Master Instructor Award; Instructors at SNCO Academy achieve highest tier of education

Photo By Sgt. Aaron Hostutler | Gunnery Sgt. Enrique Hernandez, the Sergeants Course staff noncommissioned officer-in-charge, at the Staff Noncommissioned Officer Academy here, received a Master Instructor Award, April 12, at Camp Hansen’s theater. He said the best part of his day is the look in a student’s eyes who has grasped a concept for the first time.  

CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, JAPAN

04.12.2011

Story by Cpl. Aaron Hostutler 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, Japan – Two instructors at the Staff Noncommissioned Officer Academy on Camp Hansen earned the academy’s highest instructor rating here April 12.

Master Sgt. John Pierce, staff noncommissioned officer-in-charge of the Career Course at the SNCO Academy, along with Gunnery Sgt. Enrique Hernandez, the SNCOIC of the Sergeants Course, received the Master Instructor Award at Camp Hansen’s theater April 12.

“First you are a basic instructor, then a senior instructor, and if you make it, master instructor,” said Pierce.

“It’s something I set my eyes on the day I got here,” Hernandez said. “Not because of the certification, but because in three years, I have only seen four people receive that award, and I’m one of them.”

The master instructor award is not given to just any instructor who walks into a classroom. The selection process is one that sifts through many good senior instructors and selects the best.

“Being an educator is a difficult job,” Pierce said. “You have to learn how many different people react and communicate, so you can understand how to reach them.”

Some components of the rigorous selection criteria are college education, quarterly evaluations and a class delivery evaluated by staff from the Enlisted Professional Military Education branch of the Marine Corps University.

“It’s definitely humbling,” said Pierce. “Some of the Marines I had as examples – Marines I really looked up to – never achieved this. So, it’s a big deal to me. I guess it’s kind of a culmination of my efforts at the academy.”

Hernandez attributes his success in reaching his students to his preparation.

“There is a lot of preparation for each class: extra hours of research, rehearsing classes, finding different ways to engage and approach the students, a lot of trial and error. I would even watch my college professors to see how they teach and learn from them."

Pierce attributes his success to his desire to truly inspire and educate future leaders in the Marine Corps.

“I can sit in front of these Marines all day spewing out information, but that doesn’t mean they will really learn anything,” Pierce said. “I try to inspire them to learn. They learn from example. If they see that I am passionate, they will want to learn. It’s contagious.”

Pierce sees his role as especially imperative because he is educating senior leaders in the Corps.

“These are staff NCO’s,” he said. “My ultimate goal is for them to leave and be educators to their Marines as well.”

Neither Marine sees receiving this award as the best part of their job. Both said there were intangible personal gains that make the job worth it for them.

For Hernandez, it’s getting through to a student.

“The best part of my day at work is when I see the wide-eyed look in a sergeant’s face who just grasped a concept for the first time,” Hernandez said.

For Pierce, it’s the interaction with the students, and what he learns from them.

“The most rewarding part is that I get to work with so many students,” he said. “I learn just as much from them as they do from me, if not more.”

• Date Taken: 04.12.2011
• Date Posted: 04.25.2011 23:20
• Story ID: 69338
• Location: CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, JP