Learning Resource Center helps service members reach professional development goals

Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Jason Vaught | Capt. Jason Donovant fields a question from a student during a Principles of Leadership class Oct. 19, 2012 at the Learning Resource Center, Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan. Donovant teaches college classes in his spare time as an instructor for the University of Maryland University College's Europe campus. He is deployed from Kirtland Air Force Base and serves as the Transit Center's Theater Security Cooperation medical program manager. The LRC recently completed a self-help renovation project to accommodate offering in-resident college classes on the Transit Center.  

TRANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, KYRGYZSTAN

10.24.2012

Story by Master Sgt. Jason Vaught 

376th Air Expeditionary Wing

TRANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, Kyrgyzstan - In a deployed environment, deciding how to spend your spare time may be a way to help achieve professional and career goals. Whether you are working toward your next promotion or taking college classes towards a degree program, a visit to the Learning Resource Center should be on your to-do list.

Members stationed at the Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan, recently added in-resident college classes to their list of opportunities here. The Transit Center LRC recently began offering the classes in partnership with the University of Maryland University College's Europe campus.

With an aim to help service members complete credits for their Community College of the Air Force degree, Master Sgt. Mark Pospischil, Transit Center test control officer, set in motion an environment for learning.

"My predecessor started the initial effort to host a UMUC satellite branch on the Transit Center," said Pospischil, who is deployed from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. "To stand up the campus here, I needed to find qualified instructors with master's degrees and locate a classroom for the students and teachers."

According to the CCAF website, airmen must complete 64 semester hours in the following areas to be awarded their degree: 24 hours of technical education, 15 hours for program electives, 15 hours in general education, six hours in leadership and four hours in physical education.

"To meet the CCAF requirements for general education it was important for the instructors to hold degrees in fields relating to math, social science, English, speech and humanities," he said. "So far, I have been successful in finding teachers for math, leadership and social science."

With a self-help project in mind, Pospichil set out to create a learning environment that would host both students and teachers.

"I was lucky to have Staff Sgt. Darrell Coleman who was motivated to help me paint the old library area of the LRC and locate dry erase boards for the classroom," said Pospischil. "We designed motivational posters that created a positive learning environment. We are trying to fashion a traditional classroom in a deployed environment."

With the classroom set, the task of finding qualified instructors was resolved by service members stationed at the Transit Center, like Capt. Jason Donovant, who teaches Principles of Leadership.

"Being able to teach here is a unique opportunity," said Donovant who is a Theater Security Cooperation division medical director. "It's an awesome opportunity to help (airmen) to complete their degree or CCAF requirements and obtain their goals while away from home station."

Airmen stationed at the Transit Center may work long days but many are still finding time to pursue their professional goals.

For more information on the Community College of the Air Force degree program, visit the Transit Center's Learning Resource Center or the CCAF website http://www.au.af.mil/au/ccaf/index.asp

• Date Taken: 10.24.2012
• Date Posted: 10.25.2012 00:31
• Story ID: 96721
• Location: TRANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, KG
• Hometown: JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, NJ, US
• Hometown: KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, NM, US