Utah State's Aviation Faculty Honored With Statewide Awards

Each year, the Utah Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics Division honors five individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the state’s aviation industry. This year, two of those award winners are faculty members in Utah State University’s Department of Aviation Technology.

Shalyn Drake earned the Rookie of the Year Award. Before joining USU’s faculty as a lecturer in 2022, she spent the majority of her career as a high school English teacher and an avid drone enthusiast. Drake started a drone class at Farmington High School to share her passion for flying drones with the students there. Her dedication to education extended beyond her own classroom as teachers from various parts of the state visited her drone class to learn and gain the confidence to teach drones in their schools.

Reflecting on her journey, Drake said: "I've always loved teaching because I love seeing what my students can do. But when those students are adults and other teachers? It honestly makes it that much sweeter."

She helps lead the only Federal Aviation Administration-certified drone program in the state and recently led workshops that got 40 donated drone kits into the hands of teachers in Southern Utah.

“Shalyn is the main reason our concurrent enrollment classes in aviation are so successful,” said Shawn Barstow, head of the Aggie Drone Academy. “She is one of the most selfless people I know. She’s been teaching aviation for such a short time but has influenced hundreds of students, teachers and friends.”

Andreas “Baron” Wesemann, USU Aviation Technology associate department head, was honored with the Colonel Gail Halvorsen Lifetime Achievement Award. The designation is given to an individual with 20 or more years of aviation experience and presented by the foundation that bears Halvorsen’s name.

Wesemann is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and served in the U.S. Air Force and the Civil Air Patrol for over 41 years. He began teaching at Utah State 12 years ago. Wesemann is renowned for greeting people with a wide smile, firm handshake, and the question, “Have you ever been interested in aviation?” His passion for aviation is infectious, and he uses every opportunity to ignite that same spark in others.

In 2018, Wesemann had the opportunity to interview Col. Gail Halvorsen — widely known as the Berlin Candy Bomber — onstage during an event at Utah State University, where they shared a warm and caring demeanor, Air Force careers, and a passion for aviation.

Halvorsen was most famous for his role in the Berlin Airlift after Soviet forces blockaded railway, road, and water access to areas of Berlin following World War II. At the start of the Cold War, shelter, warmth and food were scarce in Berlin. Halvorsen’s small act of kindness, when he shared a few sticks of chewing gum with hungry children near the airfield, grew into “Operation Little Vittles” that over many months delivered 21 tons of candy via tiny parachutes into the city.

Halvorsen passed away in 2022 at age 101, and Wesemann is proud to be the inaugural recipient of the award named in honor of the Utah-born aviation icon.

“I have been blessed by numerous mentors, friends, and organizations that have helped me achieve my dream of becoming an aviation professional,” Wesemann said. “Now it is my turn to serve and pay it forward to the next generation.”

Bruce Miller, the head of USU’s Aviation Technology Department, noted the balanced nature of the recognitions. "Shalyn earned this award at the beginning of her time at USU, and Andreas is in the prime of his," Miller said. "We are fortunate to have these two faculty members in USU's Aviation Technology program who are deserving of recognition at a statewide level for their exceptional contributions to aviation."