Olivia Allen first caught the flying bug when she was just a kid.

“My uncle was a air traffic controller in Elkhart, Indiana,” Allen explained. “They had a Young Eagles event. The pilot asked me if I wanted to be up front and so I was in a co-pilot seat and he let me take the controls a little bit and feel around, and it was just amazing.”

Allen later decided to make her love of flight into a career, choosing Vincennes University as the place to study.

“I kind of flip-flopped back and forth between what I wanted to do,” Allen said. “And then I thought back on how much I loved that flight. And I really decided, you know, this is what I want to do; this is what I’m meant to do.”

There was just one obstacle in her path to becoming a pilot.

“Because I’m deaf, born deaf with a cochlear impant, they were worried that I wouldn’t be able to hear the controls,” Allen shared.

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