National Project Lead the Way Engineering Teacher of the Year Natalie Campana threw a few curves at the students at the controls of Steubenville High School's flight simulator Friday, dialing up a severe storm to test their landing skills. (Photo by Linda Harris)

STEUBENVILLE — George and Janine Petrella say their daughter, Natalie Campana, has been fascinated by airplanes and flying all her life.

“When she was little, we would go on vacations and she would sit there and talk to the pilots,” her father recalled. “That’s how she became involved in aviation. One day she said, ‘I want to be a pilot,’ now she’s down here teaching aviation to students — that was one goal she set for herself — and when she sets a goal, she goes out and gets it.”

Campana, Steubenville High School’s career-technical education department head and aerospace engineering and aviation teacher, was celebrated Friday for being selected the 2025-2026 National Project Lead the Way Engineering Teacher of the Year. Students, friends, other educators and family, including her 12-year-old son, Mason, and boyfriend, Greg Ashmead, gathered in Steubenville High School’s Pugliese STEM Academy to honor Campana.

“I’ve been training for this my whole life,” a tearful Campana said. “Every science project dealt with aviation. My grandfather is a chemical engineer ,so he helped me build all my science projects (and taught me) about Newton’s law and all. My family would take me to Pittsburgh International Airport — they would shop and I would talk to USAirways pilots. My family was like, ‘Will you quit bugging them’ but I wanted to know.”

President and CEO David Dimmett said PLTW is a national nonprofit organization focused on preparing students for careers, college and lifelong success through hands-on, project-based learning connected to career and technical education. The award recognizes educators who exhibit exemplary leadership and demonstrate a commitment to expanding STEM access while empowering students to develop key transferable and technical skills.

Campana, one of more than 9,000 engineering educators working with PLTW, has more than two decades of experience in education and has spent the past 10 years with Steubenville City Schools. A Big Red alumna, she serves as the career-technical education department head and aerospace engineering and aviation teacher. She’s also taught multimedia and broadcast journalism in grades K-12 and is an adviser for the school’s Business Professionals of America chapter and is credited with establishing a comprehensive four-year PLTW-aligned AEROSTEM pathway that integrates FAA standards, college partnerships and real-world credentials for students.

“This is the Big Red family,” Campana said, looking around the room. “Everyone in this room has a part in this (award). I call them my ‘Big Red siblings’ — we all grew up together. A lot of my (students), I’ve known them since they were born. It’s a team, it’s not just one person–It’s because of the team we have all this — the team is what makes it happen.”

SCS Superintendent Melinda Young said Campana’s accolades are well deserved.

“Natalie has worked so hard,” she said. “I still remember that first day when she came in and said she wanted to do aviation, and I was like, ‘You want to take high school kids up on a plane?’ but she had it all laid out. She’s very organized, very passionate about career tech education.”

Luckily, so is the board of education and the Steubenville community. The 28,000-square-foot, $16 million STEM building was a big leap for SCS, which isn’t a big district by any means, “but we have a strong board of education, I think that’s really important,” Young said. “With their 100 percent support and community buy-in, the sky’s the limit for what we can do.”

Senior aviation students Carmen Scaffidi, Nicholas Lovato, R.J. Barr and Erin McCarthy were on hand to celebrate with their mentor: Lovato and Barr will be pursuing careers in the aviation field after graduation — Lovato in the Air Force and Barr in the Army.

“She showed us you don’t just get in a plane and fly, there’s so much preparation that no one knows about,” Barr said. “She always motivates us — she’ll get on you, but it’s because she wants you to be the best pilot you can be, the best all-around person you can be.”

Campana’s mom, Janine, said that’s not surprising.

“She’s a hard worker, her brain never shuts off,” she said. “Sometimes I’ve had to say, ‘Natalie, go to bed, shut your brain off, leave work at work.’ but she never does.”

Janine Petrella said her daughter’s always been that way, though.

“She would walk up to pilots who were sitting there waiting for their flight and just have conversations, ask them all kinds of questions. She was never shy — and she always said, ‘I’m going to be a pilot.'”

“She’s a go-getter,” her father said. “She sets her goals and goes and exceeds them. She’s just a hard worker, a very hard worker. If she sets a goal, she goes out and gets it done.”