If there’s one skill that Molly Choma can credit directly to her education at Cal Poly, it’s definitely talking while walking backwards.

“As a Poly Rep, I’m used to making announcements while walking backwards,” she laughed, “Even walking backwards down an aisle.”

Choma is a 2008 Applied Art and Design graduate and one of a greatly reduced number of flight attendants still reporting to work as scheduled during COVID-19 pandemic.

She was recently featured in a New York Times article, highlighting the flight attendants and pilots who have chosen to keep working.

“I can only speak for why I’m still doing it,” she said. “My gut tells me to be here.”

Choma is currently working for Alaska Airlines, based out of San Francisco. Her job is at once exactly the same as it’s always been, she explained, while also feeling completely different. She went from working flights full of business travelers and vacationers, to showing up to nearly empty flights transporting just a few people.

Those travelers, for the most part, Choma said, are on that plane because they need to be traveling, not because they want to be. She’s flown with doctors and nurses headed to hotspots, relatives on their way to say last goodbyes, and foreign nationals who are finally able to go home.

 

Choma, who grew up in the Bay Area, ended up at Cal Poly the way many alumni do — she got in.

“I always tell people I went to Cal Poly because I got in,” she said jokingly. “It was my number one school because I knew I wanted to study art but at the same time I didn’t apply to any school that didn’t have a football team. I wanted that classic college experience.”

Choma got the most out of that college experience, becoming a Poly Rep, taking part in study abroad in Thailand, and yes, she did go to a few football games.

Being a Poly Rep throughout her time at Cal Poly supercharged Choma’s enthusiasm for everything Mustangs — and her ability to connect with people.

“My favorite part of being a Poly Rep was being around people who were completely different from me but with the same amount of energy,” she said.

“I love CP,” she added. “Anytime someone says their kid is considering Cal Poly I say GO TO CAL POLY.”

Choma graduated from Cal Poly in 2008, right into the middle of a recession. Looking at a bleak job market, Choma, whose mother was a flight attendant for 20 years, applied to Virgin America.

“I wouldn’t change anything about the education I received at Cal Poly,” Choma said, “but I needed a break from looking at a screen all day.”

She thrived in the job almost immediately and found that the Learn by Doing attitude of jumping in immediately and just getting things done applied to her new career.

“The problem-solving that I learned at Cal Poly was so easy to apply to being a flight attendant,” Choma said. “I didn’t realize how much of that I learned in the art department until I started this job.”

 

After a few years as a flight attendant, Choma moved on to Virgin America headquarters to work as a graphic designer and photographer. There she received recognition for her photo series #TheSecretLifeofVirgins, documenting the behind the scenes moments of Virgin America employees at work, and discovered that her first passion is photography.

With enough money saved up for a professional camera, Choma set off for the friendly skies once more. The flexible hours of a flight attendant served as the perfect backdrop for her newest venture — Molly Choma Photography.

Since she started her photography business in 2013, Choma has traveled to the Winter Olympics as the official photographer for Olympic Bobsled, traveled to Malawai for the Malawi Children’s Mission and taken contracts to photograph some of the largest events in the Bay Area.

It was the cancelation of those events that really drove home the reality of the COVID-19 crisis to Choma as she boarded her last full flight, taking off from Boston on March 15.

“It was chaotic and tense,” she said. “No one knew they were going to be on that flight even a week prior.”

We’re all stressed out for a lot of reasons and we don’t know what’s going to happen a week or a month from now. What I’m trying to do through my photos is explain how that feels — that empty uncertainty.

Molly Choma

Art & Design , '08

Choma worked that flight while looking at an entirely different future for her photography business.

“All of my spring photo shoots had just been canceled and it hits you in a certain way,” she said. “You kind of lose some air in your lungs without falling.”

Returning to her home base after that last “normal” flight, Choma worked through some indecision and uncertainty before ultimately deciding to keep flying. Many of her colleagues can’t or don’t want to fly for various reasons, she said.  Young and healthy and with no dependents, Choma threw her hat in the ring.

“I felt the need to step up,” she said, “To just do it.”

From full flights to large jets seating only 10-15 people, all wearing masks and gloves, the scene at 35,000 feet has certainly changed.

Choma decided to document the current state of flying and turned her lens to empty aisles, flight attendants in masks and hauntingly still airports.

Her photos caught the attention of the New York Times, which just hired her as a freelance photographer.

“We’re all stressed out for a lot of reasons and we don’t know what’s going to happen a week or a month from now.” Choma said. “What I’m trying to do through my photos is explain how that feels — that empty uncertainty.”

Choma doesn’t know what the future of flying or photography holds for her. For now, she’s thankful to be able to be there for travelers when they need it most.

“I really appreciate it now when people get on the plane and say ‘thank you showing up to work today,’” Choma said. “It’s what we do.”

 

See more of Molly Choma's work on her instagram @mollychoma or at mollychoma.com.