BULLHEAD CITY – The sky is the limit for this year’s LBIA summer intern.
In a highly competitive process, Victoria Omark secured the three-month opportunity to work closely with the Airport’s management team.
“I’m very lucky,” Omark said. “Airport management is a hard area to get into because most jobs want you to have experience, but the majority of airport management internships require you to have a degree. I’m lucky LBIA offers students the ability to get hands-on experience.”
The North Dakota University senior is working towards dual degrees in air traffic control and airport management. She earned her private pilots license two years ago.
“We’re excited to have somebody who is passionate and wants to learn,” said LBIA Director Jeremy Keating. “Victoria came out on top from more than 40 applications, which is really good.”
In its second year, the LBIA program offers a paid internship opportunity to college juniors and seniors enrolled in aviation management programs. Tailored to benefit the student’s particular aviation interests, the internship also offers students the opportunity to shadow every aspect of airport management.
“We’ve always wanted the program to be a benefit to the student more than anything,” Keating said. “The intern can choose to do what they have an interest in. In Victoria’s case, she’s a pilot and she’s probably been to a bunch of airports, but if an intern wants to see another airport, we have the ability to connect them with other airport managers. If a student comes in and in combination with doing their own thing is also able to do a project that we’ve been wanting to do for a while, it’s a win-win for us.”
Keating said in the future the airport may offer multiple internship opportunities each year.
“Internships give us a chance to give back to the industry, to help prepare young people for entering the aviation industry” he said. “Last year we especially felt that we needed to step up and provide an opportunity. Knowing how many students are applying for internships I would bet there are some that don’t get an internship. There’s a real need and I think more airports need to do that.”
