BATON ROUGE — More than 100 Baton Rouge area students are getting a unique opportunity to explore careers in aviation this weekend in New Orleans.

Baton Rouge Councilman Cleve Dunn Jr. is leading the students, who will attend the annual Airport Minority Advisory Council Airport Business Conference on Saturday.

The Airport Minority Advisory Council’s Project Lift introduces high school students to aviation and aerospace careers through hands-on experiences and mentorship from industry professionals. 

"Aviation is a huge industry. Most folks who are in aviation ended up in aviation by accident; it wasn't by common knowledge. I didn't know about all the career paths in aviation,” Dunn said. Once I got on the Baton Rouge Metro Airport Commission and saw the career paths that existed, I wanted to make sure that students from North Baton Rouge and Baton Rouge in particular have the opportunity to have accessibility in those careers.”

Students will explore fields like aviation STEM, aircraft maintenance, airport development, architecture and business operations.