Annual Al Conklin & Bill de Decker Scholarship Awarded At NBAA-BACE 2017
Conklin & de Decker, in association with the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), announces that the tenth annual Al Conklin and Bill de Decker Business Aviation Management Scholarship winner is Michelle Bennett of Vienna, VA. This scholarship is being awarded at the NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (BACE) in Las Vegas, NV.
As a senior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ, Michelle is majoring in global business with concentrations in aviation/aerospace and Arabic. She aspires to begin her career in business aviation and dreams of pairing her love for transportation with cutting-edge technology. In addition to two summer internships at The Boeing Company, Michelle has been a research assistant in the College of Aviation at ERAU. She is an active member of Women in Aviation International and Women in Corporate Aviation and plans to pursue an MBA once she acquires professional experience in the aviation industry.
“It is an honor to award our 10th annual scholarship to this bright, young woman with such impressive credentials,” says Bill de Decker, chairman and co-founder of Conklin & de Decker. “The entire staff at Conklin & de Decker congratulate Michelle Bennett and wish her all the best as she nears graduation and looks forward to her career in the business aviation industry.”
The scholarship was initially created to honor the memory of Al Conklin, a U.S. Air Force veteran and business aviation leader for more than 60 years. In 2015, the scholarship was renamed to also recognize Bill de Decker for his contributions to business aviation, for which he was honored with NBAA’s John P. “Jack” Doswell Award in 2014. Conklin’s career took him to business aviation where he sold aircraft for several companies before meeting Bill de Decker and creating the first Aircraft Cost Evaluator program. In 1984 they founded what became Conklin & de Decker. Each year, NBAA Charities and Conklin & de Decker award $5,000 to an undergraduate student who is officially enrolled in an aviation management program at a University Aviation Association (UAA) member school.