First Female Graduate in Unmanned Aerial Systems

Logan Ramsey

News Editor

While many college students worry about finding a job after college, Ellen Jetland-Okelberry was worried about being offered one too early.

It was October, and Jetland-Okelberry received a message through LinkedIn informing her of a job at Amazon with the Unmanned Aerial Systems Test Flight Team. The position was in Oregon, but that was as specific as they would be because of the top secret nature of the job.

Jetland-Okelberry started going through the application process, and she was soon offered the job at a much earlier starting date than she planned.

“Can you start work next month?”

“Do you not see my application? I’m graduating on May 9.”

Jetland-Okelberry is a senior at Idaho State University studying Unmanned Aerial Systems, or more commonly known as drones, and she’s about to be the first female graduate of her emphasis of study.

Not only would she have been paid less without graduating, she also didn’t want to quit on her education prematurely.

“I’ve invested so much in my education, I’m not going to stop it now,” Jetland-Okelberry said.

Jetland-Okelberry’s interest in aviation and education started at Raisbeck Aviation High School in Tukwila, Washington, an aviation and aerospace themed STEM school.

She’d been interested in aviation even before high school, since Eighth grade when she flew for the first time with a family friend who was a flight instructor. On that flight, she was bit by the flying bug and wanted to be a pilot.

At Aviation High School, she had an interest in robotics and participated on the school’s competitive team before she graduated in 2014 with high honors.

“When I heard about drones, it’s like it was the best of both worlds,” Jetland-Okelberry said.

Through high school, she made connections with faculty at University of North Dakota, and after doing two years of community college to complete her generals, she started to attend the program in 2016.

The problem she ran into at UND is that she was expected to get her pilot’s license in a year, but she couldn’t afford to fly the first year. It would’ve been $10,000 extra.

When she finally started her flight training, she was determined to get her pilot’s license, but it was different then she thought it would be.

When she flew, she had motion sickness and felt high stress because of everything she had to manage at once, like watching for other aircrafts, navigating, managing radio calls and more.

Nevertheless, she pushed on until she had to stop, because her body wasn’t handling the high stress, anxiety and motion sickness, on top of the stress of school.

While Jetland-Okelberry is grateful for her time in North Dakota, she decided that flying wasn’t for her and left in 2017.

“However, it did not stop my determination to still work with drones,” Jetland-Okelberry said.

Her husband told her that Idaho State University’s program doesn’t require a pilot’s license, so she decided to transfer.

Jetland-Okelberry now calls Idaho home.

At the time when she transferred, she didn’t know that she would be ISU’s first female graduate of the Unmanned Aerial Systems program.

“It can be intimidating, but honestly, at this point in my life, I adapt to it,” Jetland-Okelberry said. “I just don’t see it as male-dominated. I just want to do my job.”

She’s noticed that other girls who might be interested in aviation become intimidated by how many males are in the program.

Jetland-Okelberry was initially disappointed that no girls had graduated before her, but she hopes to set a good example for future females who will participate in the program.

She volunteers with girl STEM camps in Pocatello, and she always encourages them to go into aviation.

Jetland-Okelberry feels that she and other females have a leg-up in the industry, because companies are always looking for females to hire.

One reason why she thinks Amazon wanted her so soon is because industry is growing rapidly, and drones can be applied in different ways.

The most popular jobs are with the Department of Defense, because it pays well, but drones are also used to transport organs, for search-and-rescue and to fight fires. In Bannock County, there’s a drone that targets mosquito populations to reduce the amount of diseases spread.

Jetland-Okelberry has already contacted Amazon, and they want her to check back in April to see if they have open positions, but there’s a multitude of other options if there isn’t after she graduates ISU with high honors.

In ten years, Jetland-Okelberry would like to be in the Unmanned Aerial Systems industry and own a personal drone she can use to volunteer with search-and-rescue.

“That’s what I see myself doing, making a difference with drones in a positive way.”