Academy College Announces 2019 Sherm Booen Legacy Scholarship Recipient

Published in Midwest Flyer – December 2019/January 2020 issue

BLOOMINGTON, MINN. – Established in 2016 to celebrate Academy College’s 80th Anniversary, the “Sherm Booen Legacy Scholarship” provides $10,000 for a student pursuing a professional pilot career in honor of aviation legend, Sherm Booen. This year’s recipient is Jessica Anderson.

Anderson is a Minnesota native, and she still remembers the flight that hooked her into aviation, even though she was just two years old and in a car seat at the time! Fascinated, albeit slightly terrified of heights, her obsession with aviation took off from there.

As a first-generation female pilot, Anderson lives and breathes aviation, even inspiring her eight-year-old niece to get her pilot certificate someday!

Anderson is passionate about giving back to her community through volunteering with children and working with outreach programs to educate and encourage others to pursue their dreams in aviation.

In 2014, Anderson took a chance on her dream and started flying lessons. In 2018, she decided to turn her dreams into a career and enrolled in the Commercial Pilot Program at Academy College in Bloomington, Minnesota. Successful in both the classroom and in the air, Anderson’s future in flight is very promising.

Sherm Booen was born on a farm near Glenville, Minnesota. He was a B-17 civilian test pilot during World War II and moved to Richfield with his wife and daughter after the war.  He then worked in radio and television and produced the World of Aviation and published The Minnesota Flyer. WCCO Television aired the World of Aviation every Sunday morning for over 28 years. Booen was inducted into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame in 1995. Over the years, Sherm Booen became known as the voice for aviation in the state of Minnesota.

Contact Academy College at 952-851-0066, or email scholarship@academycollege.edu for scholarship details.