Jaspreet Singh graduated from the Henry W. Bloch School of Management in December 2015 with an eye toward the sky. His dream was of an airline industry career on the business side and an interest in designing experiences for travelers on the personal side.

Since graduation, this 2015 Student Entrepreneur of the Year has been traveling around the world with his job at United Airlines accomplishing many of his goals. When we wrote about Singh before graduation, he said college inspired him to push himself and to be the best version of himself that he can be.

“It has motivated me to expand my network and get out of my comfort zone and focus on personal and professional goals,” he said.

So, we decided to check in with Singh and see how far he’s pushed himself. It turns out, that he’s been accomplishing quite a bit in spite of the travel restrictions caused by the pandemic. He wrote a children’s book, Aya and Avi's Airplane Adventure. He's also been named by Tripadvisor as one of eight Asian-American influencers to follow.

Singh is an award-winning airline industry passenger experience professional with experience across product marketing, pricing and revenue management, e-commerce and digital marketing. Writing the book was separate from his job. His goal is to inspire the next generation of aviators through diversity and representation by allowing the kids of today to see themselves represented in aviation.

“The idea for the book was born as a quarantine side project in my free time and took me about a year to do,” Singh said.

Professionally, Singh said the pandemic forced him to use the entrepreneurial mindset instilled in him during his studies and in his day-to-day life by learning how to pivot and think more innovatively.

“Times within the aviation and travel sector were tough, but this required a shift in thinking and prioritization to operate like a start up.”

Personally, Singh said the pandemic allowed him to reprioritize and be grateful for all of the experiences, friends and family that have led him to this point and the value of being your true authentic self every day.

“It’s also allowed me to reflect on personal goals and ways to give back, which is one of the reasons I started writing this book – to help give back to the future of aviation by inspiring the next generation of aviators.”

A study done by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center found that nine times more children’s books were written annually about talking animals than featuring an LGBTQ character; and three times more books than with Asian American Pacific Islander characters, according to Singh. He said books with talking animals accounted for more books than all underrepresented minority groups combined.  

“Growing up I never saw anyone like myself represented in children’s books and always wished I had something I could relate to,” Singh said. “Ultimately instead of waiting around for someone to write it, I decided to go ahead and just do it! I wanted to write a book that captured my lifelong interest of aviation with diversity and representation of characters from many backgrounds and ethnicities, including LGBTQ characters.”

The book is currently available on Amazon. Singh partnered with a third party to complete the illustrations. He has also secured a charity partnership through an organization named Rainbow Railroad where a portion of profits from every book sold are donated to help LGBT individuals living in fear of persecution, torture or murder, find a path to safety to start a new life.