Student Senate President
Dave Zelm, 36, served in the U.S. Air Force from 2000 to 2006. Dave was working at the Pentagon on 9/11 when al-Qaeda terrorists crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the west wall of the 6.5 million-square-foot building.
During the Iraq War, he was deployed in Kirkuk, a city of 850,000 in oil-rich northeastern Iraq that became an epicenter of inter-ethnic unrest. He also served in Japan and South Korea during his time in the Air Force.
Today, Dave is earning his Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree at Inver Hills Community College with plans to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University after he graduates from Inver in 2019. His goal is to earn a Master of Science (M.S.) in Aeronautics with a minor in Small Unmanned Systems.
Dave serves as president on the Student Senate Executive Board. He is also president of Club V.A.L.O.R., a military and student veterans group.
Dave is a single father with three children, one daughter, Madelyn, 10, and two sons, Jack and Zander, ages 8 and 6. He resides in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, and when he’s not raising his children, studying, running his own aerospace business or taking part in extracurricular activities on campus, he enjoys working with drones, planes, rockets and robots as well as competing in Airsoft and playing the Dark Souls videogame series.
12 Answers
- Favorite sport or physical activity: Airsoft
- Place you would most like to visit: Okinawa
- Your national mammal if you could have one: Hyena
- Your personal motto if you had to have one: "The rules are made up and the points don't matter."
- Favorite all-time TV show: Firefly
- Favorite all-time movie: The Right Stuff
- One thing you most want to accomplish in life: Rotocraft license
- Most precious material possession: My grandfather's service revolver
- Dream occupation: I already work for myself; I can't imagine a job in the world I would want if I had to work for someone else.
- Person you would most like to meet: I don't really like celebrities - maybe Elon Musk?
- Skill you would most like to learn and master: Patience
- Most important issue or problem facing humankind: Individually: overcoming exaggerated and imagined fears, and just doing what you want.