Chapman Awards
This page is dedicated to our Chapman Excellence in Teaching Award. We hope that you find it interesting and useful. We also hope that it inspires greater participation in the awards program, so that more of our excellent teachers can be recognized for their skills, dedication, and initiative. If there is more that we can provide to answer your questions, please feel free to contact us. Address your questions to the NEO or ANEO, whose postal addresses appear in The ENSIGN.
If you want to know more about the award itself and the process involved in selecting nominees for the award, please click here. If you need the forms for making a submittal, click here.
The Charles F. Chapman Award for Excellence in Teaching recognizes outstanding USPS instructors. Once a year, each squadron nominates one outstanding instructor to its district. The District Educational Officer forms a committee to select one nominee within their district for national judging. In the final judging, the Chapman Award Selection Group of the Instructor Development Committee recognizes the five winners who represent the organization’s most effective volunteer instructors.
As each squadron puts together its Chapman Award nomination packet, it is asked to address certain questions about the nominee's background, subject knowledge, teaching skills and style, ability to relate the courses material to the experience of the students, courses taught, etc. Squadron members are then invited to write personal letters on commendation, focusing primarily on what makes this person such an outstanding instructor. Although these letters vary widely, there are a few common threads that almost jump out at you and lead you to an appreciation of what these instructors mean to their students, their fellow members, and their squadrons.
The following few quotes reflect the tone of the comments about these winners:
"He has a genuine desire to impart knowledge to those he is teaching."
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"He makes the learning fun in a very relaxed atmosphere."
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"His enthusiasm for boating shows through in his teaching style."
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"Each time I sit in his class I learn something new."
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"He teaches with the same enthusiasm whether there are two students or 100."
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"His congenial style allows a free exchange of information and encourages participation from his class."
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"He never expressed doubt about anyone's ability to grasp difficult concepts; his genuine belief in our sure success worked like a tonic."
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"He makes effective use of teaching aids, smoothly integrating the aids into his presentation."
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"He is always ready to spend extra time outside the classroom to help students having difficulty."
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"Whenever a particularly difficult subject arose, he always seemed to have alternative ways to get his point across."
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"He adjusts the schedule and pace of the class to match the scope of student ability."
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"He has a special way of relating the course ;material to real life situations so that you remember the lesson long after the test is given."
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"Many inspired students in his basic classes have joined USPS because of him."
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"He kindled our desire to learn."
These are the attributes of an outstanding teacher. Each of these five instructors has all of these attributes and are a diverse and dedicated group of USPS members.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2010 Charles F. Chapman Award for Excellence in Teaching.
P/C Douglas S. Burdett, SN, Waterbury, D1
P/D/Lt/C Hilton B. Dickerson, AP, Dallas, D21
Lt/C Donald J. Peterson, JN, Las Vegas, D13
Lt/C William A. Ray, AP, Seattle, D16
P/C L. Shelton Sawyer, SNN, Atlanta, D17
They were honored at the 2011 Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL. Each received a recognition plaque, a gold Chapman Award lapel pin, a four-year certified instructor wallet card and had his name inscribed in a permanent Log Book kept in the Chapman Memorial Library at USPS headquarters in Raleigh. Their squadrons each received a high quality Astra IIIB sextant in a handsome wood presentation case, given in the winner's name.
These five USPS instructors have earned the respect of their peers for the dedication of their time, the transferring of knowledge and inspiring others to teach. They were selected from the 24 district nominees submitted, chosen by their DEOs from all their squadron nominees. Every year each squadron in USPS is eligible to nominate one of its instructors. Prior nominees who were not selected as one of the national winners may be re-nominated at any time as long as they are still teaching in USPS.
Congratulations to ALL the 2010 district nominees for this prestigious award.
All National Chapman Award winners are listed in this table.
P/C Douglas S. Burdett, SN, of District 1’s Waterbury Power Squadron, resides in Naugatuck, Conn. He has been a member for 19 years and has 18 merit marks. P/C Burdett teaches Cruise Planning, Marine Electronics, Junior Navigation and parts of the ABC and The Squadron Boating Course. He engages his students using hands-on teaching aids and demonstrations to help them with the technical subjects. He discusses the course material and then allows the students to voice experiences relevant to the subject. P/C Burdett also introduced the use of ‘Skype’ into the classroom so that year-round cruising members had the advantage of classroom instruction while still on their boat.
USPS salutes one of its best—P/C Douglas S. Burdett, SN—Chapman Award winner for the 2010 educational year.
P/D/Lt/C Hilton B. Dickerson, AP, of District 21’s Dallas Sail & Power Squadron, resides in Carrollton, Tex. He has been a member for 15 years and has 14 merit marks. P/D/Lt/C Dickerson currently teaches Advanced Piloting, The Squadron Boating Course and ABC and previously the Boat Smart course. He is best known for his patience with his students, never rushing to complete a section and taking time to use an alternative explanation of a subject for the students who did not understand the first explanation. His students are prepared academically and emotionally for the next course.
USPS salutes one of its best—P/D/Lt/C Hilton B. Dickerson, AP—Chapman Award winner for the 2010 educational year.
Lt/C Donald J. Peterson, JN, of District 13’s Las Vegas Power Squadron, resides in Las Vegas, Nev. He has been a member for 18 years and has 7 merit marks. He teaches Advanced Piloting, Piloting and Seamanship. For the piloting courses Lt/C Peterson carefully reviews the course material in the classroom and then challenges his students with on-the-water exercises to put the concepts into action. With this training his students develop the confidence to use what they learned in the classroom.
USPS salutes one of its best—Lt/C Donald J. Peterson, JN—Chapman Award winner for the 2010 educational year.
Lt/C William A. Ray, AP, of District 16’s Seattle Sail & Power Squadron, resides in Edmonds, Wash. He has been a member for 9 years and has 8 merit marks. He teaches Seamanship, Weather and Engine Maintenance. Lt/C Ray is enthusiastic about the courses he teaches. If necessary he adjusts his lectures to meet his students’ needs or adds additional material. Field trips to a NOAA weather office for the Weather Course or a boat’s engine room for Engine Maintenance are part of Lt/C Ray’s teaching methods.
USPS salutes one of its best—Lt/C William A. Ray, AP—Chapman Award winner for the 2010 educational year.
P/C L. Shelton Sawyer, SN, of District 17’s Atlanta Sail & Power Squadron, resides in Marietta, Ga. He has been a member for 27 years and has 23 merit marks. He teaches Junior Navigation and Navigation and has done so for over 20 years. P/C Sawyer’s goal is to teach this challenging material so that it is understood and not just memorized by the student. One of his methods is to help each student individually, either with the concepts of the course or the use of the sextant or the new computer software. He also uses his technical knowledge and experience to keep his students engaged.
USPS salutes one of its best—P/C L. Shelton Sawyer, SN—Chapman Award winner for the 2010 educational year.
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