Given Ty Corfield’s bachelor’s degree in Digital Media Production, people may be surprised to find out that he is currently enrolled in ATP Flight School in Jacksonville, Florida to pursue his pilot’s license. Although, to Corfield, he always knew travel would be a big part of his life.

“I always saw myself doing something that involved traveling, and knew that it would be people-oriented, although I wasn’t sure how to incorporate both into one career,” says Corfield.

Corfield credits his experiences at Florida State as the main inspiration for his decision to go to flight school. Professor Douglass Tatum of the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship happened to mention a recreational aircraft startup one day in his class. After that, Corfield says “subsequent conversations with former pilots inspired me to pursue the career.”

But how could a degree in Digital Media Production prepare Corfield for such a different field of work? According to him, it did quite a lot. Corfield says the classes offered by the College of Communication and Information “helped me to think critically and deliberately, and instilled in me the work ethic needed to navigate the field of aviation.”

He believes that graduating Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s degree from a prestigious university will give him a competitive edge in his new line of work.

Corfield’s new classes in flight school consist of online classes and training simulations, but soon he will be applying this knowledge to the skies.

The next steps for Corfield include marrying his high school sweetheart this April, graduating flight school next February, and spending the rest of his career “flying airplanes and traveling for a living. Pretty awesome,” Corfield says with excitement about his new path.