Veteran of the Year Does It All for Country, Campus and Community

Ioana Patringenaru | November 13, 2007

Chris Halter, his son, Alex, 7, and his wife, Julie.

Chris Halter had been in the Navy for just a few years when he found himself patrolling the waters of the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War, looking for weapon smugglers. Later, he left active duty and took on a completely different challenge: he taught math to high school students for 11 years.

Halter is now a lecturer in UCSD’s Education Studies program, after earning a doctorate here last year. He also serves as mentor and volunteer for several nonprofit organizations. Wednesday, he received UCSD’s Veteran of the Year award for his achievements.

“You’ve done it all for your country, your university and your community,” Bob Beiner, the 2006 UCSD Veteran of the Year, told Halter before handing him the award during a ceremony Wednesday at the Natural Sciences building.

Upon receiving the award, Halter thanked the UCSD Veterans Association. He said the recognition took him by surprise. “I’m very appreciative and humbled by the honor,” he told the audience Wednesday.

Over the last two years, Halter juggled his responsibilities in Education Studies with a big project for the Navy, said Randall Souviney, the campus’ director of education studies, who nominated Halter for the award. Halter applied some of the skills he learned at UCSD to help the Navy develop the services it offers online, Souviney added.

“Chris is really a very special person,” Souviney said.

Halter singled Souviney out as one of the mentors who helped guide him through his life. His first mentor, he added, was his father, a 25-year Navy veteran who retired as a master chief. It took Halter a while to follow in his footsteps.

He received a Navy officer commission in 1987. He had been teaching high school for five years, but felt that he didn’t have enough life experiences to share with his students. That would soon change.

Karen Roberts Gardner, chair of the UCSD Veterans Association, and Pearl Harbor survivor Stuart Hedley.

Halter had been enlisted for just a few years when the Gulf War broke out. At the time, his ship, the USS Barbey, was already in the area for another operation. So Halter went on recognizance missions and worked to prevent weapon smuggling. He and his fellow crewmen would pull up their 15-foot boat alongside huge freighters. Then they would inspect the ships. Luckily, most merchant marine crews turned out to be hospitable.

“It was very stressful,” Halter said. “But nothing happened.”

Halter left active duty after five years, got his teaching credential and went back to teaching high school for 11 years. One of his goals was to show students that math can be fun.

“Math isn’t just about working out an equation,” he said. “Math is a way to make sense of real life.”

For example, high school administrators wanted to shrink the size of parking spots in the seniors’ parking lot. But many students had big, old cars that wouldn’t fit. So Halter’s students surveyed their classmates and calculated the average size of the students’ cars. Then they figured out the size of the parking spots needed for these cars. In the end, administrators changed their mind.

“Maybe there was some social justice going on in the classroom, Halter said.

He decided to teach high school because he felt he could really influence his students’ path in life, he said. But his impact was limited to about 170 teenagers every year. So, he applied to become a lecturer in UCSD’s education studies department, where he could work with 20 math teachers every year and, through them, reach thousands of students. He got the job a little more than seven years ago. He is now teaching future teachers how to make math fun.

Claire Hopkins, from the Office of Special Events and Protocol, performs during Wednesday's award ceremony.

Halter also works with students in UCSD’s new minors in science education and mathematics education. So far, about 65 juniors and about 65 sophomores have joined. Halter said he hopes more will come.

At UCSD, he also played a significant role in working with the UC Office of the President to design the technology behind a statewide system to assess new teachers, said Souviney, the director of education studies.
The tool, called the Performance Assessment for California Teachers, has recently been approved by the state and will be used in more than 30 California universities, Souviney also said.

Outside of UCSD, Halter volunteers for the Navy-affiliated San Diego Sea Cadets, a Boy Scout-like organization for middle school students. He also served as a mentor in a school-to-career program for children in the juvenile courts and community schools systems.  He helped teach youths about technology and computers. He said he felt these high school students could either drop out or stay in the school. “I think we gave them a reason to stay,” Halter said.

If that wasn’t enough, as a reservist, Halter was involved with large contract negotiations for the Navy. That includes port services in Great Britain and Mexico for Navy ships and replacement part for Harrier jets. Also, in the past few years, 30 of the reservists in his unit have been deployed to Iraq.

“They all came back and they all did a great job,” said Halter.

He retired from the Navy in May of this year, after 20 years, including 15 years in the reserves. He has earned two Navy Commendation medals and three Navy Achievement medals.