Founder Beth White’s 25-year relationship with BPL shaped her commitment to interest-driven, real-world learning that happens both inside and beyond conventional school walls. Over the past eight years, Beth served as Big Picture Learning’s Director of New England Initiatives and Regional Coordinator for the Harbor Freight Fellows Initiative, helping hundreds of young people access paid, mentored, hands-on learning and pathways into the skilled trades.

Habitat for Aviation emerged as a natural extension of this work, an out-of-school habitat where young people and adults learn through real aircraft projects, trusted relationships, and opportunities to practice. 

Big Picture Learning incubated Habitat internally before launching it as a stand-alone nonprofit, following a proven approach used to seed other initiatives, including College Unbound. This structure gave Habitat entrepreneurial focus while benefiting from Big Picture’s operational systems, coaching infrastructure, and governance expertise during our earliest stages.