Deaf Florida student picked for Purdue flight program

 

Florida State University Panama City senior Jason Jernigan, of Youngstown, will undertake five weeks of flight training at Purdue University in Indiana.

YOUNGSTOWN — Florida State University Panama City senior Jason Jernigan will undertake five weeks of flight training at Purdue University in Indiana to show that his deafness is not a handicap. 

 Jernigan, of Youngstown, is the second deaf person to train with Able Flight to learn flight and ground operations. He is one of six men who have been chosen from across the country to win a scholarship for the third year of Able Flight-Purdue University flight training.

“I want to fly because it is one of my life goals,” Jernigan wrote in an email interview. “I really never thought I would get the opportunity. I want to conquer the challenge. I also want to show people that deaf people can do anything a hearing person can do.”

Jernigan is studying criminology, including underwater crime scene investigation, and is a graduate of Gulf Coast State College.

Able Flight was created by pilots who believed learning how to fly should be shared and to allow for people with disabilities to experience flight and being a pilot.

Other scholarship recipients in the program have varying disabilities, from being paralyzed to cerebral palsy. The scholarship winners will live at the university and be trained by graduate students at Purdue’s towered airport, KLAF.

Jernigan will leave Florida on Saturday for the program. He has no prior flight experience, but he has played a flying computer game. He believes the biggest challenge will be communications between him and his instructors.

“I will use sign language, iPad, a computer and UbiDuo machine,” Jernigan wrote. “Mostly I will use an UbiDuo (communications device). … [I]t should help greatly with both my pre-flight and post-flight briefing with my instructor.”

The university will benefit from expanding their training to include people with disabilities, according to Charles Stites, the executive director of Able Flight.

“I want people to know that being deaf does not have to be a handicap, unless you let it,” Jernigan wrote. “I want the people of Bay County to know that there are many resources to find that will help you meet your goals in life. People need a supportive family like mine and programs like Able Flight that will help you obtain your life goal.”


Source:  http://www.newsherald.com