FLYING HIGH
Role model Amelia Earhart is inspired
to follow her famous namesake
By SHARON ALMIRALL
Photography KIT WILLIAMS
Having the name of a famous
aviator gives her cachet and
instant recognition, but this
24-year-old role model doesn’t
accept that prestige without putting
hard work into it. She takes her name and
its associated significance seriously.
“I still have to prove myself even
though my name is Amelia Earhart,” says
this high-flying journalist. Not only does
she give her all to her profession of traffic
reporting, but she also takes her message
to the classroom, where she talks with students
about becoming successful in the
fields of both reporting and aviation.
“Having the name of Amelia Earhart
plays into so many things,” she says. “When I graduated from high school, I
decided I wanted to learn how to fly, and
my mom paid for my first flying lesson.”
Though Earhart’s parents were interested
in horses and had not ever suggested she
learn to fly, she knew as soon as she finished
that first lesson that she wanted to
learn how to fly. She expects she will be
completed with her flying lessons a few
months from now.
She learned of the common heritage of
the legendary aviator Amelia Earhart and
herself through her family. When her
mother was planning to name her at birth,
she first chose the name Amy but then
decided to name the baby Amelia. Both
the original Amelia Earhart and our role
model came from German families that
had immigrated to Pennsylvania. Though
the genealogy is still being sorted out,
today’s Amelia Earhart is proud and
pleased to have her famous name. She is
thrilled to have a name that her parents
said no one would forget.
Once Earhart was studying at the
University of Colorado at Boulder, her
name attracted some attention, and a college
newspaper featured her. A Newsradio
850 KOA employee, news director
Kathy Walker, called her to ask if she’d like
to be interviewed about her interest in aviation.
Though it was Earhart’s plan to
become a teacher, and she was actually
working at a restaurant while in college,
she sent in a résumé and was hired. “My
first traffic report was in February 2003,
and I went on the air at KOA. I stuttered
my way through it, and it was an amazing
feeling,” she recalls.
A week later, while she was in the
office with her boss, she was handed a
cassette with her voice on it. She began a
three-year stint with the Clear Channel
Communications radio station doing traffic
reports while she was studying at CU.
Later, she would work for KBCO 97.3 in
the Tech Center and KOA, 630 KHOW and
KKZN-AM 760 radio, occasionally substituting
for a reporter who did traffic reporting
in the helicopter. From this, an audition
would result, and Amelia Earhart would
become the in-air traffic reporter for KOA.
Patty Dennis, vice president and news
director at 9News, provided an example
of how to be a television reporter.
Earhart tried out for the television position
when there was a vacancy. “I treated
this as though it was already my job.
I treated it as a job that was indefinite. I
think this is important for all kinds of
things you do — to work as though you
have the job,” she comments.
Now, flying high over the metro area
in a helicopter, Earhart reports for KOA
and, since June, has had a role as a Sky
9 reporter covering traffic and breaking
news because the two media entities
share her time. She says that sometimes
people say to her, “Of course,
you got the job, as your name is Amelia
Earhart. But I don’t think I’d have gotten
this job if I hadn’t worked hard.”
Earhart credits Kathy Walker with giving
her the chance to become what she is
as a reporter — “for teaching me how to
be an all-around reporter, for general
news, breaking news and traffic reporting. “Kathy never made me think that my
age or the fact that I was a woman would
be a problem for me. She understands
why I ask questions,” says Earhart
She continues, “It’s exciting to be in a
position where people listen to you on a
daily basis. If I’m walking into a school to
talk to kids, they automatically have a little
bit of respect. I can teach about the aviation
side and the news side, too. The kids
e-mail me with all kinds of questions,
especially the girls 10 to 18 years old. They
feel comfortable with me.”
Students arrive at the hanger, where
she can talk about the helicopter. She
says, “They want to know how far the
camera can zoom, how fast the helicopter
is. Aviation is a great career. You
can’t be lazy. You can’t do drugs; you
really have to be on top of your game.
The boys have technical questions; the
girls ask, ‘Are you scared?’”
She goes on to say, “I’m a role model
even with my own friends. ‘How did you
do that?’ they ask. Getting that one foot
in the door can be so helpful. It’s pretty
neat. I love speaking. In high school, I was
on the debate team. I’ve always liked
speaking in front of people.
“But I also found I love photography.
I started putting my own pictures on my
Web site, and people responded. People
ask me to take pictures of certain things.
I’ve also figured out that I love to fly. I’d
love to take my training as far as I can
and maybe someday be a flight instructor.
I see if you train hard enough and
learn how to take a flight like that, it’s
completely possible.
“Someday I’d like to retrace Amelia
Earhart’s flight. Every time I say my name I think about it, and it’d be really neat to
retrace her flight. People ask me if Amelia
Earhart is really my name. But now, they
are saying, ‘Oh, you’re from 9News.’”
The original Amelia Earhart was asked
to join pilot Wilmer Stultz and flight
mechanic Lou Gordon on a trans-Atlantic
flight. She became the first woman to ride
in a plane across the Atlantic Ocean. Later,
she decided to trace the first Atlantic
crossing, made by Charles Lindbergh. She
wanted to be the first woman to do that.
It was a dangerous crossing. Flying
through a lightning storm, she almost
crashed and had to make an emergency
landing. It fueled her passion for adventure,
and she began a circumnavigation
of the globe. Just two days short of completion, the plane disappeared and has never been found.
Today’s Earhart, following in the footsteps of the original
Amelia Earhart, knows that success has a lot to do with hard
work. In college, she felt a lot of pressure. She knew that she didn’t
want to be mediocre, she wanted to do something spectacular.
She feels more confident now. At first, being in the helicopter
was exciting to her. But the helicopter now feels like “an office;
I’m in there with my pens, paper and headset.”
She is aware of the competence of the pilot, Jimmy Negri: “He’s a huge influence in my life. He is meticulous as a pilot. The
things he photographs are amazing.”
Earhart passes her expertise and experience on to the high
school kids she addresses. “I stress that college planning is very
important. The kids come in and talk about planes and helicopters,
but I like to talk about college planning,” she says. She
mentions the Ohio Center for Broadcasting in Denver as it is a
center that specifically does radio training.
She also advises students to ask other people for help: “Don’t
be afraid to ask for help or learn from other people. I’m still in the
process of learning how to be a reporter. If I can learn from someone
who does it, it’s more valuable than learning from a book. For
girls, I think it’s helpful that they can see I’m like them. I laugh
with them, talk with them.”
While work consumes much of her time, she makes time for
her other interests. Earhart flies through the morning rush hour,
then takes six hours off during the day, which works well to allow
for other pursuits. She enjoys living in Boulder with her dog,
Choppy, whom she adopted. She spends free time working on
photography and uploading pictures to her Web site. She hopes
to continue working on photography and do more with it.
As it becomes more and more clear this ambitious and successful
young role model is highly motivated to do her best, fulfilling
the dreams of her own role model, the first Amelia Earhart,
seems quite possible.
