At six years old, Jesus Gallegos had the opportunity to sit in the captain’s seat of a Boeing 737 while travelling from Ontario, California to Mexico City with his family. Years later, he became a captain himself at GoJet Airlines.
Gallegos grew up in Banning, California, a small, lower income community in the Inland Empire where careers in aviation often felt distant and inaccessible. He initially planned to pursue criminal justice after high school but found himself continuously drawn back to the idea of becoming a pilot.
Without family or community connections to aviation and finances presenting a major obstacle, the path to this goal was unclear – until he found California Aeronautical University.
“The biggest reason why I selected CAU was because everyone there is connected to aviation,” he explained. “No matter what you were majoring in, what your background was like, we’re all there for a similar reason.”
Gallegos explained that the support he received from CAU played a major role in helping him pursue his dream. He was able to fund a significant portion of his education with scholarships, tuition reductions, and financial aid.
“Thankfully, I had a lot of support from the financial department,” he said. “CAU helped me figure out a plan on how to actually get to my goal.”
As a first-generation student entering an entirely new environment, Gallegos admits the beginning of flight training was challenging. Through learning aviation concepts and adapting to college life away from home, he watched his peers progress through the program, which pushed him to keep moving forward.
Gallegos discovered a new level of confidence when he became a CFI.
“Everything started clicking to me when I became a flight instructor,” he explained. “That’s when I really started mastering my craft.”
His biggest advice to current students: patience.
Gallegos went on to serve in several leadership roles at CAU, including Check Instructor, Ground Instructor, and eventually Assistant Chief Flight Instructor. He later accepted a position with GoJet Airlines as a First Officer based at Chicago O’hare International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the nation.
Gallegos upgraded to Captain in January of 2026, a milestone he describes as one of the proudest moments of his career.
“It meant all my efforts finally paid off,” he said.
One of his favorite moments since upgrading came while coaching a new First Officer during training. He said he realized that he was just in that person’s spot, only a year and a half ago.
“It was a full-circle moment,” he described.
While Gallegos has built a successful aviation career, he remains connected to the community where he grew up. He still lives in Banning and works closely with Banning High School’s AVID program, which supports underrepresented and first-generation students pursuing higher education.
For Gallegos, representation matters. He hopes students from backgrounds similar to his own can see that aviation is a possibility for them too.
“It is important to show high school students that someone that comes from this background, someone that looks like you can achieve higher education and even command a commercial aircraft,” he said,
Through his involvement with AVID, some students from his community have begun pursuing aviation careers of their own, including careers in aircraft maintenance and flight.
Gallegos takes pride in connecting with passengers who share his cultural background. As the son of parents from Mexico, he says being able to communicate with Spanish-speaking passengers and represent his community in his career carries special meaning.
As a member of the United Aviate program, Gallegos is working toward his next goal: flying for United Airlines. California Aeronautical University students and instructors are eligible for United Aviate, a program that offers mentorship and provides a direct pathway to United for qualified pilots.
“Being in Aviate has given me the most stable pathway to mainline,” he says.
Gallegos credits his family for supporting him through his flight training and now aviation career. He recalls a moment where he was able to take his mom on a first-class trip to Switzerland, her first time leaving North America.
“Seeing her enjoy the fruits of my labor was really nice,” he recalled.
Looking back on his journey, if Jesus Gallegos could speak to himself on his first day of flight training at California Aeronautical University, his words would be simple:
“We made it.”
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