Aviation student sets sights on career as air traffic controller

Just 10 days after graduating from EMU’s aviation program in May, senior Sarah Miller will begin three months of intense training at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City to become an air traffic controller. 

The training is highly selective, demanding, and rigorous. To be considered for the academy, applicants must be physically and mentally fit and meet FAA standards for vision, hearing, and cardiovascular, neurological, and psychological health, according to the agency’s website. Less than 10% of those who apply are accepted into the academy. 

Trainees, who receive an hourly salary while enrolled at the academy, use tabletop models of airports and control tower simulators to replicate managing plane takeoffs and landings while in a high-stress, high-stakes environment. Each year, about 1,500 trainees pass through the doors of the FAA Academy and roughly 35% of them drop out.

“Everyone I know who has been through the academy says I would be a good fit for it,” Miller said. 

Once she completes her training at the academy, Miller will be assigned to work at an airport and must gain one to three years of on-the-job experience before becoming a certified professional controller. Within three years in the field, she can expect to earn more than $160,000 per year, the average salary for a certified professional controller, according to the FAA.

For Miller, a native of York, Pennsylvania, becoming an air traffic controller is about more than money. She said the plane crashes in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. in January 2025 prompted her to reflect on how she could contribute more effectively to the safety and security of the National Airspace System. 

“Those crashes opened my eyes to the critical need for more air traffic controllers,” Miller said. “Aviation has given me so much, and I want to give back by becoming a controller.”

A place to land

While in high school, Miller earned a private pilot license and realized her love for flying. She attended Mount Saint Mary’s University, a private Catholic university in Emmitsburg, Maryland, for a year while she explored how to channel her passion into a career. That’s when she discovered the growing aviation program at EMU Lancaster.

About EMU’s aviation program The four-year program, which was established in 2018, offers a bachelor’s degree in Leadership and Organizational Management (LOM) with a concentration in aviation focusing on professional flight training. Students are paired with flight instructors through EMU’s flight training partner Aero-Tech Services Inc. at the Lancaster Airport in Lititz, Pennsylvania.  While the program provides at least 270 hours of flight time, many students earn up to 1,000 hours by the time they graduate. Nearly 100 percent of students find jobs within their first year of graduating.

Miller thrived as a student in the program. She became the third recipient of the school’s Robert J. Rummel Aviation Scholarship, which supports EMU students who have demonstrated an enthusiastic commitment to their academic studies and flight training. The scholarship is distributed over four years and provides an annual award of $5,000.

Miller said her favorite part of the EMU aviation program is the small class sizes and the many ratings and certificates students can earn. “Not many schools have the type of program that EMU does,” she said. “I would totally choose EMU again and again. I’ve had nothing but great experiences.”

Cleared for takeoff

These days, Miller works as an administrative clerk at the FAA’s Flight Standards District Office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She passed her Flight Instructor Checkride on Tuesday, qualifying her to teach student pilots as a certified flight instructor.

Her mentor, John Sibole, an adjunct faculty member in the aviation program and a longtime FAA inspector at the Flight Standards District Office, said that he’s heard glowing reports about her. “She’s such a positive, hardworking young woman, and I look forward to hearing about her success as a leader in the aviation world,” he said.

Amber Lynn, customer service manager for Aero-Tech Services, said that Miller brings a safety-first mindset and a genuine love of learning to her flight training. “I believe she will use the leadership skills and aviation knowledge she has gained over the past few years to become the best air traffic controller she can be,” Lynn said. “The aviation community is lucky to have her.”