New Scholarships on Offer At Auburn

• Auburn University will receive $100,000 annually to support up to 10 students each year
• The scholarship is named after Bessie Coleman, the first American of any race or gender to hold an international pilot’s license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France

A newly established scholarship fund in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University will honor an aviation legend by supporting the next generation of aviation leaders. The Bessie Coleman Annual Scholarship, established by Walt and Ginger Woltosz, will be awarded to Auburn students in professional flight and aviation management. Their annual gift of $100,000 is expected to support up to 10 students each year.

Walt and Ginger Woltosz are aviation enthusiasts and avid Auburn supporters. From 1969 to 1970, while Walt (’69, ’77) was a graduate student in aerospace engineering at Auburn, he taught in the aviation management program and learned to fly planes in Lanett, Alabama, taking his private pilot check ride in 1970 under former Auburn University Chief Pilot Gary Kitely. For more than 40 years, the Woltoszes have flown across the U.S. in their own airplanes, ranging from single- and multi-engine propellor-driven planes to business jets. They now add the Bessie Coleman scholarships to a tradition of supporting need-based financial assistance at Auburn.

“Our goal with the Bessie Coleman scholarships is to allow students who could not otherwise afford to attend Auburn to be able pursue their dreams,” Walt Woltosz said. “The professional flight program is expensive, and the costs alone could turn many students away. A prospective student who dreams of becoming a professional pilot and has the aptitude and attitude to be successful, but is forced to give up their dream, is heartbreaking.”

Breanna Amstutz is a senior in aviation management with a minor in business who received one of the first Bessie Coleman scholarships.

The scholarship fund is named after Bessie Coleman, born of an African American mother and Native American father in 1892. In 1921, Coleman became the first American of any race or gender to hold an international pilot’s license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. She is remembered as an iconic aviator who performed dangerous air shows and an activist who refused to perform at venues where guests of color had to enter through different gates.

For professional flight junior Kadon Luke, the Bessie Coleman scholarship will cover tuition and flight training costs. Beyond the financial assistance, Luke said the opportunity drives him to work even harder to become an airline pilot.