No matter where you travel in the world, the pilot on your next flight could very well be a graduate of Northwestern Michigan College. Ahead of NMC Aviation’s 60th anniversary next year, we sat down with six alumni to get their stories.

Josh Shivley, Class of 2014

Roots: “I have the cliché pilot story: I was the little kid who loved airplanes and I never really lost that passion,” Shivley says. By high school, he was researching aviation colleges, ultimately choosing NMC.

Wings: “I was a flight instructor [at NMC] for a couple of years, but then I flew for a company called Cape Air, which is based in Massachusetts and involved flying small twin-engine propeller planes around Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Boston,” Shivley says. From there, he moved to a Delta Airlines subsidiary called Endeavor Air, and then to a freight company where he flew 747s all over the world.

Landing Place: After a knee injury sidelined him from flying, Shivley fell back into NMC's orbit. “I was recovering from the injury and living in Traverse City, and I stopped by NMC one day and told them my situation,” he says. “And they just said, ‘Well, we’d love to bring you on [as an instructor].” While he was unable to fly for the moment, Shivley could still help out with things like ground instruction and simulator training. He loved the work, and when the college’s full-time faculty instructor retired in 2024, Shivley took the job.

Abigail Smeltzer, Class of 2014

Roots: A northern Michigan native – she grew up in Bear Lake and spent her college years working as a ski instructor at Crystal Mountain – Smeltzer knew early on she wanted to work in the travel industry. “I’d always enjoy dropping people off at the airport, and just the excitement of going to the airport and traveling to new places,” she says. Straight out of high school, she enrolled in NMC’s aviation program.

Wings: After finishing her associate's degree, Smeltzer stayed in Traverse City, doing double duty as NMC flight instructor and college student. Her dream was to fly for a major airline, and she’d been told she’d need a bachelor’s degree to be a strong candidate. “In the evening, I would take classes through Davenport University at the NMC University Center, and in the morning and afternoon, I'd earn my flight hours toward my next career step,” she explains. That hard work led to a job with Envoy Air, a subsidiary of American Airlines.

Landing Place: Flying as a captain for Envoy, Smeltzer also became a “check airman” – defined by Flying Magazine as “a pilot approved by the airline and the FAA who has the knowledge, training, experience, and demonstrated ability to evaluate and certify the knowledge and skills of other pilots.” Armed with that qualification, Smeltzer says “all the doors swung open.” She now flies for United as a first officer based out of Chicago. She's also a member of the United Airlines Ski Club, harnessing her roots as “a big ski bum” at Crystal Mountain in competitions put on by the North American Airlines Ski Federation.

Claude Hoarau, Class of 2016

Roots: Hoarau grew up in the United Kingdom with a dad who traveled regularly for work. “My mom would take me to the airport to pick him up, and we would watch the planes land and takeoff while we were waiting,” he says. The spark of wonder around aviation never faded, and by the time Hoarau was a teenager, he was flying with the British Airforce Air Training Corps, a cadet program for the British Airforce.

Wings: While pursuing an aerospace engineering degree at the University of the West of England in Bristol, Hoarau discovered NMC, which has an articulation agreement with that U.K.-based school for aviation. Starting in 2012, Hoarau spent his college summers in Traverse City, learning how to fly through NMC’s summertime Private Pilot License (PPL) program. In 2014, he relocated to the U.S. to earn his full aviation associate’s degree at NMC, graduating in 2016.

Landing Place: Since 2022, Hoarau has flown for United Airlines, serving as a Chicago-based Boeing 737 captain. “Even after two years in that role, I am still discovering new cities and types of flying,” he says. “This fleet has me flying across the U.S. into Central America and the Caribbean, and even out to Hawaii, so the range of flying is diverse.”

Chris Stothard, Class of 2020

Roots: “My interest in aviation started with my grandfather, who had a small aircraft on our farm in England,” Stothard says. “I remember flying with him from a young age, although at the time I saw aviation more as a hobby than a career.” Stothard pursued aerospace engineering at the university level, but flight soon beckoned again. “During a module focused on aircraft performance, we conducted flight tests on a Jetstream aircraft,” he explains. “I found myself far more interested in what the pilots were doing on the flight deck than the data we were meant to be collecting.”

Wings: Like Hoarau, Stothard was drawn to NMC by the aviation department’s summer PPL program, which he attended in 2016. “I enjoyed both the flying and life in Traverse City so much that I returned in 2018 full-time to complete my FAA commercial and instructor licenses, after graduating from university in the U.K.,” he says.

Job: After a few years abroad – including a stint as a flight instructor in Saudi Arabia – Stothard returned to the U.K. in 2023 and joined British Airways Cityflyer, a regional subsidiary of the broader British Airways airline. “Then, in March of this year, I transitioned to British Airways mainline and now fly the Airbus A320 as a first officer based at London Heathrow,” he says.

Brent Walters, Class of 2021

Roots: Born and raised in Traverse City – he’s a 2018 graduate of West Senior High, where he played linebacker for the Titan football team – Walters found his way into aviation thanks to a bit of motherly wisdom. “I was touring schools, and on one tour, my mom randomly scheduled a tour of an aviation program at one of them,” Walters laughs. “I thought to myself, ‘I could really see myself doing this.’”

Wings: After graduating from NMC, Walters went to work as a flight instructor for the college’s aviation department, sticking around for three years. “I learned a lot about myself as a teacher and a pilot through that work,” he says.

Landing Place: Walters now flies for Everts Air Alaska, an air carrier based in Fairbanks, Alaska. “We are an essential air service for 13 villages of interior of Alaska,” he says, with tasks that include “transporting people and goods to and from the villages.” Walters moved from Traverse City to Fairbanks last April to take the job.

Safeeya Mohammed, Class of 2021

Roots: Mohammed grew up in Abuja, Nigeria – approximately 5,900 miles away from Traverse City. Nevertheless, Mohammed’s early love for air travel put her on a path that eventually led to the Cherry Capital. “I was nine years old the first time I got on an aircraft; I was traveling to India with my parents, and I remember feeling very excited as we were about to take off,” she recalls. “I remember telling my dad then that I wanted to be a pilot.” Mohammed went on to study aerospace engineering at the University of West England in Bristol, and added pilot studies to her degree thanks to the school’s articulation agreement with NMC.

Wings: Mohammed’s 2018 summer in TC proved so formative that she ended up returning to Michigan after completing her studies in England. In 2021, she completed her associate’s degree through NMC Aviation, then stayed on as a flight instructor until early 2023.

Landing Place: After leaving NMC, Mohammed took a detour to Kissimmee, Florida before heading back to Nigeria. “I needed to get what they call a ‘type rating’ on a jet aircraft,’ she says. A type rating is an extra certification added to a pilot’s license that indicates training and proficiency on a certain type of aircraft – typically larger and more complex jets. Mohammed succeeded, earning a type rating on a Boeing 737 that prepared her for her current role as a first officer for Arik Air, a regional airline in Nigeria.

This story is an abridged version of an article that appears in the June 2026 issue of the Traverse City Business News.