At the Kissimmee Gateway Airport, we are grateful to be selected by the Florida Airports Council (FAC) for an internship grant that is sponsored by the Florida Department of Transportation to provide an internship opportunity to a student attending one of the FAC Member Institutions in the State of Florida. We were pleased to host Eran Ber during an airport job shadow event with other students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) and that initial experience and desire to work on an airfield intrigued him to apply for the internship position that was available at that time. Eran is an international student from Israel and he is in the final year of ERAU’s Masters of Business Administration in Aviation Management program with an expected graduation in December 2023. Aviation became a fascination in his young teen years when he used to ride his bike to the approach end of the runway at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel to watch aircraft arriving and departing.
Eran served in the Israeli Defense Forces when he was 18 years old as an Information Technology/Network Manager and after his 3-year commitment, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from Grand Canyon University (GCU) on a D1 athletic scholarship where he was a member of the GCU Antelopes Swim Team. Eran’s swimming career spans over 17 years and his biggest achievements are representing Israel at swimming competitions across Europe and he is the Israeli Junior champion in 200 backstroke. While attending GCU, he began his next achievement of flight training at the Chandler Municipal Airport and he has over 40 hours of flight time. The passion for aviation accelerated after that and he traded the dusty deserts of Phoenix for the sandy beaches of Daytona Beach to pursue a Master’s Degree in Aviation Management. When he is not flying or swimming, he is working as a graduate research assistant researching airline and airport-related data for future publications and is a member of the AAAE and FAC Student Chapters. Eran’s hobbies include playing soccer, swimming, beach volleyball, and skiing. He enjoys cooking his homemade hummus and loves to travel every time he has an opportunity. He wants to expand his aviation experience with his future goals of working at an airport or for an airline, and he is interested in air service development. He strongly feels that his positive energy and passion to support others will help to make an impact wherever the wind takes him. He is hopeful that his future will continue in Florida and he aspires to promote aviation to others that may not believe they can be on the other side of the airport fence. We are glad to have Eran on Team ISM and gain some experience of learning the daily operations at a busy general aviation airport in a top destination location.