Parkland College Students Earn Summer Flight Credentials

Aviation Students Earn Summer 2021 Credentials

The following students earned flight credentials from the Institute of Aviation at Parkland College during the college's summer semester.

Soloed for the First Time in a Piper Archer
Nicholas Anderson, Winthrop Harbor
Nathan Smith, Mahomet
Remy Smith, Rantoul

Earned the Private Pilot Airplane Single-Engine Land (ASEL) Certificate
Dawson Kostenski, Decatur
Emily Plauck, DeKalb
Coalton Camden, Mt. Zion
Abel Verbeek, Crete
Evan Blakey, Findlay

Earned the Instrument Airplane Rating
Parker Allen, Galesburg
Zeth McCloud, Saint Joseph
Maximus Torres, Park Ridge
Robert Knight, Champaign
Benjamin Williams, Downs
Amara Rahman, Springfield

Earned the Commercial Pilot ASEL Certificate
John "Hans" Dee, Champaign
Andrew Laub, Oregon
Peter Herrmann, Rockford

Earned the Flight Instructor ASE Certificate
Lucas Charles, Sidney

Earned the Flight Instructor-Instrument Airplane
Dongjin Shin, Champaign
John Kolis, Springfield
Daniel Wyckoff, Buckley


Parkland College assumed ownership of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Institute of Aviation in fall 2014, leasing its aircraft and facilities at Willard Airport in Savoy to continue flight training. The College has continued the excellent instruction provided by the University's institute, which educated more than 13,000 pilots in its 70-year history. Many of its graduates are employed in the aviation industry around the world.

Along with the two-year degree in aviation, students can earn a private pilot certificate and commercial pilot ratings, including multi-engine land and flight instructor.

[photos from top: Remy Smith, Parker Allen, Amara Rahman]