The SWAPA Dependent Scholarship Fund was established in 1999 with the purpose of awarding college-bound students of a deceased or disabled Southwest Airlines Pilot with support in continuing their education. Since then, more than 400 dependents have received the scholarship.
Several recipients walked across the stage in May. Here, they reflect on the support from SWAPA Pilots and their hopes for the future.
Jane’s family loves history. Every family vacation had a history element to it, she said. That might have bolstered her love of history ... and aviation. Dad’s job made flying around to historical sites easier.
Her dad, MDW Captain Danial Whelan, made a lot of things easier, even as the family lost him to cancer. After being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 2007, Dan had surgery. But the cancer came back in 2011, and he stopped flying. Jane remembers those years as always having her dad around. “I got stay-at-home dad. My older siblings got Air Force dad and Southwest dad,” she said. “But he was my soccer coach. He made me lunch every day. I know I didn’t get all the years with him that they did, but I can reflect on the time I got to spend with him.”
Dan found out about the SWAPA Dependent Scholarship Fund and made sure Jane’s older siblings applied and that she would too when it was time to prepare for college. As she prepared for graduation from college this past spring, Jane was taking time to reflect on how thankful she is for what her dad did and for the experiences she enjoyed at her small liberal arts school.
Motivation:
“I try to be positive. Why look at the world in a negative light when there is so much good in it. When you start something new, like going off to college, you have a lot of opportunities. I have a great appreciation for setting your mind to something and seeing it to completion.”
Dream job:
“Work in a museum. Benedictine is in Atchison, Kanas. So is the Amelia Earhart Museum. I’ve loved working there. History is big in my family. Any trip we would take, history was involved. We were able to travel and experience a lot of history with my dad’s benefits. He loved history and was able to translate that in an interactive way to us. I was able to fall in love with history at a young age and hope I get a chance to help people realize how cool and fun history is.”
After graduation:
“I’m going to grad school and get a master’s in public history. That will help me get into a museum. Learning more about communicating to the public about history will allow me to apply history to real life scenarios.”
Best advice:
“You don’t have to have everything figured out. There are tons of choices for you to find the right one. Trust in yourself.”
Pilot legacy:
“I have a strong willingness to help others no matter what. My dad did too. He trained service dogs for PTSD in the last years of his life. My family sponsored a dog in his honor, and we named Dan after my dad. He didn’t end up passing and we ended up with this dog. Which was great for my mom as I went off to school. We knew we couldn’t call him Dan, so we changed it to Lt. Dan. Lieu for short.”
Though Stephanie’s father passed when she was young, she remembers stories of him as a selfless person, both at home and at work. James Edward Odom always made a point to be the last to leave the plane, always checked on any dogs that were on the flight and let his team crash with him anytime they were stranded or alone, including over the holidays.
Stephanie said that inspired her and what she wants to do with her career. Participating in student government and debate throughout school inspired her to major in Political Science. As she spent her internship in Washington, D.C., the scholarship helped fund living expenses.
Motivation:
“My motivation is strongly connected to my mom and my dad — even by my grandma on my dad’s side. I think about everything she had to go through to receive her education; she was one of the first women to get her education at Auburn. She grew up in this very small house in rural Alabama, and I owe it to her and all the work she put into raising my father and his own ambition.
“The idea of not letting them down is what keeps me motivated. And all the work my dad put into accomplishing so much at such a young age.”
Dream job:
“I want to focus on having more informed voters and more people who are also going to help the community. That’s the biggest part of the work I’ve done over the past few years and the research I do now on political ambition in Generation Z. We don’t have enough people who want to do this work to begin with, so how do we ensure that people are going to have that level of care for their community? Having a career that fits under that while also empowering young women go for public office would be my dream job.”
After graduation:
“I’m going to Europe for a good chunk of the summer and traveling so I can learn more about other cultures and communities. I’m starting in August at Columbia [School of Professional Studies] for my Master of Science in Nonprofit Management with a concentration in public policy. But I’m moving in-district for a campaign I’m the director of.”
Best advice:
“Go for what you want. Do not let anyone or anything hold you back from the person you are meant to be.”
Pilot legacy:
“He passed when I was two or three years old, but he was a certain type of leader. He always wanted to learn from people, always wanted to help people. And he was very much a team-based leader too. That’s a big part of what kept me motivated — being able to hear his stories through my mom and his friends. It made me realize, ‘Well, if I’m his daughter …’ Not try to copy him but try to reflect on what he would’ve wanted from me or what he would’ve wanted me to do in certain situations.”
Andrew learned about the Dependent Scholarship Fund from Southwest representatives that visited his father’s funeral and assisted his family with flights and other logistics after his dad passed away. Douglas Pritchard left his son quite the legacy: “Pritchards don’t quit” and the importance of enjoying life taking it as a gift. That perspective helped instill a clearer mind when Andrew tackled difficult things — like advanced chemistry classes. It also encouraged him to be active in life. Andrew enjoys activities like biking and lifting.
Motivation:
“One is enjoying the challenge you’re in. You can always learn something valuable from a tough essay or tough class. That’s applicable for me now — enjoy the difficulty, the toil of it. There’s value in struggling and that motivates me when I’m tempted to give up. Naturally, I’ve always been a determined individual. My dad always encouraged me to do the best I can and leave the results up to God. I’m only called to give my best, and, if I give my best, then I’ve succeeded no matter what happens.”
After graduation:
“Last November, I applied to six different graduate schools. Fortunately, I got into all six. But, last week, I committed to University of Texas at Austin for a PhD in Chemistry. The group I want to join at UT does a lot of structural elucidation and structural characterizations of proteins and carbohydrates. A project that I’d want to get involved with is the study of lipidomics, which is characterizing several different kinds of lipids, especially ones that are biomarkers of cancer. I don’t know for sure what I’ll be working with, but just being aware of the opportunities is what really made me pursue that path.”
Dream job:
“That’s the fun thing! Right now, I wouldn’t be prepared for my dream research job and its instrumentations without all the background research. That’s what I’m hoping to accomplish as a grad student — becoming an expert in instrumentation, mass spectrometry down the road, I’d say that’s a dream job. Working in any industry committed to conducting research and using that research to better products for the health industry in general.”
Best advice:
“The biggest life lesson is to be present and enjoy the moment you’re in … Especially going through college, you really see that time passes you by more than you thought. Such as with the sudden passing of my father; you see how vaporous life is. That’s what he taught us in the last couple years of his life. He was really influenced by the Book of Ecclesiastes and scripture, which teaches the importance of enjoying life for what it is and treating it as a gift. That’s really rubbed off on me — to enjoy the small things in life, such as the beautiful blue sky and the sunlight. A gentle breeze going over your face. Only when you enjoy the small things can you enjoy the big things.”
Pilot legacy:
“I find opportunities to serve, whether it’s tutoring or even working with the ministry. For one summer, I worked with a ministry and taught classes about basic physiology and nutrition to children in the Dominican Republic. Foreign languages, too — to connect with other people and form relationships.”
Thanks to her father and retired MDW Captain James Norman, Sophia was aware of the scholarship fund and the support it could provide as she started considering education after high school. Acquiring funding from the Dependent Scholarship Fund allowed her to focus on her future by reducing her overall loan amount and living expenses and provided the comfort of knowing an entire organization supports her.
Sophia hasn’t chosen a career path yet but knows that the importance of education and conservation will play an important role in what she plans to do with her life.
Motivation:
“It can be tough to remain motivated, however, I always try to remind myself that doing well now is so much easier and better for me in the long run. I want to achieve my goals, and I owe it to myself in the future to try hard now.”
Dream job:
“There are a lot of things I love when it comes to education. It could be a job researching creatures in tidepools, a job maintaining the law and people’s rights to keep women and children safe, or even a job translating Japanese to English for some video game company. I’m trying to keep my career paths open as I decide what appeals to me most of these three general ideas of future careers.”
After graduation:
“I’m considering attending law school post grad. I’m currently in an internship at UT called UT JapanLab. It’s been very fun and fulfilling, and I’ve been making lots of good connections thanks to it.”
Best advice:
“I would say not to sweat the little things. I have a tendency to get stressed and have my anxiety blow things out of proportion, and, when that happens, I ask myself if what I’m upset over will matter in a week, month, or year ... 99% of the time the answer is no, and that indicates to me that I can probably chill out and not stress myself out over something that I really don’t need to freak out over.”
Support the Scholarship: SWAPA Pilots can contribute to the Dependent Scholarship Fund. Visit Donation Information to find out more about how you can help support SWAPA families.
Authored by Communications Editor Jennifer Norris.
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