After the red MET Gala carpet, it was time for some Black Ops Aviation for Lauren Sánchez Bezos, CEO of the aerial film company. Sánchez Bezos, who has also been a vocal advocate for education and learning differences, made time for a group of high school students through AOPA’s STEM aviation initiative.
The former TV anchor, now an award-winning helicopter pilot, spent the day mentoring young students, sharing her passion and expertise with minds eager to learn. From showing them the helicopter up close, most likely a Bell 429, to answering their questions and even piloting their helicopter flight, she proved to be an ideal mentor for the next generation discovering aviation.
Clearly excited to pass on the kind of knowledge she herself had long craved, the wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took to social media to share moments from the special day. She captioned the video, “The future of aviation. So grateful to the @flywithaopa STEM program for the chance to spend the day with these high schoolers. Watching them around the helicopter, full of questions and possibility. This is what it’s all about.” The enthusiastic daughter of a pilot, who flew to space with her girl gang in 2025, carved out a bold path for herself when she earned her helicopter pilot’s license in 2016 at around age 40. She went on to found Black Ops Aviation that same year, a company described as one of the first female-owned and operated aerial film and production companies.
The AOPA STEM program, meanwhile, is designed to introduce students to aviation pathways through hands-on learning, exposure to flight training, and classroom resources. As Hola noted, citing the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 5.6% of pilots are women and 6% are people of color. With the right encouragement, even the skies can begin to feel within reach. That belief in opening doors seems to extend beyond aviation.
While Lauren mentored, the Bezos family foundation donated $100 million –
The Bezos Family Foundation has also shown remarkable generosity by donating $100 million to Robin Hood, New York City’s largest and most influential poverty-fighting charity, to support early childhood education in the city. Speaking about the gift, Richard R. Buery Jr., Robin Hood’s chief executive, said, “In a world where it’s so hard to break through the noise, where even people who should be able to agree on facts can’t agree on facts, I think this is a place where we have a set of facts all aligning and pointing in one direction.”
Robin Hood plans to use the Bezos Family Foundation gift in the near term for programs serving 3-year-olds and to create new options for 2-year-olds in some neighborhoods, before eventually expanding citywide. According to The New York Times, the gift was unveiled at Robin Hood’s annual gala, one of the largest single-night fundraisers in the world. Last year, Bezos’s parents, Jacklyn and Miguel ‘Mike’ Bezos, donated a staggering $500 million to UNICEF’s Child Nutrition Fund to fight global child and maternal undernutrition.
