SJI Hawks

Dressed in black jumpsuits with maple leaf patches on their shoulders, the Canadian SkyHawk team filled the breakfast area in the Stoney Creek Hotel at 7:30 a.m. on the first morning on my SJI training. I casually ate with my peers while attempting to study for our daily Sports Checks, but the SkyHawks team continued to pop up in our conversation. We read about the men who jumped out of planes in the Columbia Missourian, recited lines of Invictus for an upcoming quiz and tested each other on the facts of the team as we piled in the cars on the way to the Missouri Journalism School. Upon further research, I learned that the SkyHawks plan to perform five times this Memorial Day weekend, and each individual serves as a member of the Canadian military. In an interview with The Missourian, Capt. Andrew Spencer, a member of the SkyHawks, described his experience on the team as an opportunity to represent something larger than himself. "I feel like we're standing on the shoulders of giants and with every jump we're representing 45 years of dedication,” Thompson said in his interview. Although we have yet to be asked a question about the SkyHawks during our training, I’ve learned over the past 48 hours that students in SJI must be prepared for anything. --Shannon Scovel