For more than two decades, Charlie Robertson flew everything from propeller-driven passenger planes to jet-engine tankers for the U.S. Air Force. While the direct flying experience added thousands of hours to his cockpit time, he always sought other types of learning to keep his piloting skills in top form.
“I have been in a learning mode—taking courses, going to school—most of my life,” said Robertson. “When you're a pilot and you change airplanes, you have a whole new list of things to learn. The same is true when you want to expand your skills in other areas.”
Today, Robertson is a leader in a university program gearing up to launch one of the nation's first doctoral offerings in aviation studies. As a longtime pilot, he cherishes the opportunity to share his cockpit expertise with up-and-coming students. However, he also values how his Capella education is helping him shape future leaders who may never earn a pilot's license.
When Robertson left the military in 1988, he moved across town from Grand Forks Air Force Base to the University of North Dakota, where he embarked on a second career teaching in the school's aviation program.
Though he had earned a master's degree during military service in Europe, Robertson knew the lack of a doctoral degree would hinder his long-term prospects.
Despite full access to a traditional university campus, Robertson was drawn to online education options that would allow him to maintain his teaching career while he worked toward a doctoral degree. A deciding factor in choosing Capella University was the way he could integrate key life experience into his academic program.
“For the first time in my life, I had found an education program I would thoroughly enjoy,” said Robertson. “I could see how it would allow me to apply my aviation and military background, while improving my skills as a teacher and administrator.”
For example, when he started his PhD program, the aviation program at the University of North Dakota was struggling with how to balance hands-on flight training with industry research. When Robertson took a Capella course on social change, it provided the creative spark that helped him break down barriers between key stakeholders on the issue. As a result, he said, the aviation program now generates more research projects than any other academic unit at the university.
“The Capella PhD program has already been very important to my career, because it has helped me move our department toward more aviation research,” Robertson said. “In the bigger picture, that research has helped me reach a much broader audience than I could otherwise touch in a classroom.”