Erik Maniriho’s Flight Plan: Leadership, Communication, and Transferable Skills

Erik Maniriho just completed his high school journey at Seneca High School, graduating as a model student of the Academies of Louisville. A testament to his growth, his senior year recently culminated in him serving as one of two student emcees at the 2025 Academies of Louisville celebration, where he personally greeted the Louisville mayor. 

Now, he's studying at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming a pilot. But his path to a clear, ambitious future wasn't always straight. It took the structure and support of the Academies to provide the crucial transition point and sense of belonging he needed after moving across continents.

From Uganda to Seneca

Born and raised in Uganda, Erik lived there until age 10. When his family moved to the U.S. in 2016, the culture shock was immense. Erik vividly described the transition as "kind of like jumping from a quiet dirt road into New York City traffic."

His first stop was Montana, where he spent five years. Surrounded by cows and snow, the environment was isolating. "I was the only black kid in the entire school," Erik recalled, underscoring the challenge of finding community. When the family moved again to Kentucky, he arrived at Seneca as a freshman feeling adrift. "I basically felt like the new kid in every movie ever," he noted. He needed a place to anchor himself.

That anchorage came through the Academies model. Unlike the isolation he experienced before, coming to Seneca meant connecting with family members who were already attending and, critically, meeting peers and teachers who spoke his language, making it easier to "fit in."

From "Birds" to the Cockpit

His profound ambition to fly was sparked back in Africa, where airplanes were seen as "these magical things in the sky."

"Most of us never thought we’d ever be on one," he explained.

That all changed with his first flight to the U.S. Sitting in the cabin, realizing he was inside something he once thought was a bird, was an experience that felt "unreal—like I was touching the sky for the first time." That powerful, defining moment solidified his goal: "That’s when I knew I wanted to be a pilot."

The Transition

Despite his aviation dream, Erik enrolled in Seneca’s Teaching and Learning Pathway within the Agriculture and Leadership Academy. He chose it because of his long-term plan: to one day become an aviation teacher after retiring from the cockpit, a goal that honors his high school experience.

His experiences teaching students at Goldsmith Elementary and Thomas Jefferson Middle School (TJ) proved transformative, helping him find his voice. He connected deeply with students, particularly multilingual learners at TJ, whom he was able to help in his native language. 

It was here that he had a powerful moment of belonging, when he connected with a sixth-grade student who spoke his language, only to discover later that the student's family were neighbors and old friends from Africa.

Erik credits his Academy Coach, Emily Wirtzberger, with helping him connect the dots of his future. His "best thinking," he noted, was often done on the car rides to TJ with her.

Transferable Skills and Command Presence

One day, Mrs. Wirtzberger posed a crucial question that tied his two paths together: “What if you became a pilot, and one day came back to teach aviation?”

This idea helped Erik see the profound link between his Academies experience and his ultimate career. "Looking back, I realized my four years at Seneca weren't just about schoolwork," he said. "I picked up real-life skills—things that will help me be a better adult."

He explained that the skills gained in the classroom are essential for aviation. The leadership demonstrated in his pathway experience is the same type of command presence required to manage a flight deck.

"The thing about the Leadership Academy, the name itself is leadership, and being a pilot requires leadership," Erik said.

Furthermore, his teaching experience directly prepares him for the cockpit by enabling him to clearly communicate complex instructions and maintain calm authority. These are skills honed by instructing middle school students, and they are vital for guiding a crew, training co-pilots, and leading passengers through safety procedures, which is the foundation of effective Crew Resource Management (CRM) in the airline industry.

The Academies provided Erik the supportive environment to develop these traits, turning an uncertain arrival into a clearly defined, purpose-driven future. Today, Erik is attending EKU, a testament to how the Academies of Louisville provided him the stability, mentorship, and skills needed to turn the little boy who thought planes were birds into a young man ready to fly high.