William “Q” Turnley IV is a senior mechanical engineering major at Tuskegee University from Indianapolis, Indiana. He comes from a single parent household and is the eldest of 9 siblings. William loves being active, so he played sports a lot of his life, including basketball, soccer, and football. William graduated from North Central High School with honors. While in college he has been an active member of Rebuild Tuskegee, Student Government Association, National Society of Black Engineers, and more. He will be the first in his family to graduate college. He is projected to graduate Magna Cum Laude.

     William first got interested in flying when he was 16 years old. At first, all he could think about was being an engineer. His father and him were having a conversation about career choices. That is when his Dad just started naming off careers. One of the choices was to be a pilot. His eyes lit up like a star with the idea because he never thought of an African America being a pilot. Whenever his father and him would fly, all the pilots he encountered were Caucasian, so he never gave it any thought. He already was fascinated with traveling and the best way to travel is to fly. It was then that William decided that he wanted to be a pilot.

     It was not until William found the Red Tail Scholarship Foundation that he could pursue his dream of being a pilot. Due to financial hardships, it was impossible to pay for flight training. Now that he is on the scholarship, William is actively pursuing his private pilot certificate. Right now, he is working on cross country flights, and he just completed his first solo flight. It has been an exhilarating experience for him to be walking in the footsteps of the original Tuskegee Airmen.