On Saturday, 23 May 2015, nearly 2,000 visitors took part in a seminar at the Air Force Academy on Air Base 701 in Salon-de-Provence in the presence of the French Air Force’s Chief of Staff, General Denis Mercier, and Bernard Beignier, Chief Education Officer of Aix-Marseille Academy and Chancellor of the Universities, along with institutional bodies and civil and military authorities
Jointly organised by Aix-Marseille Academy and the French Air Force, this day was the opportunity for numerous secondary school students and their families to fully embrace the multiple possibilities to thrive that are offered by undertaking a career in the passionate universe of civil or military aeronautics.
This day also saw the awarding of the laureates of the 2015 Saint-Exupéry Prize for Youth with the participation of the Air Force Academy’s mentoring partners (the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation, ACSé, Fondation de France – Fondation Charles Mercier, Lions Club Salon-de-Provence, Fondation des Apprentis d’Auteuil, flying clubs, Rotary International):
– The first prize, “Youth Taking Flight”, was awarded to 3 students by General Denis Mercier, Bernard Beignier, Hélène Pichon, member of the patronage committee of the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation, and Mathilde Lerosier of the Fondation de France. This prize offers the preparation for a basic pilot’s licence.
– “The Big Jump” prize of a parachute jump in tandem was offered to 10 laureates.
– The prizes that followed allowed the winning students to carry out a “discovery” flight in a microlight or in a flying club plane.
Photographs : ©SIRPA AIR
1- From left to right, standing: Hélène Pichon, General Francis Pollet, commanding the Officer Training Schools of the French Air Force and Air Base 701, Mathilde Lerosier, General Denis Mercier, Lieutenant Colonel Christian Meucci, flight instructor and reserve officer, Agathe Blandin, 2012 laureate, Major Dominique Lagache, flight instructor and reserve officer, Maéva Bernard, 2012 laureate, Victor Imbert, 2015 laureate, Bernard Beignier, Chief Education Officer of the Aix-Marseille Academy and Chancellor of the Universities.
From left to right, kneeling: Victorien Fritz, 2014 laureate, Camille Rene, 2015 laureate, Nicolas Tigranoff, 2014 laureate, Elie Bleusse, 2015 laureate.
2- General Denis Mercier speaks to the 2015 laureates of the Saint-Exupéry Prize.
3- Lerosier and Hélène Pichon present the Saint-Exupéry “Youth Taking Flight” prize to Camille Rene.
4- A parachute jump in tandem was offered to ten laureates of the Saint-Exupéry Prize.
5- Lieutenant-Colonel Hervé de Saint-Exupéry, Officer of the French Air Force in charge of Youth and Equal Opportunity, gives a speech.
