Miranda’s Journey: From Apprentice to Mentor Through Harbor Freight Fellowship Initiative 

Written By Beth White

Watching Miranda grow through the Harbor Freight Fellowship Initiative has been nothing short of extraordinary. When she joined our WOMEN BUILD PLANES team, she was already familiar to us—a kid who had been coming to the airport since she was 11. What followed was a transformation rooted in hands-on mentorship, belonging, and opportunity.

Before her fellowship, Miranda wasn’t planning on pursuing higher education. But through HFFI and her time working alongside our mentors—George, Cliff, Bob, Doyle, and Steve—she found both her confidence and her calling. She now has a full ROTC scholarship to Wooster Polytechnic Institute to study aerospace engineering.

Miranda didn’t just grow as a technician—she grew as a person. Public speaking once terrified her. I remember countless hours of practicing presentations with her and her mom. Her first exhibition of learning was rough—George came back shaking his head. But by the time she defended her senior thesis, we all beamed with pride. She's now the poised voice of our team, often saying exactly what I’m thinking before I can even open my mouth.

She has become a trusted peer mentor and leader, someone younger members confide in about everything from workplace dynamics to personal struggles. And through my own breast cancer treatment, Miranda stood by me, steady and supportive. She’s a good egg—literally, too. Her family raises chickens, and she often brings eggs to share at the hangar.

To other advisors: Never underestimate the power of long-term relationships. The connections we build with our Fellows and their families are the bedrock of transformation. HFFI isn’t just a program—it’s a life-changer. Miranda will be sorely missed next year. But thanks to the Harbor Freight Fellowship Initiative, Habitat for Aviation, BETA Technologies, and EAA Chapter 613, she’s off to soar.

Beth White

Education Possibilitarian, Artist, Writer, Doula, Mentor, Aviatrix, Breast Cancer Survivor, Pilot-in-Command at Habitat for Aviation


In the spring of 2022, Beth White emerged from a 10-month battle with breast cancer with an idea: to create an apprenticeship program at Franklin County State Airport where youth work alongside adult mentors servicing conventional and electric aircraft. A pilot and airplane mechanic apprentice herself, and with family roots in the trades, Habitat for Aviation provides an taxilane for world learning opportunities for youth and adults who love to work with their hands to enter the FAA’s apprenticeship certification track. Each day she puts systems in place that make real John Dewey’s philosophy that we “learn best what we live” – a deep throughline from her time at Antioch University New England and as Regional Director for Big Picture Learning. Each learning experience is grounded in relationships, relevance, and practice. In October, 2023, Habitat for Aviation launched its Women Build Planes program, where an all-female team of Modern Day Rosies is building an airplane at Franklin County Airport, in northwestern Vermont, to show folks everywhere that despite the fact that only 2.6% of airplane mechanics are female, women BUILD, FLY, and FIX airplanes.

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Emma Cornett’s Flight Path to Avionics