Mr. Joel Gibson

Welcome to AAST and our Aerospace Engineering program. I hope you will find this program as exciting, challenging, and rewarding as I do.

 In the Aerospace Engineering Program I will teach Course 1 in the 2020-2021 school year and pick up the other three courses as we move forward. I also teach Government and Economics in our school’s Social Studies department.

 I bring a diverse background to the program, which I believe is particularly well suited to its objectives. I have a Bachelor of Art degree in Political Science from North Carolina State University, a Juris Doctorate degree from Wake Forest University School of Law, and a Master of Art degree in Teaching from Coastal Carolina University. I am certified to teach gifted and talented students in middle and high school and to teach three different Advanced Placement courses. I will be reading (grading) the AP Microeconomics Exam this spring.

 I consider my aerospace experience to be strong, if not traditional. I commenced flight training when I was fourteen years old and completed my first license when I was sixteen, although I am not current. I was a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol and am currently completing a new membership as an Aerospace Education Member in that organization. As a SERB certified aerospace educator, I will be completing a series of intensive two-week training sessions over the next two years.

 Perhaps my strongest asset as a teacher is my passion for the subjects I teach. I have been in love with flight since a childhood visit to the outer banks of North Carolina where I toured the Wright Brothers National Monument and watched hang gliders on the dunes of Jockey’s Ridge. On that first visit I built my first kite and a few years later was soaring over the dunes myself. My goal was to do a powered solo before I got my automobile driver’s license. Strong cross winds on my sixteenth birthday did not stop me from reaching my goal, I simply delayed getting a driver’s license until I soloed. Later I would complete a cross country trip to First Flight Airport, which is located at the Wright Brothers Memorial, the birthplace of powered flight and my love of flying.