About 50 students a year get a different view of Clermont College's 92 wooded acres while learning to fly in the school's aviation technology program. The urge to soar above one's classmates attracts students to UC's bucolic campus from as far away as Belgium, as Sophie Gilgean proves.

The student already had her pilot's license when she enrolled last fall, but she wanted to earn a "whole degree" and fly professionally in this country, she says. And she's happy with her academic choice. "The instructors listen to you, the planes are great, and pilot lectures give us a good idea of what is waiting for us. I'm glad I'm here."

Working with flight instructors from Sporty's Academy (the college's training partner), students in the two-year program study in an advanced flight simulator, then log flight time in state-of-the-art aircraft such as a glass-cockpit Cessna 172. A high percentage of students add College of Business courses to earn a bachelor's, which opens doors to work in aviation marketing and operations management, says flight school manager David Zitt, Cler '01, Bus '03.

Clermont College's campus lies adjacent to the figure-eight formation in the center of the photo. At the far right end of the parking lot is the gym, which is housed in the "sprung-structure" that sat in the Baldwin Quad from 2001-04 to accommodate UC's food court during the Tangeman University Center renovation.

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