1月. 2, 2024
There was a time when Carson 长 thought he would have a career as a math teacher and coach, but a graduate assistantship and a fortuitous encounter at 全国网赌正规平台 changed all of that and modeled to him the impacts of the Bearcat network.
A shortened version of this story appears in the winter 2023 edition of the Northwest 校友 Magazine. View the print version of the magazine in its entirety by clicking here.
他完成了博士学位。.D. 去年夏天，我在美国大学的运筹学专业学习.S. 空军理工学院. 10月, he began work at the Pentagon 作为一个运筹学分析师 with the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force 研究与分析. He achieved both with the guidance and care of Northwest alumni Dr. 杰基和卡尔·亨宁森.
长, 格雷厄姆人, 距离密苏里州西北部的玛丽维尔大约20英里, 我在这所大学附近长大. 晚些时候, after completing his bachelor’s degree in mathematics at another institution, 长文到西北去追一个 工商管理硕士学位 and secured a graduate assistantship in the office of the dean of the 文理学院.
“I knew their education was top-notch and that it would likely provide me with a better opportunity to find a job or a career shortly thereafter,朗说. “I wasn’t entirely sold on what I wanted to do after my undergraduate degree, 所以我跟我的家人和朋友谈了谈, 西北航空公司也很有意义.”
然后, 2015年夏天的一天，在西北校区, 朗正从行政大楼走到J.W. Jones Student Union for a lunch break when he exchanged greetings with a man sitting on a bench outside the Student Union. That man was Carl Henningsen, who was visiting the campus with his wife, Jackie, a member of the 西北的基础董事会成员.
Carson 长 (left) is pictured with his doctoral advisor, Dr. Lunday布莱恩这样, outside the 空军理工学院 after defending his dissertation last August.
杰基和卡尔·亨宁森
After Carl inquired about the reasons 长 was attending Northwest and his career plans, 他们意识到他们对篮球有共同的兴趣. 朗提到他在费尔法克斯高中当教练, and Carl shared that he taught and coached in nearby Rock Port during the late 1960s. 长 also revealed he was working on his master’s degree with a hope of moving into government work specializing in operations research in Washington, D.C.
“灯当然灭了，”卡尔说. 我告诉他, ‘You really need to talk to my wife because she just spent the last 25 years in the Pentagon with the Air Force.’”
Jackie retired in 2014 after a 29-year career in the Department of Defense that included applying analysis to nuclear deterrence and conventional warfighting assessments and serving as a principal analytic advisor to five successive top Air Force leaders. 她, 太, had begun her career as a math teacher and coach before earning a doctorate degree in industrial and management systems engineering, which propelled her to the Strategic Air Command’s Office of Operations Research in Omaha, 内布拉斯加州, 然后去了五角大楼.
When Jackie returned to the Northwest campus that October for the Foundation Board’s fall meetings, she set up what she called “an informational interview” with 长 to learn more about his career interests and goals. Jackie explained the myriad opportunities 长 could pursue within the federal government
“Carson came for an interview prepared and he really impressed me,” she said. “他就是这样的人. 他很专注，很有风度.”
回顾那次会议, 长说, “她对我太好了, 那是我生命中非常特别的一段时间. 这是我永远不会忘记的.”
After 长 completed his master’s degree at Northwest in 2016, Jackie connected him with other leaders while continuing to mentor and advise him. 在堪萨斯城的Cerner工作了一段时间之后, 在Jackie的帮助下，长加入了Perduco集团, a business analytics company and defense contractor in Dayton, 俄亥俄州, 作为一个运筹学分析师. He was placed alongside military veterans and skilled analysts providing algorithm development and analytic support for a variety of Air Force and Joint organizations.
“我指导过很多人, but it was really a special joy working with Carson because he’s from Northwest and from my career field,杰基说. “I was math major; he was a math major. He was someone who really had an understanding of the path he was interested in, 这条路我已经走过了.”
然后, in the fall of 2019, 长 was selected as a SMART scholar, a program sponsored by the U.S. 国防部，帮他攻读博士学位.D. The four-year program was a stepping stone to civilian work with the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, 研究与分析.
“Sending him to the 空军理工学院 was the very best way to have him learn very quickly about the world that he was going into,杰基说.
现在他有了博士学位, 长 hopes for a broad and lengthy career in military strategy while advancing his education further. He attributes his interest in lifelong learning not only to the inspiration instilled in him by the Henningsens but the knowledge he gained at Northwest and the faculty and staff who mentored him.
“They were so good to me in getting me integrated with Northwest,朗说. “我只是感谢在场的每一个人, 当然, 院长办公室那些了不起的人. I can’t leave them out because the professional development that I received from them was just incredible. 它真的帮助了我前进.”
随着他事业的发展, 长 hopes he can do for future graduates what the Henningsens have done for him.
“这是一个特别的地方, and we want to get all those Bearcats out in the world doing great things so that people can continue to see what Northwest Missouri State produces,他说.
