Calli Colvin has been flying since 17 and now brings her high flying prowess to Northeastern, where she’s carving out her own lane with a self-crafted major and newly formed flight club.
At Northeastern, with tens of thousands of students from around the world, flying to and from one of the university’s 13 global campuses is not unusual.
However, it’s rare that students fly themselves.
Calli Colvin, who is studying computer science and film production at Northeastern, begins every semester by flying eight hours from Texas to Boston. It helps that she’s been flying planes longer than she’s had her driver’s license, which she’s only had for one year.
“Flying a plane, I love,” says Colvin. “Driving terrifies me.”
Since she started flying at 17, the legal minimum to obtain a private pilot’s license, Colvin has obtained her private pilot license and multi-engine license. She is currently working on her commercial license, which would allow her to fly for hire.
To say flying is a lifelong passion would be an understatement for someone who has been going to airports just to watch planes take off since she was in elementary school.
“When I was 5, I used to make wishes on shooting stars all the time. When I was 7 and I became more conscious, I realized that they were planes,” Colvin says. “The idea that something can get closer to the sky and have this view above but also be seen from below, that really fascinated me.”
The high-flying dreamer that Colvin is in the skies exists on the ground too. Her other passions in life –– coding and film –– led her to enter uncharted waters at Northeastern, developing her own computer science and film production major.
While the combination might seem strange at first, Colvin says there are actually a lot of similarities that have helped her think about her dream of a career in film in new ways. It certainly helps that artificial intelligence is increasingly part of the filmmaking process, creating more bridges between tech and the arts.
“Knowing how to use those tools –– and knowing how they can be used to your full advantage –– as a director in this industry is definitely something that’s helpful going forward as I launch my career,” Colvin says.
Her love for film goes back almost as far as her passion for planes. Colvin is currently working in Los Angeles as a production co-op for Ralph, a film marketing agency that works with the likes of Apple and Disney. She still has aims to direct a feature film, a dream she’s had since she first toured the Warner Bros. lot as a teenager.
“It’s such a cliché, but I was like, ‘One day I’m going to make a movie here,’” Colvin says.
However, Colvin’s first love is still flight. She still recalls the feeling she had the first time she took to the skies. Flying out of Houston, Colvin’s instructor turned to her mid-flight and stunned her by giving Colvin control of the plane.
“It felt very surreal to be able to look out and you’re 2,000 feet in the air and you can see these little people in their cars,” Colvin says. “The sun was setting, and it was so serene. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before.”
“It just felt right,” she adds. “I felt the plane, and it felt almost like a piece of me.”
Now, Colvin wants to share that passion. She is working to create an aviation club at Northeastern that would help students through the licensing process and provide opportunities for group flights at local airports. The club is still getting off the ground, with plans to officially launch by the end of the spring 2025 semester.
“We have a really great community of people who want to bond over this thing and want to find ways to pursue this really fun, interesting hobby that can bring people together in a really great way,” Colvin says.