Taking
FLIGHT A Pilot’s Journey to Academic Success, Earning His Doctorate and Empowering Fellow Aviators Written by Whitney Holeman Branch
As children, we are often asked the clichéd, yet exciting, question: What do you want to be when you grow up? Many dream of becoming teachers, doctors, or athletes. Although the majority of us ultimately stray from these starstudded roles as our perspectives and aspirations shift through adolescence and adulthood, Dr. Brian Sajdak never second-guessed what he would be.
32 | College of Business and Economic Development
PRE-FLIGHT CHECK While growing up in a suburb northwest of Chicago, Illinois, Brian and his family would drive past O’Hare International Airport and Midway Airport on their way to see his grandparents. As he watched the planes take flight, he knew at the ripe age of five he would become a pilot one day. Every plan was set in place to achieve his childhood dream. In 1989, Brian started his undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois, where he was a student at the Institute of Aviation. After that, Graduate School was always the next stop on his itinerary. Brian revved up the dot matrix printer and compiled 120 application packets to mail to every institution he could find in magazines with an aviation program and graduate school. The odds were in his favor when he received several responses. Northwestern State University (NSU) in Natchitoches, Louisiana, rose to the top of the list. NSU’s Master of Education program enthralled him, and they had an aviation program. He knew this path would help him achieve his goal to operate a training department for a major airline company in addition to his career as a pilot.