Women Dominate in Crown Circle
Five educators are the latest inductees to Civil Air
Patrol’s National Congress Crown Circle for Aerospace
Education Leadership, a select group of leaders in the field of
aerospace education.
The
five were honored earlier this month in Cincinnati (OH) at the
National Congress on Aviation and Space Education, which is
sponsored each year by CAP and the U.S. Air Force. The inductees
were Ann Grimm of Colorado Springs, director of education for Estes
Rockets and Cox Aviation; Judith Wehn of Wright-Patterson AFB,
Ohio, director of educational programming for the United States Air
Force Museum; Dale Eash of Nashville, an aircraft maintenance
technology teacher at McGavock Comprehensive High School; Alfred
Hulstrunk of Rexford, N.Y., special projects coordinator for the
Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville, N.Y. and Kaye Ebelt
of Missoula, Mont., who was named this year’s A. Scott
Crossfield Aerospace Education Teacher of the Year.
Established in 1979, the Crown Circle for Aerospace Education
Leadership is the highest award presented by the National Congress
each year. "The Crown Circle award winners are the crown jewels of
education in this country," said pioneer aviator A. Scott
Crossfield, who was on hand for the induction.
Grimm, a private pilot, first brought her
passion for aerospace into the classroom as an elementary school
science teacher in the early 1970s. She went on to become a
National Eisenhower Lead Science Teacher and mentored other
educators developing aerospace programs. In her current position
with Estes Rockets and Cox Aviation, she presents workshops to
thousands of students each year. Grimm, who called the Crown Circle
award "a career highlight," also works with more than 900 volunteer
workshop leaders who in turn go on to teach more than 8,000 new
teachers a hands-on aviation and model rocketry curriculum each
year.
Wehn has created a partnership between the Air
Force Museum and the National Education Association’s "Read
Across America" program, linking aviation stories with aircraft on
display. She has also created "discovery" programs tied to
aviation events, including the World War I Dawn Patrol Rendezvous
and a three-day kite festival. Wehn developed an aerospace educator
workshop in conjunction with the University of Dayton and has also
helped develop adult course in aviation history. Under her
direction, the museum has grown to offer nearly 12,000 programs,
reaching more than 80,000 visitors.
Ebelt introduced her students to aviation and
aerospace subjects even during her early career in elementary and
middle school classrooms. After earning her own private
pilot’s license, Ebelt joined Civil Air Patrol and
transferred her teaching skills to a new role as director of
aerospace education for the Montana Wing. Ebelt has now worked in
aerospace education for more than a decade, giving presentations to
students and teachers throughout Montana. In 2001, the Montana
Aeronautics Division named Ebelt the Aviation Educator of the Year.
This year, she was additionally honored as the A. Scott Crossfield
Aerospace Education Teacher of the Year.
Eash was originally an industrial arts teacher
who became interested in airframe and powerplant repair. As a
result, he became Tennessee’s only aircraft maintenance
technology teacher. Today he continues to teach at McGavock
Comprehensive High School in Nashville (TN), where his program
includes FAA-authorized training in aircraft repair and prepares
students for aerospace careers.
Hulstrunk was for ten years the producer of a
television program on basic science, Science Adventures.
He later worked with the NASA Space Mobile program and became a
director and research scientist with Atmospheric Sciences Research
Center, where he managed the Cloud Physics Laboratory and flew
weather modification research flights. Today he continues to coach
teachers, CAP units and students.