14-05-2025
19-year-old MSU graduate pursuing career as air traffic controller
DENVER (KDVR) — Graduating from college is a massive accomplishment and a stepping stone in the lives of young academics everywhere.
In most cases, it is usually one of the first steps for 20-somethings in starting their careers and entering a new stage of independence, but for one graduate from Metropolitan State University of Denver, that day came when she was only 19, a year removed from when her peers would be graduating from high school.
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For Adelaide Britton, her path to quick graduation and the pursuit of her ideal career was the one she had always dreamt about. While she endured the pressure of college swimmingly, she faces a new form of pressure and begins her life in a field that has come under heavy scrutiny lately.
Britton is on the path to become an air traffic controller.
To get a head start on her plans, she leaned heavily into concurrent enrollment classes while she was in high school, which allowed her to build up an arsenal of credits that she used to transfer to MSU upon graduation.
To fast-track her progress even further, Britton said she attended summer school and had a semester where she took 18 credit hours, all while working two jobs at Urban Outfitters and a restaurant near Union Station.
That type of workload would put most people in a rut, but she said that because all of her classes revolved around aviation, none of the homework felt like homework. It was just her immersing herself into something she was really interested in.
Her interest piqued when she was a junior in high school and had to research a career. Her mother suggested that she look into air traffic control, and from that moment, Britton has never looked back.
She recently applied for an air traffic controller position in the spring and received a 'Well Qualified' result on the Air Traffic Skills Assessment, and in return, received a tentative offer letter from the Air Traffic Organization.
From here, the next step would be to enter the Federal Aviation Administration's training academy.
All of that work sounds rigorous, but the biggest challenge may be after her hiring, as the air traffic control field is enduring plenty of issues and criticism.
High-profile aviation crashes have thrust the issues into the eyes of the public, and according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there is a shortage of air traffic controllers amid a natural decline in the position and a large number of layoffs. The department is working on rapidly increasing the population of the workforce and upgrading outdated technology used by air traffic controllers to bring it to a more modern standard.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Air Traffic Controllers Association are offering limited-time incentives for hiring, including:
$5,000 award for academy graduates who successfully completed the initial qualification training
$5,000 award for new hires who successfully complete the initial qualification training
$10,000 award for academy graduates who are assigned to one of 13 hard-to-staff air traffic facilities
Certified professional controllers eligible to retire but under the mandatory retirement age (56) will receive a lump sum payment of 20% of their basic pay for each year they continue to work
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Britton is facing another challenging obstacle in her journey, but with a steady head on her shoulders, she offers advice to any students following a similar path.
'It's not for everyone,' said Britton on the MSU website. 'Know yourself. Follow the best course of action for you.'
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