Seth Kitchens is a senior at Illinois Valley High School and has big goals for his future! Seth has been involved with sports and after school clubs like football and JCF for years. Back when Seth was a sophomore he was introduced to the Josephine County Foundation and truly flourished in community service projects throughout his county. During his years of involvement, he has helped and completed more than 5 service projects and has attended countless volunteer events for the community. His very first project was assisting former JCF President Skyla Patton with the Dan Fiske Day of Service project back in 2014. He has also helped organize the Illinois Valley High School Campus Closet for the last two years. The Campus Closet is a place for low-income and homeless teens to go and get free clothes and food that they need. Seth has helped at multiple free visions clinics, Duck Derby’s, attended grant writing workshops, and much more through JCF!
His plan for the future is to attend the University of Oregon and study physical sciences. Recently, Seth applied for a scholarship to attend flight school here in Josephine County. In order to apply for this full scholarship you had to be a senior at Illinois Valley High School, and submit a detailed essay about how you were qualified for the flight school and why you were interested. After his essay was submitted it was reviewed by the Grants Pass Airport Board of Directors and Seth Kitchens was awarded this once in a lifetime opportunity based on his compelling essay!
This scholarship provided Seth with a course that equated to $7,000, but was completely paid for, thanks to a man named Wolf Edmonds. Wolf Edmonds, is Seth’s teacher at the flight school, and provided a repurposed WWII plane named, “Delta Victor” for Seth to use in flight school. So far he has completed 7 hours of ground school and homework. Though it is a grueling process Seth is becoming increasingly excited now that the implications of his hard work are settling in. The reason he initially applied for this program was because it was so rare for students in rural communities such as his to be offered such an exciting and enriching opportunity. It’s not every day that a student is allowed to use a personal plane and learn how to become a licensed pilot while doing so. Seth has found aviation to be a huge interest of his, and with a scholarship like the one he was offered, it brings him substantially closer to a future career.