My name is Thomas Ye and I’m a junior at Langley High School (Virginia). I have played the violin since age 6 and have won many “Superior Ratings” for my violin performances at the Falls Church Music Festival and have received recognition from the National Federation of Music Clubs since 2016. I have participated not only at my elementary school, middle school, and high school Symphonic Orchestras, but also as a Violin I member for the American Youth String Ensemble (AYSE) for many years. In 2020, my AYSE group won the Middle School Grand Champion at the 2020 ASTA National Orchestra Festival. In 2021, I joined the Langley Freshman Orchestra in ninth grade and started working with Langley orchestra director Dr. McCormick. During my sophomore year, my music talents were recognized by the High School Honors Performance Series with the invitation to the Honors String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall (New York) in February of 2023. My high school orchestra organized musical trips that gave me additional musical experience, such as performance concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee. I was accepted into the District Honor Orchestra and earned the Langley High School Performance Art Award in 2023. For my junior year, I was accepted into Langley High School ‘s highest level class – Philharmonic Orchestra. As a member of the Philharmonic Orchestra, I participated in the 2024 District Assessments and helped Philharmonic Orchestra in earning a Superior with perfect scores in every category and retaining its Blue Ribbon status for the 16th straight year!
I also have a passion for flying; I joined the U.S. Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Cadet Program in October 2021 and immediately participated in the CAP Orientation Flight (O-Flight) program. CAP only allows cadets to have up to 5 powered aircraft O-Flights, and I completed all five O-Flight within a year and a half of joining the program. My passion for flying is very clear: despite the squadron rescheduling my 5th CAP power aircraft orientation flight four times due to bad weather, I did not give up on my goal of completing all five powered O-flights, which I accomplished in April 2023. In March 2023, I also completed my second glider flight. I also won the CAP Capt. Nick Schroder Cadet Scholarship to attend one CAP National Cadet Special Activity (NCSA) in the summer of 2024.
External to my flying passion, my CAP’s High Altitude Balloon Challenge team earned the National First Place Award in 2022, standing out as the top winner from 122 cadet teams representing all 8 regions of over 1,500 cadets, of which created over 500 science experiments. In March 2024, I also stepped up and served as Team Captain for UAS4STEM, a drone international engineering competition where students work in a team to build, program, and fly a drone. My UAS4STEM team successfully delivered the Flight Readiness Review (FRR) in front of three AMA judges and was invited to attend the final championship competition for the beginner division, which will be hosted at EAA AirVenture in July at Oshkosh, WI. To promote aerospace education, I not only gave presentations to local Boy Scouts Troops, but also represented CAP cadets as an ambassador at the 2024 Virginia State Legislative Day at VA State Capitol and National Legislative Day at the U.S. Capitol to promote Civil Air Patrol’s missions to lawmakers.
Receiving the 2024 Flying Musician Solo Program scholarship fills me with great excitement. It is a great honor to be acknowledged for all my years of dedication to my passions for music and aviation, and to have the chance to serve as an ambassador for the Flying Musician Associations (FMA) and spread awareness of these passions among the general public. I am incredibly appreciative of the scholarship donors’ generosity and FMA ambassadors’ mentorships, which will enable me to successfully prepare for and complete my solo flight this summer. Thank you for enabling me to pursue my dreams! Following my solo flight, I intend to pursue my private pilot license, as well as apply to U.S. Service Academies or ROTC programs for my senior year of high school, and finally serve my country in the same way as my brother, James, has at West Point.
