![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Shalyn-Drake.jpg\")
Shalyn Drake earned the Rookie of the Year Award. Before\njoining USU\u2019s faculty as a lecturer in 2022, she spent the majority of her\ncareer as a high school English teacher and an avid drone enthusiast. Drake\nstarted a drone class at Farmington High School to share her passion for flying\ndrones with the students there. Her dedication to education extended beyond her\nown classroom as teachers from various parts of the state visited her drone\nclass to learn and gain the confidence to teach drones in their schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reflecting on her journey, Drake said: “I’ve always\nloved teaching because I love seeing what my students can do. But when those\nstudents are adults and other teachers? It honestly makes it that much\nsweeter.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She helps lead the only Federal Aviation\nAdministration-certified drone program in the state and recently led workshops\nthat got 40 donated drone kits into the hands of teachers in Southern Utah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShalyn is the main reason our concurrent enrollment classes\nin aviation are so successful,\u201d said Shawn Barstow, head of the Aggie Drone\nAcademy. \u201cShe is one of the most selfless people I know. She\u2019s been teaching\naviation for such a short time but has influenced hundreds of students,\nteachers and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Baron-Wesermann.jpg\")
Andreas \u201cBaron\u201d Wesemann, USU Aviation Technology associate\ndepartment head, was honored with the Colonel Gail Halvorsen Lifetime\nAchievement Award. The designation is given to an individual with 20 or more\nyears of aviation experience and presented by the foundation that bears\nHalvorsen\u2019s name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wesemann is a graduate of the United States Air Force\nAcademy and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and served in the U.S. Air\nForce and the Civil Air Patrol for over 41 years. He began teaching at Utah\nState 12 years ago. Wesemann is renowned for greeting people with a wide smile,\nfirm handshake, and the question, \u201cHave you ever been interested in aviation?\u201d\nHis passion for aviation is infectious, and he uses every opportunity to ignite\nthat same spark in others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2018, Wesemann had the opportunity to interview Col. Gail\nHalvorsen \u2014 widely known as the Berlin Candy Bomber \u2014 onstage during an event\nat Utah State University, where they shared a warm and caring demeanor, Air\nForce careers, and a passion for aviation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halvorsen was most famous for his role in the Berlin Airlift\nafter Soviet forces blockaded railway, road, and water access to areas of\nBerlin following World War II. At the start of the Cold War, shelter, warmth\nand food were scarce in Berlin. Halvorsen\u2019s small act of kindness, when he\nshared a few sticks of chewing gum with hungry children near the airfield, grew\ninto \u201cOperation Little Vittles\u201d that over many months delivered 21 tons of\ncandy via tiny parachutes into the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halvorsen passed away in 2022 at age 101, and Wesemann is\nproud to be the inaugural recipient of the award named in honor of the\nUtah-born aviation icon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have been blessed by numerous mentors, friends, and\norganizations that have helped me achieve my dream of becoming an aviation\nprofessional,\u201d Wesemann said. \u201cNow it is my turn to serve and pay it forward to\nthe next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bruce Miller, the head of USU\u2019s Aviation Technology\nDepartment, noted the balanced nature of the recognitions. “Shalyn earned\nthis award at the beginning of her time at USU, and Andreas is in the prime of\nhis,” Miller said. “We are fortunate to have these two faculty\nmembers in USU’s Aviation Technology program who are deserving of recognition\nat a statewide level for their exceptional contributions to aviation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Each year, the Utah Department of Transportation\u2019s Aeronautics Division honors five individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the state\u2019s aviation industry. This year, two of those award winners are faculty members in Utah State University\u2019s Department of Aviation Technology. Shalyn Drake earned the Rookie of the Year Award. Before joining USU\u2019s faculty as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation-education","category-utah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26216,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26213\/revisions\/26216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}