When senior Nolan Anderson was up north on Crane Lake, he heard the hum of an engine overhead. “A float plane flew right over the boat, and I just remember that being one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I kind of thought: ‘That is exactly what I want to do when I grow up.’”
At Edina High School, several students share Anderson’s love for aviation, working with various organizations in Minnesota to fulfill their fascination with flight.
For many, that passion formed early. Junior Cassidy Flanders recalls her first flight, which was to Disney World. “It was a three hour flight. I can honestly say I was looking out the window for two hours of it,” she said.
In June 2022, that curiosity led Flanders to run up to a Delta pilot she saw at the airport. “I told her that I wanted to be a pilot for Delta,” she said. “She gave me her information and then she actually hooked me up with my three other pilot mentors.”
Senior Joseph Vaccaro’s interest took off even earlier. “I would go under my comforter and pretend it was the jet bridge to an airplane,” he said. Later, an introductory flight over Minneapolis solidified his love for flying. “I’d only been on airliners, so that was really special for me,” Vaccaro said. “I was kind of hooked after that.”
Most students interested in aviation are aiming for careers in the commercial sphere. Anderson has committed to the University of North Dakota’s aviation program with the goal of flying for a major airline. “When I thought of being a pilot as a little kid, I thought of flying for Delta. I thought of wearing that suit and that hat, and standing at the entrance of the airplane greeting everyone,” he said.
Vacarro, however, pursued gliding and earned his private pilot’s license at 16 after training with the Minnesota Soaring Club. He finds gliding to be a beautiful experience. “It’s really amazing when you’re thermalling with other gliders and with birds. Oftentimes too, you’ll see an eagle flying right at your wing tip.”
Junior Autumn Berkholz is drawn to the excitement of flying. “Sometimes there’s always a thought in the back of my mind that’s like, ‘This could be a life-or-death situation,’ but I just see the thrill,” she said.
Berkholz and sophomore Rakshitha Malli Meganathan fly through Civil Air Patrol, where they’ve gained technical knowledge and life skills.
“It’s nice that you don’t have to rely on the earth…and you can kind of have more independence,” Malli Meganathan said. “I also learned about communication, because part of aviation is analyzing mistakes that other pilots have made. That shows that in anything, you have to communicate with people.”
Flanders has learned leadership through her mentorships. “They’ve also helped me make sure that I’m confident in what I can do, make sure that I’m always thinking of others, and make sure that I’m always keeping an eye on my goal,” she said.
The aviation community is a highlight for these students. “I just like to hear everyone’s backgrounds, because we don’t all come from Edina,” Berkholz said. “There’s some people who have already worked for commercial airlines, but just hearing everyone’s stories [is] very interesting.”
As each of the students map out their aviation futures, Flanders has a specific goal: “I would really like to fly an Airbus 330—I don’t really care where, I just want my parents to be on board, so they can see…what I can do and how proud they can be,” she said.
Aviation, however, comes with difficulties. “Aviation in general is a super expensive thing, and in-flight training requires a lot of work, but it also requires a lot of funding,” Vaccaro said. “But…the pilot shortage is a real thing, and airlines are trying to get more young people involved.”
For Flanders, being a female, biracial student in a male-dominated field has presented challenges. “[They] sometimes can make it difficult. But I try not to pay attention to those things, because I feel like anyone who wants to do work in the aviation field…should be able to do so without those things being a contributing factor,” she said. “I’m proud of those things and I’m happy that I get to say that I’ll be a female, biracial pilot.”
For students interested in aviation, Anderson’s advice is: “Take the jump…There are a lot of steps to becoming an airline pilot, but I believe that just taking the little steps like I did, like looking at schools and ground schools, definitely helped spark my interest even more,” he said.

This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on March 27, 2025