HONOR DUTY RESPECT - The Citadel

A DEGREE TOSUCCESSThe clock strikes 5:00 p.m. just as the weekly videoteleconference with our West Coast customer concludes.It has been a long, demanding day, but it is not yet over.Class begins in an hour. I shut down the computer in myoffice, grab my briefcase with the homework and textbooksfor tonight’s class, Decision and Risk Analysis, and makemy way to the Lowcountry Graduate Center in NorthCharleston. For more than two years I have been takinggraduate classes in the evening while working full time,but accepting the challenge of enrolling in The Citadel’smaster’s degree program in project management has beena rewarding decision that I am glad I made.Project management is an internationally recognizedand rapidly growing occupation. In 2008, an AndersonEconomic Group study determined that approximately 1.2million project management jobs will be filled annually on aglobal scale through 2016.As a professional in the defense industry, which isprimarily project management based, I was interested inlearning more about formal project management and intriguedto hear about the technical project managementcurriculum. I enrolled in the program in the fall of 2008with the intention of taking only the introductory Surveyof Project Management Principles, which would completemy requirements for the Project Management Professional(PMP) certification, a credential that would help mesignificantly in my line of work. But the first class was soeye-opening that I enrolled in the three project managementclasses that followed.By Scott PriceAs a student of the technical project managementprogram, I found myself to be both unique and fortunate.The timing of the classes being developed and offeredworked perfectly with my plan for personal growth anddevelopment. One of the instructors remarked that manyof his students from this program were recognized at workand earned promotions. My interest was piqued even more.As a program analyst working with project managersperforming installation services for the U.S. Navy, Iused project management principles at work every day.Although I was already familiar with the processes, I wasonly beginning to understand the project managementactivities on a larger scale. These classes were flexibleenough to allow me to grasp the formal course material byrelating the assigned homework to my work and puttingthem into a context that benefitted my learning.Project management is a vast occupation, with localapplications that range from designing the Arthur RavenelJr. Bridge to building a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I found thecourse material and instruction to be so valuable that therewas no question of stopping after the first class. I continuedthe curriculum and completed the technical projectmanagement certification. Within the year, I was planningto take the project management professional exam. Tomake sure I was well prepared, I joined a few other studentsfrom the graduate program to form a study group. Notsurprisingly, we approached it like a project with scheduledmilestones. We then set individual target dates for takingthe exam, which I passed in September 2010, achievingProject Management Professional certification.During this time, Professors Keith Plemmons and CharlesSkipper, both of the School of Engineering, had beenworking together to create the new Master of Science inProject Management degree. The accredited program wasdesigned so that the four technical project managementclasses required for the TPM certificate would serve as thecore courses of the graduate degree. I had wanted to geta master’s degree, and suddenly I was already 40 percentinto a master’s curriculum that I not only enjoyed but alsofound tremendously valuable in my line of work.When I formally applied to The Citadel Graduate Collegeto continue my academic path, I enrolled in the first oftwo leadership classes. Shortly before returning to school,I had earned a promotion to a deputy program managerposition. The leadership classes could not have come at abetter time. The course material focused on the studentas well as on understanding other people and how leadersare developed.I was so inspired that I scrutinized my own leadershipabilities to find out where I needed to improve. The workin the project management classes challenged me to growand develop myself professionally, while the leadershipclasses challenged me to grow and develop personally.20