From a young age, senior Jillian Stachowski has been surrounded by aviation and has grown to love it. Her aunt works in the industry and sells private jets, and when Jillian was little, she’d go with her aunt to her customer dinners and ride on their private jet, which she found to be fascinating. She’s also been grateful for the many trips she’s gotten to go on, which have only added to her love of planes.
“I want to fly. I want to fly famous people around the world. I just think it’s so cool,” she said excitedly. Her goal is to fly private jets, but because of her formidable passion for becoming a pilot, she said, “I would totally do commercial, I would literally do anything, but if I had to choose, for sure private.”
Although becoming a pilot wasn’t her immediate choice, it’s always been in the back of her mind. This year she asked herself, “Ok is this really what I want to do?” and when she said yes, she started applying to colleges and scholarships. She is currently debating between Arizona State University and Utah State University, and she has plans to tour both towards the end of January and have a decision in early February. Her other career plans were to go into marketing or interior 
design and attend the Rhode Island School of Design, a dream of hers, but due to expenses and not seeing herself in those career paths, she said, “I ultimately really want to be a pilot, and I just have to know that I have to chase my dreams, even though I can be lazy sometimes.”
Over the past four years, she’s gone through a self-improvement journey that has allowed her to find enjoyment in school and be happy for herself. Freshman, sophomore, and junior years were rough for her, but she started to have hope for school during her junior year. In December of 2023, she had a wake-up call and realized what, and how she needed to change. She said, “I’m very proud of myself and I love who I am today!”
Her secret to success was not only working on herself, but,”…honestly it’s choosing classes that I chose for myself and not with my friends. Like my main immediate friends, I don’t have a single class with this year, and I chose that.” She finds that she enjoys being isolated in her schooling. Her friends aren’t necessarily a distraction, but she’s able to be a lot more productive this way. During her freshman year, she used to beg her mom to let her do online schooling after the remote learning year during the pandemic, but this year she said, “…and now my senior year I am doing amazing and I’ve grown to, not love school, but know that it has potential and it ultimately is helping me rather than hurting me.”
Jillian has stayed involved at Sahuaro by being the president of Sahuaro’s Book Club and playing on the tennis team. She joined Book Club her sophomore year when it first started and ran for president at the end of the year because she wanted to,”…try to make it a bigger thing.” She did just that, and now the club boasts a little over 30 members and stays organized and exciting.
Jillian’s been playing tennis since she was eight and took lessons in middle school at the Reffkin Tennis Center. She regrets not joining the team her freshman year because she was scared of the commitment to playing against other schools, but she’s glad she made herself join her sophomore year. Jillian said, “… I’m very very happy I did because now I love it. I look forward to tennis season.” This year, she’s looking forward to playing against the schools she played last year, and of course, her senior night.
Her days this year are packed with college and scholarship applications, but Jillian has managed to stay on top of it! She wants to stay focused for the rest of her senior year since it is now 2025, her graduating year. Amidst the chaos of senior year, she’s having a fun year full of good memories, especially with her friends.
Next time you see a plane in the sky, it might be Jillian chasing her dreams and flying high!
