The CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education (CIDER) trains students from all academic disciplines at UCSC to use aerial drones for research and work applications and to obtain their FAA commercial drone pilot's certification. CIDER is committed to ensuring greater diversity in the historically non-diverse aviation industry by paying all our student participants for every hour they're in the program - ensuring that they don't have to choose between working or gaining this valuable skill set. We know that hiring managers place great weight on extracurricular experience when reviewing resumes and interviewing. Our program participants are extremely diverse and are routinely placed in paid internships and hired by companies using and developing drones. But this commitment to pay our students is expensive! Each student participating in the program receives $1000 over two quarters, so we're limited in the number we can accept. With additional funding we can support more students. Thank you for considering us for your support!
