Shaesta Waiz: My name is Shaesta Waiz. I'm the founder and president of Dreams Soar, Incorporated. I'm currently flying solo around the world in a single engine Beechcraft Bonanza to help inspire the next generation of science, technology, engineering, and math professionals.
[Text: What was your childhood like?]
A little bit about my background, my family and I came from Afghanistan as refugees in 1987 during the Afghan-Soviet War. And I grew up in a family with five other sisters, so six girls at home. And I just thought to myself, I'm probably gonna get married at a young age and have a big family like my mom did. And it wasn't until I found aviation where my life completely changed.
[Text: What is your educational background?]
My educational background is quite interesting because I grew up very unmotivated. I grew up in a very underprivileged school district and I just had no passion for education. And when I found aviation, all of that changed for me. And it was because of aviation I started to take more higher advanced math courses.
[Text: Do you have any advice for middle school students]
My advice to middle school students is that no matter how far or unattainable your dreams may seem, they are very well within reach. And I remember thinking to myself that I'd love to be a pilot but it's something that girls from Afghanistan don't do. And once I got past this way of thinking and I just kind of looked at myself not as a Afghani woman, but I I looked at myself as a person who has desires, who is just equal to any person out there in the world, and is equal to those who've accomplished many great things. As I started to think that way, I started to accomplish a lot more. And my biggest advice to middle school students is that-- approach life the way pilots do, that when you're sitting in the airplane, the airplane doesn't know who you are, what your background is, but it propels you forward.
[Text: How do you get over dealing with a failure?]
One thing I've learned is with every failure, it's not really a failure. It's just a way of the universe telling you this is not the direction you're supposed to go. And instead of giving up whenever you come across failures or setbacks, just tell yourself this is not how it's supposed to be and look for another solution. Imagine for those pioneers in the past, if they would have just given up at the first sign of failure, what sort of life would we be living in.