Aerospace Education Council Update: February 2024 

February 29, 2024   |   By Stephen Gourley

Let’s talk money. The AFA Warfare Symposium, held Feb. 12-14 at the Gaylord Rockies in Aurora, Colo., had nearly 20,000 registrants—more than three times 2023 numbers—and  exhibitor space was sold out! This is great news for the health and welfare of our Association, but more specifically, our education programs.

The AFA Warfare Symposium, coupled with our Air, Space & Cyber Conference in September, are a significant portion of our National revenue, which underwrites our grants and some key scholarships, and supplements our STEM programs. Both conferences are tremendous professional development (“education”) events for our Airmen and Guardians, in addition to burnishing the image and value of AFA.

If you have never been to one of these events, I highly encourage you to experience the excitement and sense the significance of attendance to the Department we ardently promote. More importantly, it will convince you to recommend attendance to government and industry representatives, and even the interested public, thereby encouraging growth in the professionalism of enlisted, officer, and DAF civilians, the understanding of Air and Space Force missions, and AFA’s goals. The long-term health of our education programs depends on the continued success of these conferences.

Finally, I would be remiss not to mention the impending National Finals for CyberPatriot, which are being held March 16-18. This event is the culmination of a year-long effort by the CyberPatriot staff of our AFA STEM Program Office, as well as the spirited competition among more than 5,000 middle and high school teams. Registration already is open for next academic year’s competition. CyberCamp registration also is open for summer sessions, an excellent means to recruit new teams and grow this important STEM program. For more details, visit www.uscyberpatriot.org.

Your AFA Education Council never rests! Check out these excellent articles from our latest AEC newsletter:

Go forth and do good things!

Stephen K. Gourley

Vice Chair of the Board, Education

Education Calendar