WEBVTT

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education never ends . And so it's it's

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not just a one and done kind of um life

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event . It's a lifelong exercise , your

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mind just like you do your body stay

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healthy . You gotta you gotta learn and

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continue to learn instead of just one

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class and done . Right ? So lifelong

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journey of education , lifelong

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learning , right ?

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Hey welcome . This is uh I'm Chief

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Xander Gamble . We're here on past the

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word I've got as our guest today .

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We've got Sergeant Major Mike Hensley ,

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the command senior enlisted leader of

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the United States Naval Community

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College . And we're going to talk about

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your story today . We're gonna talk

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about um you know how you know the the

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education that you joined with and then

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where you are with your own education

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today . So with that tell us when you

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first joined the marines , what was

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your education level ? So when I first

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joined the Marine Corps in 1994 had A G .

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D . So I had a general education

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diploma . Um And part of that I had

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been I had went to regular school up

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until the third grade . Uh Starting

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with fourth grade on I was homeschooled .

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But when I came to Marine Corps I had a

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G . E . D . And I start my G . D .

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Today and you you proudly display your

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G . E . D . On your wall . I do very

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much so it hangs up on my wall right

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right behind my computer . And uh

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anybody that comes by my office you can

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see it and if they ask to see it , I

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will gladly show it to them . And but

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that's not the education level you have

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today right ? Because you've taken your

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G . E . D . Your general education

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degree and you've built on that . Right ?

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So talk to me how

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how many degrees have you earned as a

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marine ? So currently I have three

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degrees . I have an associates of

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Bachelor's and Master's degrees . All

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completed online . 100% asynchronous .

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So currently so three degrees at this

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time . And what are those degrees in ?

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So my Associates is in General Studies

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because I wasn't really sure like what

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I want to go into . So I took a General

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Studies Associates Bachelors and

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masters are both in organizational

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leadership . Okay . And can you talk a

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little bit about what what exactly is

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your organizational leadership degree ?

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Um So the two are Masters of science

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and organizers have uh just focuses on

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uh plethora o of of topics everything

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from business to um logistics

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to just human resources to um you know

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even uh equal opportunity and other

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related topics . So kind of a broad

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view across all topics that would go

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into being in a leadership position in

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an organization . Okay . But you

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haven't stopped right because we talked

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about that that lifelong journey of

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education , you haven't stopped which

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means that you're still working past

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that masters degree . What's what what

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degree are you working on right now ?

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So currently I'm enrolled in an

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educational doctorate a PhD in

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education , doctorate . Um Actually

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that with leadership . So education ,

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doctorate in order leadership with a

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trend towards learning with digital

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technology and what made you want to go

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for that , what made you want to go for

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the doctorate of education in

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organizational leadership . So someone

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was just a continuation of leadership ,

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but really when I sat down with the

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school counselor similar to our

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students success team , um they asked

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me like why did I want to go back to my

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doctor and I did and the reasons why um

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and the examples of why , and then they

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came back and said , hey , we got a

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great program for you and we think this

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falls directly in line with what you

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want to do um and how you view

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education and they said we think it

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would be great for the educational

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doctorate in world leadership with a

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trend towards the technology . Here's

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what the description of it , I read it

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and it was exactly what I was looking

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at was looking for . And it's kind of

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like Ben parallel with your career ,

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right ? Because not only are you the c

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cell here at the Command Senior

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enlisted leader here at U . S . Naval

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Community College , but before here you

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were a C cell for another college .

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Right ? So so yeah , prior to his job ,

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I was the uh sorry measure for

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education Command University . So my

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boss uh when I left was , you know ,

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field and for that was general bars Ron .

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Um but they were ultimately responsible

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for every educational aspect in record ,

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but also enlisted . Um but it was a

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great job , a lot of my time there and

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I love my job here . And would you say

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that it's been easy to get your degree

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on active duty ? Uh No it's not , has

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not been , is it is a journey that

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requires significant uh self investment

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and time with an ultimate goal of you

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know , continuing lifelong learning but

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also achieving degrees and it's better

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than myself along the way . Right . And

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and before you were in the command ,

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like start a major type career field ,

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you were , you were infantry , which

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means it was even harder for you to

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earn your degree , Can you talk a

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little bit about that ? So so very much

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so so prior to like technology and

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other things coming to an end to play ,

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it was very hard for combat arms , for

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infantry , individuals , marines . Um

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and there's pockets of sailors to that

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have issues because they don't have

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connectivity or they didn't have the

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availability um to earn degrees . Um so

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it was very hard the process of being

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in the entry and go into the field for

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training or later for two weeks or

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later for three weeks or go on

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deployment uh kind of create a very

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hard atmosphere . Um I sometimes a

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glass ceiling , you really couldn't do

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a degree or seek higher education

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because it would significant interfere

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with your work , right ? But now , I

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mean with the advent of online

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education and uh the naval community

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college and all these different

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opportunities , it's easier today than

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when you first started . Um Not much

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easier day when you when you talk about

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online education and a singer's

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environment , you can do your education

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on a friday saturday or sunday . And

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even now with the program I'm in for my

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my educational doctorate , I have due

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dates . Um but there's no like I am not

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required to log on a specific night

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because a singer's environment allows

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me to kind of do it at my pace based

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off of my schedule . Um I just have to

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have a self discipline and time

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management to do it . So how do you

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think that your education would differ

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if you were back to going back to being

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Lance corporal Hensley again . Um how

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would your educational journey differ

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with our new naval community college

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program ? So with the naval college

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programs and actually can talk about

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this one . Pretty good because I also

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have a son who is enrolled in the Naval

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Community College and another son who

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wants to finishes his central pipeline .

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He also started the program um with

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much encouragement from his father . Um

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but even my son who he's a corporal in

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the Marine Corps . Um He does training ,

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he does his work and he does all this

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other stuff to include things like rock

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climbing and all these kind of things .

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But he does he also finds time because

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the time is available when you can base

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your educational over your schedule

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instead of the schedule , telling you

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what you have to do . It just provides

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a lot more a lot more opportunity and

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it fits well and nestles well into the

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military lifestyle . So I mean that's

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great . So we've got our command senior

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enlisted leader sergeant Major Mike

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Hensley here has started off as an

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infantry marine with his G . E . D .

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And has taken time to get his associate

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in general Studies , his bachelor's and

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master's in organizational leadership

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and his currently working on his

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doctorate in education in

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organizational leadership um experience

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as the SAR Major of M . C . U . And now

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the Naval Community College . And he's

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he's out there all about that lifelong

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journey of education and has has

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uh strongly convinced his his

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two sons that are both in the Marine

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Corps to also sign up for the U . S .

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Naval Community College to pursue

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education uh In addition to their to

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their duties . Thank you very much for

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coming on . And you know we look

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forward to having you on again . Well

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thank you and I hope everybody has a

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great day