWU’s Vice President for Innovation and Partnerships Andy Miller adds: “Partnering with LIFT makes sense. This partnership empowers students to pursue both academic and flight instruction in a strong, supportive and cost-effective learning environment. LIFT has created an effective flight-training curriculum; the data show that graduates of its programs outperform their peers in the classroom and on the flight deck. Plus, LIFT’s ties to its parent, Republic Airways, result in a smooth and integrated pathway from the classroom to the right seat of one of the most advanced commercial aircraft in the world.”

Under the program’s terms, students may earn their associate or bachelor’s degrees online while working toward their commercial pilot certificates and the ancillary ratings—e.g. Instrument Airplane, Multi-Engine Airplane—upon which gainful pilot employment is predicated. Flight-training commences early in both programs that students may build flight hours and experience while they work toward their degrees.

The associate-level professional pilot program is a two-year undertaking designed to let students pursue professional pilot jobs and other careers in the aviation industry. The bachelor’s program takes approximately four-years to complete and provides students with an undergraduate degree in aviation management.

At the end of either program, students will graduate with an FAA-issued private pilot certificate, an FAA-issued instrument rating, an FAA-issued commercial certificate, and an associate or bachelor’s degree from IWU

LIFT’s fleet is among the largest and newest in the flight-training business. Students build skills, experience, and flight-time in Diamond’s DA40-NG single-engine aircraft and Diamond’s DA42-VI twin-engine aircraft, each of which sport slick, LCD, Garmin G1000 avionics suites.

LIFT—a subsidiary of Republic Airways—is the only North American flight training program to feature a curriculum built specifically around the procedures of a functioning airline. Ergo, LIFT students receive high-quality instruction using state-of-the-art technology and aircraft from the program’s outset. Upon attaining the FAA mandated flight-time minima, students may avail themselves of a defined pathway to pilot positions at Republic Airways.

For one-hundred years, Indiana Wesleyan—a Christian, global, comprehensive university—has provided liberal-arts and professional educations to some ten-thousand students worldwide. IWU is one of the largest faith-based universities in America, and offers undergraduate, graduate, master's, and doctoral programs in numerous and diverse academic disciplines.

Indiana Wesleyan University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, a regional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

FMI: www.flywithlift.com