Tag: Education

2025 Scholarship Announcement

The Hampton Roads Chapter of the Vertical Flight Society each year typically awards three scholarships to High School Seniors in the Chapter area. These awards honor the memories and deeds of Robert Powell, Edward ‘Ed’ Austin, and Christopher Gavora. This year, the HRC chapter has chosen to award five highly qualified students who are pursuing 4-year STEM degrees. The awardees for this year’s VFS-HRC scholarships are:

Emily Paul, the daughter of Julia and Mark Paul, from Blacksburg, Virginia.

Isabelle Chao, the daughter of Jeff and Julie Chao, from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Ian Lindo, the son of Michelle Lindo, from Chesapeake, Virginia.

Cailyn Gregory, the daughter of Kristen and Matthew Gregory, from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Ryan Dereix, the son of John and Angela Dereix, from Williamsburg, Virginia.

Each of these students have shown amazing diligence to their academic pursuits, exceptional performance in sports or civic outreach, and received excellent letters of recommendations. We are proud to award these scholarships to such deserving individuals.

The Robert Powell Scholarship

The Robert Powell Scholarship was established to honor the long-time treasurer of the Hampton Roads Chapter whose stewardship of the chapter’s financial assets originally enabled the chapter’s STEM outreach program, including its scholarship fund.

The Edward ‘Ed’ Austin Scholarship

This Edward ‘Ed’ Austin Scholarship was established to honor Ed’s many years as a chapter board member in various positions from treasurer to education director. In his retirement, Ed continued to support the chapter through staffing multiple events, encouraged the public outreach of our chapter by maintaining our website, and was a huge and continued proponent of our STEM outreach program including the scholarship program.

The Christopher Gavora Scholarship

The Christopher Gavora Scholarship was established to honor the son of COL William Gavora, former Commander of the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate. Chris was killed in a tragic high school baseball practice accident shortly after his family relocated from Hampton Roads to Texas.

Education Outreach 2024

On 9 September, James Stephenson taught about weather and how it affects sound propagation at a local elementary school. Discussion was focused on how we measure weather during experiments, and how it can change the noise we hear around us, like how far away we can hear local base’s ordinance disposal or helicopters.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

VFS Education Outreach 2023-10-03

On 3Oct23, Dr. Stephenson visited Tabb Elementary School to conduct a hands-on laboratory demonstrating how vibrations produce sound. Using a slinky he demonstrated transverse (side to side) and longitudinal waves (along the spring). He talked about differences in frequency, and how large items tend to have lower pitch than smaller items. He demonstrated this concept with tuning forks, and showed how we can see the sound being produced by watching the tips of the tuning fork vibrate back and forth.
 
Students then got to break into small groups and investigate the production of sound and vibration at various stations around the room. They got to spin Sound Tubes, test tuning forks, bang on Boomwhackers, and look at patterns that appear on a Chladni plate vibrated at different frequencies. The 20-minute lesson for each class addresses Virginia SOL 1.2.

 

2022 VFS HRC Scholarship Winners

 

The Robert Powell Scholarship 

The Robert Powell Scholarship was established to honor the long-time treasurer of the Hampton Roads Chapter whose stewardship of the chapter’s financial assets originally enabled the chapter’s STEM outreach program, including its scholarship fund. The 2022 Robert Powell scholarship has been awarded to Leo Annett, the son of Mary and Martin Annett. Leo attends a York County Public School and is an exemplary scholar and leader. He has earned an excellent SAT score and GPA, while also continuing to work and volunteer. His documented perseverance has earned Leo the Robert Powell Scholarship for 2022. Leo plans to pursue a degree in Computer Science.  

The Edward ‘Ed’ Austin Scholarship 

This Edward ‘Ed’ Austin Scholarship was established to honor Ed’s many years as a chapter board member in various positions from treasurer to education director. In his retirement, Ed continued to support the chapter through staffing multiple events, encouraged the public outreach of our chapter by maintaining our website, and was a huge and continued proponent of our STEM outreach program including the scholarship program. The inaugural Edward ‘Ed’ Austin scholarship has been awarded to Juan Martinez-Medina, the son of Ana and Pedro Martinez. Juan attends a Chesapeake Public School and is an exemplary scholar who’s achieved much despite adversity. Juan intends to pursue a degree in computer engineering, where his impressive work ethic will pay off in spades. 

The Christopher Gavora Scholarship 

The Christopher Gavora Scholarship was established to honor the son of COL William Gavora, former Commander of the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate.  Chris was killed in a tragic high school baseball practice accident shortly after his family relocated from Hampton Roads to Texas.  The 2022 Christopher Gavora Scholarship has been awarded to Logan Richardson, a student in the York County Public School system.  Logan, the son of Channing and Don Richardson, is a proven scholar and school leader. As captain of 3 varsity teams, Logan has proven his leadership, while maintaining exemplary grades and scoring very well on the SAT. Logan plans to pursue a degree in Electrical Engineering.