On Nov. 19, Carroll Aviation and Aerospace Society (C.A.A.S.) held its second meeting of the year. The meeting focused on the inner workings of the Integrated Operations Center at American Airlines and featured IOC Coordinator Dawn Howard Gutt as the guest speaker.
“A lot of people like to focus on the piloting aspect of it, but my job is to make sure the big picture comes together,” Gutt said. “I work with our partners on a daily basis to make sure that the product American Airlines is presenting to our customers is seamless.”
The club, which is run by junior Fiorella Smith, aims to help members understand the inner workings of the world of aviation.
“It’s not talked about enough,” Fiorella said. “Not a lot of people know that there are even options other than going to pilot school and getting your pilot’s license. But there are so many amazing opportunities—not just career opportunities, but networking opportunities as well.”
C.A.A.S has been able to provide connections for members already. Along with Gutt, Fiorella Smith’s father, Mike Smith, has worked extensively with the club and has also been a part of the world of aviation since he was young.
“I grew up in New York, and I went to Aviation High School,” Mr. Smith said. “In Aviation High School, they’d teach you to be an aircraft technician. I always liked fixing things and working on things, so I went there and got to work on airplanes in high school. Once I got out, I got my pilot’s license, went into the Air Force, and since then, my whole life has been in aviation.”
That background in aviation spread to Fiorella, who was immersed in that world from a young age.
“It happened a while ago,” Mr. Smith said. “She went to a group meeting with a lot of women in aviation. And she talked to a lot of the military academy folks who were there, and met a bunch of people who fly, and then she just said, ‘I want to fly’.”
For Fiorella, the experience of meeting other people involved in aviation who are closer to her age helped her realize that aviation was a career path she wanted to pursue.
“At first, it felt more like I was being told to do it,” Fiorella said. “And I would always be like, ‘this is not what I want to do.’ But then I started talking to people who were closer to my age and people who shared my interests, and then from there, I just got the bug. I wanted to keep coming back, I wanted to learn more, I wanted to speak to multiple people, and it eventually became very fun.”
The bug seems to be spreading. Beginning in the 2026-27 school year, Carroll will offer an Aviation Ground School course, which will allow students to gain experience at an off-campus facility and prepare them to do the necessary prerequisites before obtaining a pilot’s license. The move reflects both burgeoning interest in the field and a growing shortage of professionals. A 2023 Government Accountability report found that the average pilot age remained at 51 between 2017 and 2022, and that 27 percent of pilots were less than 10 years from the mandatory retirement age of 65.
“I’m hoping the field starts to grow, because since 9/11, aviation has been cut back and a lot of people never really hired again,” Gutt said. “A lot of people just stay at the same level. And then, of course, we had COVID-19, and we lost a lot of people due to layoffs during that one year. So, it’s good that all the airlines are growing again. There’s a need for people to fill all these jobs, whether it’s dispatch, crew scheduling or other things.”
One of the chief goals of C.A.A.S. is to demonstrate to students that aviation is an accessible field. Despite there only having been a few meetings, Fiorella has already noticed a large increase in curiosity.
“When I started, I was very interested in it,” Fiorella said. “But once I started talking about it to people, it really opened my eyes to how much interest is growing in the field. And even between the last club meeting and this one, seeing the amount of people who learned of it through word of mouth and bringing their friends has been great.”
