When Kristina Callahan graduated from Blue Mountain Union High School in 2020, she wanted to go to college. But she knew college was an investment, and she was entertaining several areas of interest—from becoming a military pilot, to working with animals, to becoming a mechanic. So, she followed her dad’s advice and decided to build up her experience and her resources, and solidify her career goals, before making the leap to higher education.
“My dad had to stop school at a young age, but he is the smartest and most organized person I know,” says Kristina. “Because of his background, he’s always emphasized the value of experience: getting your foot in the door, working hard, and building a good reputation.” Her dad also encouraged her to take a gap year before going to college. “Of course, he always told me that college was within my reach. But it can be expensive—so he wanted me to make sure I was going for what I really wanted to do.”
So Kristina jumped into the workforce right out of high school, saving up money while she thought about her future.
“Whatever route I eventually took, I knew it would take money. So I worked, sometimes two jobs at a time, accepting any shift I was offered.” Her main position was as a phlebotomist, and while she initially saw it as just a good paycheck, she came to like the job more than she expected. “I hated needles as a kid, because I needed bloodwork a lot and the draws were often painful,” she recalls. Those memories made her even more determined to do her absolute best for every patient and to complete the draw on her first try.
As her dad had predicted, experience in the working world helped point Kristina to what she really wanted to do. “I realized I was looking for a change from phlebotomy work. Things feel so much easier when you’re happier doing them,” she says. With her dad and several other family members working in mechanical fields, Kristina had been doing automotive repair work at home, and her mind returned to her earlier interest in aviation. “The idea of working on aircraft engines as a job was appealing. I started researching some of the fundamentals, and aircraft maintenance intrigued me more and more.”
So Kristina expanded her research to investigate sources of funding for higher education, hoping to enroll in the aviation program at Burlington Technical Center. “I remembered what a friend had told me about VSAC just before we graduated from high school.” That search brought her to VSAC’s Educational Opportunity Center, which supports adult students who want to continue their education or complete job-related training.
But Kristina didn’t pick up the phone right away, having grown up believing it was okay to ask for advice, but not for assistance. First, she had to overcome her resistance to asking for help. “I took the first step when I called VSAC and got connected with Marti Kingsley,” an outreach counselor who works with adult students. “I opened up completely to Marti about what I wanted to accomplish. It was the most genuine conversation I have ever had. When she said she could make it happen, I was filled with joy.”
Kristina was also filled with doubts—chief among them, how she would find enough time in the day for classes and a job that would pay her bills. “It’s hard to keep up with a full-time schedule with only a part-time income,” says Kristina, who traveled from her home in East Ryegate to Burlington Technical Center—over 70 miles each way—five days a week for classes, then worked two 10-hour days on the weekends. “It was definitely exhausting.”
Her biggest sacrifice, she says, was time with family and friends, which made it a lonely journey. “There were days when I wondered if it was really worth the trip,” she admits. “But I knew it was going to be hard at first, so I kept pushing myself a little further.”
Throughout the process, Marti was reassuring and energetic—just what Kristina needed. “VSAC and Marti made the financial aid process so much easier, and they even helped out with some of my car expenses, making sure I was safe on the road. When I started, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to go through it all. The driving, the cost of living, tuition—those were all things that could have stopped me.”
While the classes were rigorous, Kristina worked hard and kept up with the material. “Generally, it takes about 30 months to get fully certified, but in school, you’re getting that done in about 10 months,” she explains.
She says her teachers’ inspirational stories offset the intensity, as well as the intimidation factor of being a woman in a male-dominated field. By the second year, Kristina was the only woman in the class. “In the beginning, it did feel weird to me. I felt as if I didn’t belong at times, or that I would get questioned just because I was a female,” Kristina says. “But the teachers are great, and they’re excited to teach anyone who’s interested. They fueled my passion for aviation.”
Kristina completed her program in June, not letting anything slow her down—including finding out she was pregnant at the start of her second year. The unexpected news had the potential to complicate her plans, but Kristina says, “it only motivated me more to finish the program.” She’s grateful, once again, to her teachers, who were happy to work with her to accommodate her pregnancy when needed and to help her finish on time. She took her final exams three weeks before her due date, earning her airframe and powerplant credentials.
Kristina went back to work in mid-November as an A&P (Airframe & Powerplant) Technician for Pratt & Whitney at Burlington International Airport, where she works on aircraft engines that come in for inspection or overhaul.
“My A&P card came in the mail not too long ago,” says Kristina proudly. “This certificate is good for life, as long as you keep yourself up to date on your knowledge. My teachers have always told me ‘it’s a license to learn.’”
This story is produced by Vermont Student Assistance Corp., created by the Vermont Legislature in 1965 as a public nonprofit agency, to advocate for Vermont students and their families to ensure that they achieve their education goals. Our vision is to create opportunities for all Vermont students, but particularly for those—of any age—who believe that the doors to higher education are closed to them. We begin by helping families save for education with Vermont’s state-sponsored 529 savings program. To help Vermonters plan and pay for college or career training, our counselors work with students in nearly every Vermont middle school and high school, and again as adults. Our grant and scholarship programs attract national recognition, and our loan programs and loan forgiveness programs are saving Vermont families thousands of dollars in interest. Visit vsac.org to learn more.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Kristina Callahan earns her “license to learn” as an aviation technician.