WESTFIELD – Progress is being made by the administrative team in charge of getting Westfield Vocational-Technical High School’s Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) program off the ground.
WVTHS Principal Stefan Czaporowski led a delegation from the Aviation Advisory Board, including Program Advisor Ken Dromgold, the program’s General Advisory Chairman Ed Watson and Barnes Regional Airport Manager Brian Barnes, to meet Friday with Westfield State University President Dr. Elizabeth Preston to discuss future interactions and collaborations between the two schools.
“We wanted to know what the status is of their program because they have aviation management. They also had a flying component and we’re trying to see the status of that,” said Czaporowski, adding that Voc-Tech is seeking and is expecting to receive articulations for students.
“Articulations are when kids get credit for coursework they do in our aviation program if they want to continue on to aviation management (at Westfield State),” said Czaporowski, stating that he expects WVTHS students will want to learn all aspects of aviation. “Once you learn how to fix a plane, you’re probably going to want to learn how to fly one, too. We have an interest in Westfield State keeping their flight program open.”
“We’re totally focused on the A&P at the Voke, but we want to give the kids an avenue to articulation,” said Dromgold. “Lets say they don’t want to go into the workforce right away or go to college – we want to see schools with programs that have viability going forward.”
Dromgold stated that the WVTHS A&P project is drawing interest from all over the state, but that having an institution with an aviation management program at a university in the same city is among the best scenarios imaginable.
“They really didn’t know much about us, but now they understand the energy in the program, the enthusiasm throughout the state for the program,” he said. “We impressed upon the university that we’d like to have this avenue at Westfield State. It so convenient and so right. It is a win-win for both of our programs.”
Czaporowski said that some of WSU’s professors are already on the A&P program’s advisory board.
“One of the things we want to do is, once we get the day program going, we also want to offer adult education,”he said. “They obviously might be able to go at an accelerated pace and if they want to do the flight program, they can go to Westfield State.”
“I think that they have heard about what we’re doing, but it’s nice to do the meet-and-greet, if you will,” Czaporowski said of the meeting with Westfield State administration. “It lets them know what we’ve done on our end and where we plan on going.”
In addition to the appointments of Westfield State’s Marketing Director Janet Garcia and AirFlyte President Gary Potts to WVTHS’ Aviation Advisory Board, Czaporowski said that he is meeting Tuesday in Westfield with a representative from Cape Cod Community College about their burgeoning aviation program.
“They’re about a year ahead of us in the planning process, probably, so we’re going to pick his brain a little bit,” he said.
“This was a preliminary meeting for the university to gather information, find out more about the proposed program and where the university might have a role. All of us who attended applaud all the work that has been accomplished,” said Preston. “We will continue to exchange information and plan to meet again in a couple of months to explore where we are.”
