Lauren Willliams knew she wanted to fly after going to an air show with her parents at the age of four. She described being mesmerized by a F\/A-18 at a military air show during Fleet Week in San Francisco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was blown away,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI knew then that\u2019s what really sparked my interest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, many years later; she is the first pilot in her family and a first officer at Endeavor Air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Williams moved from California to North Carolina in search of a local flight school, she attended a Premier Air flight school at Lincoln County Airport where she received her private pilot license and instrument rating. Williams relocated to Florida where she obtained her commercial pilot certificate, became a certified flight instructor, and taught for a while. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Williams moved back to North Carolina and taught there for some time, then flew with Boutique Air before getting hired at Endeavor Air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
William described having a lot of ups and downs with her journey to becoming a pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy journey has not been a straight line,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI went after it, pursued it, now I am where I am.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Williams said being an African American woman in the aviation industry impacted her in a positive way. She was able to get involved with organizations like Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) and Women in Aviation International. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWithout those two qualities I would have not found those organizations to be a part of.\u201d Williams said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Williams also spoke on the importance of mentorship and how her mentors have played a large role in where she is today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would not be where I am without mentorship,\u201d Williams said, \u201cThere are several key mentors that have basically guided me and given me great advice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Williams encourages aspiring pilots to step out of their comfort zones and to be willing to try different things. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lauren Willliams knew she wanted to fly after going to an air show with her parents at the age of four. She described being mesmerized by a F\/A-18 at a military air show during Fleet Week in San Francisco. \u201cI was blown away,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI knew then that\u2019s what really sparked my interest.\u201d Now,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"above","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,16],"tags":[17,18,19],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lauren_williams-2.jpeg",1024,674,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lauren_williams-2-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lauren_williams-2-300x197.jpeg",300,197,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lauren_williams-2-768x506.jpeg",768,506,true],"large":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lauren_williams-2.jpeg",1024,674,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lauren_williams-2.jpeg",1024,674,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lauren_williams-2.jpeg",1024,674,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jada Miles","author_link":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/author\/jada\/"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"Lauren Willliams knew she wanted to fly after going to an air show with her parents at the age of four. She described being mesmerized by a F\/A-18 at a military air show during Fleet Week in San Francisco. \u201cI was blown away,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI knew then that\u2019s what really sparked my interest.\u201d Now,...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flyfortheculture.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}