The Civil Air Patrol, the volunteer auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, provides leadership training, aerospace education, and aviation experiences to young people nationwide. At Northwest Yeshiva High School, Cadet Senior Airman Bella Harvey is one of the students in the program.

Among her most memorable experiences is flying a Cessna on one of her flights. Cadets get hands-on instruction under the guidance of a pilot, giving them control of the plane.

“Once you’re in the air, it’s like, okay, then the instructor takes his hand off the wheel….Here’s the dials, here’s what you look at, and then you just kind of fly around.” Harvey said, “I like flying planes, and it’s fun.”

Harvey first became interested after her brother joined the organization several years ago. She wasn’t old enough to participate at the time, but she attended his introductory meeting and decided she would join as soon as possible.

“My brother got me interested in the military because he was really interested in it,” Harvey said. She attended her brother’s interview, and ever since then, she’s wanted to join.

Meetings take place weekly and combine both structured drills and educational components. Harvey described the schedule and activities in detail.

“It happens every Tuesday for a few hours,” she said. “You do lots of drills, then you have a class or two. We do some things about space, and we do some work with someone from the army.”

Harvey said that advancing in rank can be challenging and that earning promotions often takes time.

“My drill test kept getting postponed. ‘Yeah, we will do it next time,’ ‘not enough time,’ that happened for a few months,” she said. Still, Harvey continues attending weekly meetings and flight opportunities through Civil Air Patrol.