Aerospace and Defense Academy

The Aerospace & Defense Academy is a unique effort made by a generous gift from the Ozmen Family Foundation. 

The Academy supports the development of a skilled workforce and fosters small business growth for the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry in Nevada. The Academy is housed under the Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Business keeping aerospace jobs on the cutting edge and providing skills education to give new graduates a leg up on winning non-technical jobs in the Aerospace & Defense Industry.  

The Academy will develop resources and business platforms to aid small and woman-owned businesses looking to support the A&D industry. Additionally, the Academy will help build a strong workforce by inspiring new career paths in A&D through programming like high school outreach initiatives. The Academy hopes to bring awareness to jobs in Aerospace & Defense that are beyond the “just” engineering, but includes program management, scheduling, finance, marketing and more.

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Academy Insights

The Academy will also host a the Academy Insights speaker series monthly to inspire current students to pursue the dynamic workforce of Aerospace & Defense. The speaker will also rotate local schools to provide real industry experts to provide insight and guidance to local students. 
Annually, the Academy will host a speaker of common interest that is open to the public.

NASA HUNCH

The Aerospace & Defense Academy has partnered with the NASA HUNCH program to bring real world experiences to Northern Nevada Middle and High Schools and will “Launch” its pilot program with three Reno Area High Schools. The Academy is open to supporting independent school and home school teams as well and will host a HUNCH Showcase each year so that area students can show off what they have learned and created.