AMA News: 2006 Scholarship Recipients-2007/04

Bufford, daughter of David and
Judy Bufford, lives in Vancouver,
Washington. She
is the recipient of
a Charles
Hampson Grant
scholarship for
$6,400 and a
scholarship from
the Weak Signals
RC Club of
$1,750.
Jessica
attended
Columbia River
High School
where she was a
member of the National Honor Society and
graduated with a 3.97 grade-point average
(out of a possible 4.0). In addition to the
Science Olympiad, her other extracurricular
activities included being the president of the
school’s chapter of the Model United
Nations, organizing trips and running
meetings. She also participated in River Art,
a school-wide art show.
A participant in the International
Baccalaureate program, Jessica was
challenged academically and took collegelevel
courses. “IB taught me time
management and prioritizing tasks because
of the heavy work load given by the
teachers.”
Active in her community, Jessica was a
leader in AWANA, an evening Bible study
program for elementary students, and
worked as a Portland Rose Festival Parade
float decorator. She worked with the
Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge Bird Fest, The
Festival of Trees, and vacation Bible school
summer camps.
She began aeromodeling as an eighthgrade
student in the Science Olympiad. “My
first model was abysmal,” wrote Jessica,
“but they soon improved with the help of the
Williamette Modelers Association (WMA)
and the mentorship of Andrew Tagliafico,
Ed Berray, John Lenderman, and Chris
Borland.”
She consistently placed in the top five in
the Regional and State Science Olympiads
between 2002 and 2006, taking first place in
the Washington State competition in 2005.
“Since that first airplane, I have learned
so much about model airplane building,”
Jessica wrote. “The whole world of
aerodynamics and the science of flight was
opened up to me in a very tangible manner.
I learned patience and fine motor skills
while I was working on building the plane,
trying to construct and put together an
airplane that would fly.”
The members of WMA helped her with
tips and guidelines to increase her flying
times. “I have attended the WMA flying
events regularly,” she wrote, “participating
in the monthly mass launch and placing in
the top three upon occasion.”
She participated in the club’s two-day
symposium that involved flying and
workshops where members shared tips and
methods with other modelers.
In preparing for Science Olympiad
competitions, Jessica was able to fly at her
school and teach other students to fly.
“Teaching was an important step for me,”
she wrote, “because it helped me learn
trimming and winding even better.”
Her coaching led to a fifth-place finish at
the regionals and a second-place finish at the
state level. In addition to Science Olympiad
models, Jessica has built catapult launch
gliders, expanding her modeling experience.
Jessica is attending Austin College in
Sherman, Texas, pursuing a degree in
international relations.
James Davis III
James “Trey” Davis was awarded a
$4,000 Charles Hampson Grant scholarship.
He is attending the University of Alabama in
Tuscaloosa where he plans to study
aeronautical engineering.
Trey was nine years old when he and his
father attended a flying event in Irvington,
Alabama, following hobby-shop owner Rob
Baker to the field. “When we got to the
Irvington field,” he wrote, “there were many
model airplanes and lots of people to
encourage my dad and me to get started in
RC flying.”
His first airplane was a SuperStar .40
ARF trainer. After weeks and hours of
work on an aircraft requiring “little
assembly,” they
went back to
Irvington field
where Fritz
Jetten trained
them to fly. One
month before his
10th birthday,
Trey soloed then
received a Tiger
II for Christmas.
Since then, other
aircraft he has
flown have
included a Sig
Hog Bipe, a World Models CAP 232, and a
33% CAP 232 from Horizon Hobby. He
has an Aero-Tech 35% Edge 540 and an
electric foamie.
Trey is a member of the Bay Area RC
club and the Azalea City RC club, both in
Mobile, Alabama. He has also joined the
West Alabama Aero Modelers in
Tuscaloosa. Most of his modeling has been
at local fields and fly-ins.
A graduate of Jackson High School in
Jackson, Alabama, Trey had a 4.02 gradepoint
average (out of a possible 4.4). During
his junior and senior years in high school,
he was active on his school newspaper, The
Aggie Journal, as an editor and graphic
designer and received awards for his work
redesigning the school newspaper.
He was a member of the National Honor
Society and received additional recognition
for advertising design and layout. In his
senior year of high school, Trey received
the Calculus A award and scored five out of
five on the national College Board AP
Calculus AB test.
Among Trey’s community activities are
operating the video projection system at
church, designing graphics and video
presentations, and operating the video
projection systems for vacation Bible
schools, distributing hygiene packs and
serving meals to homeless people in New
Orleans, and helping paint schools in New
Orleans.
He has worked as a helper to a contractor,
building and remodeling homes and has
designed brochures for a start-up business
and for a local citizens’ center.
Brittany Gillow
Brittany Gillow of Christiansburg,
Virginia, is the recipient of a Charles
Hampson Grant scholarship for $4,800. A
graduate of
Christiansburg
High School,
Brittany had a
4.18 grade-point
average (out of a
possible 4.25).
She is attending
Drexel
University in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania,
majoring in
biomedical
engineering.
Brittany was a member of the National
Honor Society, Beta Club, Quill and Scroll
Society, Women in Science, was the
treasurer of the Environmental Club, and was
in the Drama Club. She was the editor of The
Demon’s Voice, her school’s newspaper,
participated in the Science Olympiad, and
worked as the activity director’s aid at the
Port City Plantation Assisted Living facility.
Brittany attended educational summer
programs including North Carolina’s
Legislative School for Youth Leadership
Development where she received the
Howard B. Chapin Award for excellence in
leadership. She participated in North
Carolina’s School of Science and
Mathematics Summer Ventures program
where she studied abstract methods to
mathematical problem solving and
archeology.
Recreational and competitive soccer have
played a large part in Brittany’s life. She
began playing when she was seven, and at
age 14 she began refereeing youth soccer
matches and was the captain of the varsity
soccer team in high school.
She participated in the Mountain
Academic Competition Conference for three
years. “MACC involves a healthy academic
competition between local schools in an
amiable environment,” she wrote, “where
students and coaches alike may interact on a
high intellectual level. MACC has been the
highlight of my past two years in high
school, for to me MACC symbolizes a love
for academia as well as for working as a
team to achieve a common goal.”
In addition to refereeing soccer, Brittany
has worked at Ben and Jerry’s as a “scooper”
and at Sheetz in Radford, Virginia.
As a young girl, Brittany went with her
father and brother to the flying field. “When
the size of my hands caught up with my
interest in flying and I could hold the
transmitter on my own,” she wrote, “I joined
the AMA and occasionally accompanied my
father to the Wilmington Model Flying
Club’s (WMFC) site where he flew. One day
I remarked to my father there were no ‘girl’
planes, which led him to building one for
me: an old Falcon 56, complete with Disney
character co-pilots and a lilac color scheme.”
That was when Brittany tried her hand at
flying for the first time.
She became involved in the WMFCsanctioned
fly-ins, operating the concession
stand to help raise funds for the club. When
her family moved to Virginia, she joined the
Montgomery County Model Airplane Club.
The club participates in indoor flying during
the blustery winter months and she flies an
E-flite helicopter.
Brittany has experimented with rocketry,
building her own engines from scratch and
developing her own propellants.
“I crafted two types of propellant for the
engines, the first was composed of sulfur,
potassium nitrate, and charcoal, and the
second of sulfur, potassium nitrate, and
powdered sugar,” she wrote. “When tested,
the black powder failed but the white powder
worked phenomenally. I packed two more
charges using the white powder, adding an
ejection charge to the engine. During the first
launch, my rocket had a great flight, reaching
approximately 1,200 feet. However, the
ejection charge failed and the rocket took a
nosedive straight into the ground.”
She created a 3-D replication of an Edge
.40 for a CAD drafting course, after
constructing the model.
Robert Gruber
Robert “Rob” Gruber, of Atlanta,
Georgia, is the recipient of a $5,600 Charles
Hampson Grant scholarship. A graduate of
Chamblee Charter High School, Rob had a
4.16 grade-point average (out of a possible
4.34).
He was a member of several clubs
including the German club, genetics and
forensics club,
and the math
team. He
competed in the
Science
Olympiad, the
Science Fair, and
several other
building events,
winning a
number of state
and regional
awards.
Rob played
varsity baseball
and was the starting pitcher for three years.
He was also active in cross-country, the
National Honor Society, was a Beta Club
officer, and Science National Honor Society.
He participated in Relay for Life, an
overnight relay for cancer, Special Olympics,
Sheltering Arms Daycare, and the Hunger
Walk. He volunteered at the American
Cancer Society’s Bell South Classic in the
concession stand and helped with Jerry’s
Kids Shamrock Sales to raise money for
muscular dystrophy.
Rob has worked the past summers as a
proofreader for Gruber Court Reporting,
reading depositions for typing errors,
sentence structure, and punctuation. He also
tutors neighborhood children in mathematics.
Rob has been flying CL Precision
Aerobatics since he was six years old and has
represented the United States at the last three
CL World Championships. He was the 2004
Junior World Champion in CL Aerobatics
and placed second in 2002.
“The first airplane I built was a Brodak
Baby Clown,” Rob wrote. “Since then I have
built and flown a Sig Twister, a Vector 40,
two SV-11s, and three Dreadnoughts, along
with several others. I’ve built and flown
several other kinds of models recreationally,
including RC electric models, gas-powered
Free Flight models, and RC gliders.”
In addition to the World Championships,
Rob has competed in a number of prestigious
events including the King Orange
International, the Carolina Classic, the
Carolina Criterium, X-47 Flyers, and others
in the Southeast.
He attended the Fellowship of Christian
Modelers meet in Muncie, Indiana, and has
been at the Nats nearly every year since
1998. In national competition Rob was the
second-place Junior in 1998 and Junior
National Champion in 1999, 2000, and 2001.
He was the senior National Champion in
2003, 2004, and 2005.
Rob is a member of the Precision
Aerobatics Model Pilots Association
(PAMPA) and the Cobb County Sky Rebels.
He has judged at annual Sky Rebels meets
and other events including unofficial events
at the Nats.
Rob began competing in the Science
Olympiad Wright Stuff competition in the
sixth grade. He wrote, “I have built two
models for the event almost every year,
including designs by Bill Gowan and Dave
Ziegler, and flown in both regional and state
competition.” He was the state champion in
the competition in 2005.
Rob is attending Yale and majoring in
English.
Daniel Jang
Daniel Jang of Glendale, Wisconsin,
received a $6,400 Charles Hampson Grant
scholarship in addition to $1,750 from the
Weak Signals RC Club. A graduate of
Nicolet High School, Daniel was a National
Merit
Commended
student and a
National
Advance
Placement (AP)
scholar by the
end of his junior
year in high
school.
Daniel was
born in the
United States but
lived in Korea
from second through sixth grade before
moving to Indiana. In the sixth grade, Daniel
discovered RC flying.
“I have always been fascinated by flight
and the engineering behind flying
machines,” he wrote. “When I found out
about the existence of radio controlled planes
in the sixth grade after moving to the US
from Korea, I jumped right into the hobby.”
He joined a local club and attended the
meetings to learn about the hobby. “As a
youngster who didn’t speak English too well,
meeting a lot of older RC enthusiasts was
daunting at first,” he wrote, “but they were
very friendly and essential to my learning
about the hobby.”
With a mentor, Daniel built a Gentle
Lady and learned to fly. He built a PTElectric
but his family moved and he was
unable to fly the aircraft.
While researching AP help sites, Daniel
found a Web site about aerial photography.
The idea of combining a model airplane with
a digital camera fascinated him.
“The reasons I love building and flying
RC planes now extend themselves into the
challenge of putting a camera, which had to
be modified, into a relatively fragile plane. In
order for this project to succeed, I had to
isolate vibrations, lighten every item
onboard, yet make the structure stronger,
calculate the amount of current that different
propellers used, solder electronics onto the
camera, and tackle many more engineering
challenges.”
The project succeeded and Daniel wrote,
“Aerial photography with an RC plane gives
me another angle to look at the world.”
In high school, Daniel was active in
music, playing the clarinet since he was in
fifth grade. He was section leader and drum
major for the marching band and played in
the Milwaukee Symphonic Youth Orchestra
and the Solo/Ensemble contests in Indiana
and Wisconsin. He was on the math team,
participated in the Wisconsin Madison
Mathematics, Engineering, and Science
Talent Search, and placed ninth in the nation
in Mathfax. He received a perfect score on
the Mathematics Association of America
exam.
Daniel participated in the Science Fair,
the Salt of the School Club, the Academic
Decathlon, the Ultimate Frisbee League, and
was the founder and president of the Team
America Rocketry Challenge team. He was
on the tennis team and active in his church
youth group including a mission trip to Costa
Rica and spent a few hours a week tutoring
students.
Daniel is attending Massachusetts
Institute of Technology as an engineering
major.
Daniel Novak
Daniel Novak of Iowa City, Iowa, is the
recipient of a $4,000 Charles Hampson Grant
scholarship. He graduated from West High
School with a 3.352 grade-point average (out
of a possible 4.0).
Daniel has been involved in modeling
since he was eight years old, beginning with
Whitewings gliders. When he was in
elementary school his grandfather taught him
how to build rubber-powered Free Flight
models. “I was amazed that something ‘old
fashioned’ could outperform the storebought
models I was familiar with,” he
wrote.
In eighth grade Daniel joined AMA and
the Iowa City Aerohawks and learned to fly
RC using a Hangar 9 Xtra Easy trainer.
“This model has served me well,” he
wrote. “It has survived many projects from
the addition
of an
internal
drop box to
service as a
glider
launch. It
will be
tested again
with the
addition of
a set of
floats which I am designing for use in my
club’s first float fly.”
Daniel has a reputation for unusual
designs and enthusiasm for aeromodeling
among his fellow club members. “I started
designing and flying my own models a few
months after I soloed,” he wrote. “A Sopwith
Camel-esque biplane made from deli trays
followed by a triplane with a stick fuselage
were my first attempts at scratch building.”
He has also tried 3-D flight with foam and
carbon models and even some impromptu
Pylon Racing. He designed an RC sport-scale
Piper Cub, suitable for indoor or outdoor
flying, to take with him to college.
Daniel was a member of the crosscountry
and track teams in high school,
lettering in cross-country all four years. He
was elected team captain of the cross-country
team his senior year.
He began taking cello lessons in
elementary school and later played in the
high school symphony orchestra, the pit
orchestra, and in chamber ensembles. Daniel
hopes to join the orchestra at Iowa State.
He was a junior counselor at Camp
DuNord in northern Minnesota for several
years through the camp’s Leadership
Development Program. He took on the
responsibilities of a full counselor, planning
and guiding various wilderness, paddling,
and youth activities.
Volunteering in his community and
outside it has been important in Daniel’s life.
He participated in Habitat for Humanity,
helping raise funds, build homes, and
construct an office in the organization’s store
for reusable building materials.
Through Rotary he traveled with his
family to Xicotepec in the Puebla Mountains
in Mexico. They constructed a school for
children whose parents couldn’t afford to
send them to school. “It is amazing for me to
see what simple things are lacking in these
areas and realize how fortunate I’ve been,”
he wrote.
Since he was in sixth grade, Daniel
operated his own lawn-care business,
enjoying the flexible schedule and the
opportunity to work outdoors.
He also worked one summer at a
restaurant that opened near his home. In the
first week the new restaurant generated a
large number of customers for the small
group of newly trained employees and
Daniel wrote, “That week, although it was
trying, was an important experience. I now
have great respect for service workers and
understand the paramount importance of
customer satisfaction.”
Daniel is in the Honors program at Iowa
State University in pursuit of a degree in
aerospace engineering.
Christopher Poole
Christopher “Chris” Poole received a
Charles Hampson Grant scholarship for
$4,800. From
Colorado
Springs,
Colorado, he
graduated from
Coronado High
School and
ranked sixth in a
class of 380.
Chris worked
on his school
yearbook team,
serving as editorin-
chief his
junior year and
in an advisory capacity his senior year. He
taught himself to play guitar and formed a
band that took third place in his school’s
Battle of the Bands.
He is an active participant in a number of
sports. “I love physical activity,” he wrote.
“I’m constantly longboarding,
mountainboarding, snowboarding, surfing
(when I can get to a beach!), weightlifting,
and running.”
One of Chris’s greatest achievements has
been earning his private pilot’s license in a
Cessna 172, thanks to plenty of hard
studying, flight time, and practice.
He has worked in a volunteer capacity at
Starsmore Discovery center, a local nature
center. His duties have included cleaning the
building, working with guests, and assisting
staff members with the climbing wall
designed to teach kids about climbing safety.
Chris wrote an article about the facility
for a local magazine designed to attract
visitors to the center. Other volunteer
activities have included tutoring children in
reading.
Chris has worked as a ranch hand at the
Flying W. Ranch, a tourist attraction that
includes a western town, stage show, and
dinner served to 1,000 guests at a time. His
duties included staffing the parking lot,
running the refreshment stand, serving food
in the dinner line, and cleaning the entire
ranch afterward.
He also worked in a local French
restaurant after school, clearing tables,
seating patrons, and helping serve food, and
at a machine/prototype shop.
Chris’s interest in aviation has its roots in
childhood. “Flight fascinated me,” he wrote,
“and noticing my interest, my grandfather
got me an old trainer in 1994.” He wasn’t old
enough to fly it and had no one to teach him
so he began building gliders and wind-up
models.
Later Chris bought an RTF Xtra Easy
trainer, learned to fly at the local club, and
became obsessed with the hobby. He built a
Kaos .40 then began experimenting with
aerobatics and aircraft design. He built a
number of foam park flyers, completed a
biplane, and painstakingly finished it with
three layers of MonoKote fashioned into a
flame pattern.
Chris has built a micro Uproar from plans
and converted a Fokker Dr.I kit to radio
control. His biggest achievement to date has
been building a Blohm und Voss P.170: a
German bomber that never made it off the
drawing boards. The unusual aircraft features
two power plants on the wingtips and one in
the central fuselage.
“Working with a computer 3-D program,
I planned a design from the original threeview
drawing then filled it out with spars,
ribs, and stringers,” Chris wrote. “The odd
machine was completed in park flyer scale
over a long year, and was built using
traditional stick-and-tissue techniques mixed
with the advantages of modern electronic
motors and Lithium batteries. I finally flew
the contraption and to my utter joy it worked,
proving the decades-old design to be
feasible.”
Paul Bradley detailed Chris’s Blohm und
Voss project his “Small-Field Flying”
column in the October 2005 Model Aviation.
Chris is attending the University of
Arizona studying aerospace engineering. He
hopes to work in the private aerospace
industry.
Breanna Sherrow
Breanna Sherrow is the recipient of a
$4,000 Charles Hampson Grant scholarship
and was awarded a $2,200 Sig scholarship. A
graduate of Mountain View High School in
Tucson, Arizona, Breanna had a 3.9 gradepoint
average (out of a possible 4.0).
The daughter of Clay and Debbie
Sherrow,
Breanna has
grown up around
the hobby. She
began flying a
trainer when she
was seven years
old. As she
became a more
accomplished
pilot, she began
competing in
Scale Warbird
Racing
Association
(SWRA) events. She wrote, “I always liked
flying in races, but my favorite part was
when the race was over and I could do
loops, rolls, and other stunts. When I did not
race, I was a caller for my dad during
warbird and Pylon races.”
She has built a Midwest .40 trainer,
rockets, and a Big Stik 40. She has been
involved in a number of events including an
AMA Jet Rally, the Tucson Jet Rally,
SWRA and Tucson Warbird Races, and the
Tucson Aerobatic Shootout. As a contestant
she has attended several warbird races and
fun-fly events and races RC cars.
Breanna has overcome a major challenge
in her life. As an elementary student she was
evaluated, and while her mathematical skills
were far beyond those expected at her grade
level, her reading and writing proficiency
fell short. She was diagnosed with a learning
disability and received help through the
Independent Education Plan (IEP) program.
With determination and motivation
Breanna brought her skills up to grade level
more rapidly than expected but continued in
the IEP program where help was always
available. In her freshman year of high
school it was determined that she no longer
needed the program and she became quite
upset.
“I realized that the very crutches I once
needed were being taken away from me,”
she wrote. “I did not think I could survive
without them; however, I could indeed walk
without crutches and came to realize that I
could excel in school on my own.”
With determination Breanna overcame
her disability and was recognized as a
scholar of the year her freshman year, an
honor awarded to only two students from
each grade level.
Breanna was a member of SBC (Site
Based Council), an advisory committee of
students, parents, faculty, and staff. She
participated in the Distributive Education
Clubs of America (DECA), the National
Honor Society, and the Link Crew: a
transition program designed to acclimate
freshmen students to high school. She was
also a member of the Family Career
Community Leaders of America.
Breanna played volleyball throughout
high school and volunteered as the freshman
boys’ volleyball coach her senior year. At the
YMCA she ran a weeklong volleyball camp
teaching young girls the fundamentals of the
game and worked in Member Services.
She was a participant in the ZONA
Volleyball Club, a non-profit organization
that offers training and competitive
opportunities to female athletes in grades
4-12.
In her community Breanna has done
volunteer work including collecting for a
Thanksgiving food drive, Habitat for
Humanity, sports events, and tutoring.
In addition to her honors and college
preparatory classes, Breanna applied to and
began taking classes at Pima Community
College during her sophomore year, earning
24 credits. She is attending the University of
Arizona and plans to major in Family and
Consumer Sciences Education. She hopes to
teach child development and coach a varsity
volleyball program.