1. Truly Amazing Career Opportunities
RAHS professional development takes off
By Jon Provencher
Now that Raisbeck Aviation High School is adjacent to King County International Airport, the
number of aviation and aerospace-related internships is rapidly increasing.
Last year, the number of internship placements grew from 13 to 83, with 170 placements last
spring and summer. This year, these numbers are expected to grow even further.
“I've just gotten started [developing internships],” said Julie Burr, former Program Manager for
the RAHS Career Center, “and I would say I have about 3 or 4 new ones just over the last
couple weeks… I think maybe we'll have maybe 10 to 20 new internships by the end of the
year.”
RAHS’s facility and successful career readiness model draws in professionals, encouraging
them to become involved with students.
“When I bring them here for a tour and talk about our programs,” said Burr, “they're so
impressed with the technology we have here, and the labs, and the boards telling stories—they
just feel like this is really a cutting edge school… So it's even easier, I would say, to develop
internships.”
One of the new internships belongs to junior Elias Muller. This summer, he will be an intern with
Boeing Field’s operations.
“The internship is working with Airport Operations down at King County International Airport,”
said Muller. “I'm going to be crunching numbers and using Excel to compile data for them… One
thing I might be doing is taking data for layered maps.”
Opportunities like this one are becoming more prevalent because the school is located in the
heart of a major aerospace region. Everywhere students go, they are surrounded by industry
professionals.
For example, Muller obtained his internship on a Metro bus last November, after meeting an
airport employee while arguing with a friend over Taco Time versus Taco Bell.
“About two weeks into this fight, one of the deputy directors at Boeing [Field], Laurie Brown,
interrupted,” said Muller. “She's like, 'Obviously, Taco Time is better.' I'm like, 'Thank you!' I
started talking to her about how much Taco Time is better and what she should get.”
This seemingly irrelevant exchange led to the two talking nearly everyday on their commute.
After a while, Brown discovered Muller’s personability and learned that he attends RAHS. In
early December, she got him in touch with Michael Colmant, another deputy director for the
airport, and offered Muller an internship.
“When I met with [Colmant],” said Muller, “he took me on a tour and showed me everything….
When he was showing me all of the places I’ll be working at, he explained to me what these
places meant, and the people at each station took me aside and explained to me how their job
went and what’s on the line.”

2. Networking is a major factor in RAHS’ presence in the professional community. Muller opened
the door to future opportunities that will benefit other students for years to come.
“[Elias] planted the seed and developed his own internship,” said Burr. “What has also come out
of that is that people at the King County International Airport invited me to come over and talk to
them about our program… They’re going to be exploring ways to offer not only his internship,
but two or three more.”
In addition to internships, mentoring is also benefiting from close proximity to Boeing Field.
There is now more frequent contact between mentors and mentees, and even more
professionals want to be involved.
“Probably every week I get one or two new inquiries from someone who wants to be a mentor,”
said Burr, “because they’ve heard about it and they now know that it’s going to be easy for them
to do.”