NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla — After graduation, Abigail “Abby” Fletcher plans on soaring into her career. The North Fort Myers High School student is currently is working towards her private pilot license.
She’s heading to Liberty University in the fall to major in Aeronautics with a concentration in Commercial Aviation and a minor in Aviation Safety.
“I tried a lot of things in high school. I was in orchestra, swim team, and I started a mock trial team,” Abby said. “There’s a lot of tiny signs that were leading me to aviation. I found the EAA Discovery flights, which are based out of Page Field.”
The group of volunteers give free discovery flights with experimental air crafts. It only took one trip around Sanibel for Abby to realize this was her destiny.
Christy Gorton says Abby is a light. She’s a very determined and accomplished student with a 5.04 GPA. She’s also graduating high school a year early.
“And if that’s not enough, she also did it while taking Pre-AICE, which is our honors version of classes, advance placement, dual enrollment, and AICE classes,” Gorton said. “She is a hard worker. She is a problem solver, diligent in her work, and she’s driven and just a natural leader."
The 17-year old has goals higher than the sky. Abby hopes to be the youngest female to graduate from Liberty University with an airline’s hiring agreement. She also wants to be a captain by the age of 27, go into the Cargo Airlines, become a motivational speaker, and volunteer with Samaritan’s Purse of the Orbis Eye Hospital.
“It’s so beautiful to be a part of making history, you know,” Abby said. “Currently, in commercial airlines, there’s only 4% of pilots are female. In the whole aviation field, only 7% of pilots are females, and it’s crazy. But that number continues to climb.”
Abby says it’s a lot harder than she thought it would, but she wouldn’t change her decision for the world.
