Owen Joly joined ASH in Grade 9 and quickly discovered the value of its flexible learning pathways. Supported by teachers who encouraged his passion, he explored skydiving after a tandem jump for his 16th birthday—and never looked back. By graduation, he had turned his interest into a career plan. Now a certified indoor skydiving instructor with nearly 400 jumps, Owen credits ASH for giving him the space to dream big and prepare a solid plan B. His advice? Follow what you love—because true fulfillment isn’t about money, it’s about doing what brings you joy.

 

 

I came in at the start of grade 9 after spending 4 years at Rijnlands Lyceum in Oegstgeest. I did a mix of IB, AP and the High School Diploma. What is one of the most valuable things that you took from your time at ASH? I would really recommend students to take advantage of the diverse way of learning in terms of being able to take many different subjects from 3 different learning pathways (IB, AP, High School Diploma). How did ASH help shape your path in life? To be completely honest, I was lucky enough to find my passion and realized quite early on that it was possible to turn into a career. ASH set me up nicely for having a plan B  in case skydiving didn't work out!

 

 

There are a couple stand-out people from my time at ASH. Guest speaker Mike Smith was the first speaker that I was really able to connect with, understand, and learn from. A couple of my teachers (Mr Brand, Mr Hotham, Claire, CJ, Mr Kealy & Mrs Laskowski) all took interest in my passion and allowed me to incorporate it into quite a lot of assignments. They were also all teachers that understood some of my struggles and could therefore really help, as well as helping me explore other opportunities in life once graduating from high school.

 

 

My gap year after ASH has now actually turned into my future career!

 

I found my passion when I did a tandem skydive summer of 2021 for my 16th birthday. It was initially just that classic bucket list item that I had always wanted to do. I ended up really liking it, so I decided to “dive” into the world of skydiving to understand if it was something I could do. Over the following two years, I got a part-time job in between school and spent as much time as I could learning the ins and outs of jumping and wind tunnel flying. I got my first of 5 licenses, worked for 5 weeks at Skydive Texel as a trainee and learned how to become a wind tunnel flyer (indoor skydiving). I really started to think about “life after ASH” at the start of my Grade 12 year (2023-2024). It was then that concept of turning skydiving into a career slowly became more and more feasible.

 

During my senior year, I was able to work again at SkydiveTexel as a trainee, and finished school and took my final exams. I used the downtime over last summer and fall to make my plans and figure out my next steps. I reached out to the boss of the wind tunnel I had been flying at to explore the idea of working there as an instructor. As of 3 weeks ago, I have been working at City Skydive wind tunnel in Utrecht, completing my instructor training and passing my instructor exam.

 

Over these last 3 years, I found my passion and made a plan to follow it: I've worked 3 different jobs, I have 369 skydives, 29 of them being in a wingsuit, 1 from a hot air balloon. I've achieved 4/5 skydiving and wind tunnel licenses and I'm now a qualified indoor skydive wind tunnel instructor. While living and working on Texel, I learned how to live alone, learned what it is like to work full time, and learned to live in shared accommodation. My next step is to move to Utrecht, keep on working part-time, and take every open shift with the idea of becoming full-time at the first opportunity.

 

My ending piece of advice to students is to try not to place focus on whether your field of interest or passion pays well, because that won’t define your happiness. Think more about, is this what I want to do with my life, and do I genuinely enjoy doing this? When you keep this mindset, you will find the perfect path for you.