Maisy Opens the Hangar Door for the Next Generation

Sometimes a young person takes hold of an opportunity and then turns around to create one for someone else. That is exactly what Maisy Gendimenico did. After first connecting with Habitat for Aviation through the Women Can Do conference, Maisy became part of our hangar community and our WOMEN BUILD PLANES team. In spring 2026, she decided that middle school girls should have a chance to experience this world too. Working with her out-of-school learning coordinator, Rachael Potts, through Harwood Union’s Flexible Pathways program, along with a Harwood middle school science teacher, Maisy helped organize funding for a bus and brought a group of young women north for a half day in the hangar. Through this work, Maisy is also earning proficiency credit for her learning, leadership, and initiative.

This spring, she decided that middle school girls should have a chance to experience this world too. Working with her out-of-school learning coordinator, Rachael Potts, through Harwood Union’s Flexible Pathways program, along with a Harwood middle school science teacher, Maisy helped organize funding for a bus and brought a group of young women north for a half day in the hangar. Through this work, Maisy is also earning proficiency credit for her learning, leadership, and initiative.

The visit gave these girls a chance to tour the airport, explore the hangar, and try hands-on skills connected to building an airplane. Maisy was a wonderful mentor throughout the day. She helped the younger girls feel welcome, answered questions, and showed them what it can look like when a young woman finds her place in a space like ours. She was not talking in abstract terms about what girls can do, she was showing them based on her lived experience.

That matters, especially in middle school because this is such an important developmental window when girls are actively forming identity and beginning to decide what they are good at, where they belong, and what kind of future they can imagine for themselves. Too often, STEM and aviation feel far away by then. A visit like the one Maisy coordinated helps interrupt that story. It opens up new mental real estate and helps a girl begin to think, maybe this could be my space too.

We are so proud of Maisy. What she created was more than a field trip. She built a bridge for the girls coming behind her, and that is exactly how culture change happens.