The five-day Aerospace Career Education (ACE) camp to promote diversity in the airlines and aerospace industries kicks off on Monday, offering teens opportunities to experience operating a flight simulator, visit a Hawaiian Airlines hangar and take a discovery flight at Barbers Point Flight School.

The nonprofit Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals is bringing its camp, the first of its kind, to Honolulu for 13- to 18-year-olds.

“My hope is to see kids’ eyes light up when they see what’s available to them,” said OBAP member Thomas Witts, who is organizing the ACE camp and program.

Witts said he has flown airplanes for the majority of his life and affectionately refers to his career as a pilot as, “a labor of love.” He hopes the camp will help children find careers they can be similarly passionate about.

OBAP was created in 1976 when Ben Thomas, an African American pilot, convened 37 African American pilots in Chicago to organize efforts that would introduce and educate youth and young adults to find successful careers in aviation.

At the time, they called themselves the Organization of Black Airline Pilots, and they made up 50% of the African American pilots in the industry.

Since then, OBAP has worked to maintain accountability and awareness of discrimination of minorities employed in the U.S. aerospace industry, according to the organization’s website.

In 1992, the Federal Aviation Administration partnered with OBAP to support its two existing ACE programs at the time. Now, there are 35 ACE programs throughout the U.S., the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and they have hosted more than 30,000 youth participants.

Honolulu’s ACE program is open to people of all ethnic backgrounds, and its incoming class is expected to have a diverse range of students, Witts said.

The week will begin at the Hawaii Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, where OBAP will introduce the program and guest speakers will discuss different types of aviation, he said.

Participants will spend the second day at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, where they will have the opportunity to operate a flight simulator and learn how to prepare and execute a flight plan.

The third day will include a tour of a Hawaiian Airlines airplane hangar where students can experience flight attendant training and slide down an airplane’s emergency slide.

The teen participants will view and learn about aircraft such as the C-17 and an F-22 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-­Hickam on their fourth day.

And on the final day, they will tour the Barbers Point control tower before taking what Witts suspects will be the week’s most exciting activity, a discovery flight with Barbers Point Flight School instructors.

This year’s camp is nearly full, but those who are interested in participating are still invited to submit applications, Witts said.

While OBAP is interested in holding the program in Honolulu again next year, it will decide after this year’s camp is completed and evaluated, he said.

Those who are interested in applying for the ACE program should contact the Honolulu ACE Academy on the OBAP website. Academy fees are $100 per student, but waivers are available on a first-come, first-serve basis, to students who meet certain requirements.

Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.