Q&A With Retired Air Force Veteran, New Risk and Analytics Student

George Earhart is a new student in the Master of Management, Risk and Analytics (MRA) program at NC State’s Poole College of Management. Learn more about him in this brief Q&A:

Q: Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background

A: I’m a recently retired Air Force veteran, after 22 years of service. I have also been recently admitted into the Poole College of Management’s Risk and Analytics program, which I will be starting this January in the spring semester! I am looking to start a new career in the defense technology space next year.

In 2010, I found myself on my eighth deployment to Afghanistan, and unfortunately, I was catastrophically injured to the point where I didn’t know what my career would be. I spent about a year in the hospital learning how to walk again. I started going to school part-time and started working on a Bachelor’s in Intelligence Studies. After finishing my Bachelor’s, I completed a Master’s in Security Studies from East Carolina, and I finished that with a study abroad in Bosnia. Shortly after applying, I pursued an MBA at UNCW.

Q: Could you tell us more about the job you’re going to start soon?

A: I am going to be an associate director at a company called “TwoSix Technologies,” which focuses on defense innovations software technologies. I will be working on some sensor capabilities they have for weapons of mass destruction detection, as well as wearable devices for service members and some of the benefits that those could provide.

Q: The Masters in Risk Analytics is a very new program. What were some of the factors that made you think that this was the program for you?

A: After talking to the faculty early on in the process and being given access to the curriculum, I could see how I would use the course work in what I’m about to get into as well as commercially. I could see the coursework where I would learn the data analytics skills that I want to learn and get more proficient at but then have a more disciplined direction in how I use those skills with risk analytics for finance and operational risk. I’ve seen different business analytics programs with some different focus areas, but nothing like this.

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