Although Air Force Captain David Gaulin calls Charleston, S.C., home, he is often crisscrossing the globe. As the commander of a C-17A Globemaster aircraft and its crew, he has flown to more than 40 countries, including Vietnam, Chile, Turkey, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Among Gaulin’s notable passengers have been Donald Rumsfeld, Al Franken, and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. He has delivered Presidential limousines and an M1A1 Abrams tank.

While flying at 34,000 feet, Gaulin is also a Maxwell student, enrolled in the Master of Social Science program offered by SU’s continuing-education division and taught by Maxwell faculty members. The program is nonresidential. And it’s flexible enough to fit a range of professional and intellectual goals.

“While there are a host of online and distance-learning programs out there, this was the only one that really fit my interests in history and political and social sciences,” says Gaulin, who has a B.A. in history and political science from SU.

The M.S.Sc. program was founded more than 30 years ago—one of the first graduate-level, distance-education programs in the country. It brings an interdisciplinary ap­proach to social science, using comparative analysis in such study areas as U.S. history, developing na­tions, international relations, and war and society. Students complete 30 credits in five core areas and take part in limited campus residencies. Progress is self-paced.

The program was initially intended for secondary-level social studies teachers, says co-founder David H. Bennett, Meredith Professor of History. The liberal interdisciplinary focus and the prestige of a Maxwell degree helped the program quickly grow beyond its original scope. The M.S.Sc. now attracts government officials, military and business leaders, journalists, and other midcareer professionals. Some expect immediate career gains, but many are simply broadening their outlook. “Our students are most often in the midst of very busy lives and careers,” says Bennett. “This is the most remarkable student body we have ever had experience with.”

Gaulin can attest to this. Other students attending his first on-campus residency included military staff, two bankers, a Georgia state senator, and several educators. “It made for lively discussions,” he says. “Nowhere else would you find a group with such a variety of careers and life experiences.”

M.S.Sc. student Dainon Steiner, for example, is president of Steiner Laboratories, a biotechnology company based in Hawaii. He also was recently named a research associate for the International Network Against Cancer in Africa, and writes on the strong correlations between environmental degradation and widespread health deterioration. Through the M.S.Sc., he says, “I have discovered new ways to view global interdependency, international development, and social enterprise.”

Cindy Cooper is working on her M.S.Sc. from Germany. She typifies the program’s spirit of intellectual adventure. An avid snowboarder and skydiver, Cooper heads an organization increasing awareness and encouraging renovation of historic buildings in her new hometown, Noerd­lingen.

When her daughter began searching for colleges, Cooper decided to go back to school, too. (She has a B.A. in psychology from SU.) Now well into the M.S.Sc. program, she has applied her study of U.S. history to a discussion of immigration that was part of a neighboring village’s 1,000-year anniversary celebration. She also incorporates her M.S.Sc. study into historical tours of Noerdlingen she offers, on the theme of women and Jewish culture.

“Although I have had some practical application of my M.S.Sc. work, I really have more Confucian goals,” says Cooper. “I am participating in the program essentially for personal growth, enrichment, and enjoyment.”

As for pilot Gaulin, his post-M.S.Sc. intentions are starting to come into focus, and they evidence a Maxwellian urge to connect a lot of dots. He’ll fly for the next few years, then take a staff assignment. “I would hope to end up doing policy-related work within the Air Force,” he says. Then possibly a Ph.D. “I might someday pursue work in academia, at a think tank, or in a policy-related arm of federal government.” 

                                                                                     — Kelly Homan Rodoski