AFMC Command News

Transition Assistance Program manager exemplifies all three AFMC education initiatives: YoCCAF, YoCE and now, YoGrad

  • Published
  • By Amy Rollins
  • Skywrighter Staff
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  David Bourgeois, a community readiness specialist and subject matter expert in the Transition Assistance Program at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base's Airman and Family Readiness Center, exemplifies every level of Air Force Materiel Command's three-year education initiative: He holds two Community College of the Air Force degrees, as emphasized in 2011, AFMC's Year of the CCAF; he continues to engage in pursuing further education, as emphasized in 2012, the Year of Continuing Education; and he just completed his master's degree in business administration, as emphasized in 2013, the Year of the Graduate.

AFMC rolled out a plan for the "Year of the Graduate" Jan. 1, 2013; it recognizes those who have completed degrees during this three-phase education campaign while still emphasizing continuing education across the command.

Bourgeois is part of some impressive AFMC statistics. YoCCAF efforts resulted in 1,685 graduates at AFMC bases, the most in the history of the command. The number of AFMC's enlisted Airmen with a CCAF degree went from 24 percent to nearly 30 percent in just one year -- more than double the command's goal of a 10 percent increase. With the Year of Continuing Education, the command achieved another 10 percent overall increase, this time at all levels of education, rather than just CCAF degrees.

'Where I grew up, you worked in a factory'
Bourgeois joined the Air Force in 1989 with the intention of taking advantage of some of the educational opportunities and resources. Mission requirements, deployments and supporting deployments -- Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm -- slowed him from pursuing his education as vigorously as he might have his first enlistment, so when he started his second enlistment, he set a firm goal of earning a CCAF degree in munitions systems technology.

"That starting the ball rolling, and from there, momentum started to build," Bourgeois said.

Through Park University, he began pursuing a bachelor's degree in social psychology while stationed at Hill AFB, Utah. He continued classes at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and then, after PCS'ing to Malmstrom AFB, Mont., completed his degree in 2003 -- seven years after starting it. A year before, he'd completed a second CCAF degree in mental health.

He was finally getting somewhere with his education, he acknowledged.

"Education is important to me," Bourgeois said. "Where I grew up in Connecticut, there was a blue collar mindset. The expectation was you'd graduate from high school and work in a factory.

"Based on my circumstances back then, I didn't have the discipline, the time or the money to go to school. That's one of the reasons I joined the service. A supervisor told me, 'Eventually, your rank goes away but your education always stays with you.' That always stuck with me."

He began his MBA at Indiana Wesleyan University in May 2010 after retiring from active duty, graduating in May 2012. A few months later, he pursued a master's certificate in project management through Villanova University, completing it in January this year.

With two careers under his belt, he's thinking of a third: becoming a college or university professor, and perhaps pursuing a Ph.D.

Handling obstacles
Don't allow a situation to become a barrier to whatever your education goals might be, Bourgeois advised. "There are opportunities out there: Pell grants, Montgomery or Post-9/11 GI benefits."

Having a CCAF degree will help military members better perform their job or meet career goals; a bachelor's degree will help with personal and professional career goals, too, he said.

"I believe education is an investment worth making. The feeling of walking down the aisle, after achieving a goal as significant as a CCAF degree or a bachelor's degree or master's degree, the feeling of accomplishment definitely will have an effect on your confidence level," he said.

"If your goal is education, you can come up with creative ways to achieve that goal through taking CLEP and DANTES exams, through taking general courses through a community college, then focus on your other classes at a main campus. Be creative," Bourgeois said.