Charlie Baker will have a different kind of Spring Break this year.

“Instead of going downtown to the bars in Kent, it’ll be fun to hang out in South Beach,” said Baker, senior aviation management major.

Baker and 11 other aeronautics majors, all of whom are members of the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), will head down to tour Miami International Airport during Spring Break.

The Kent State student chapter of AAAE tries to take a trip like this every year, Baker said.

Issac Richmond Nettey, senior academic program director of aeronautics and AAAE faculty adviser, helped arrange the trip.

UPS has a large operational base at the Miami airport, and it will be interesting for the students to tour it, Nettey said.

“This hub is something that Cleveland Hopkins does not have,” he said.

Baker said students will tour the airport, and then have an opportunity to network with airport management during lunch.

“We’ll have two hours to listen to them, and they’ll have to listen to us for two hours,” he said.

The group will leave March 25 and will return March 31, Baker said. The students will stay in a hotel across from the beach and will have some free time while in South Beach.

“We’ll go find Will Smith or something,” he joked.

Kristen Pickworth, senior aviation management major and AAAE president, said the students decided on Miami because it’s so different from Cleveland Hopkins Airport.

It’s important to see how different airports operate, Pickworth said. She said the location of the trip was important.

“We wanted it to be a fun trip – it’s Spring Break and all,” she said.

Contact College of Technology reporter Holly Mueller at [email protected].