After discovering a field ideally aligned with his career goals in emergency management, a first-year Master's in Emergency Management degree student develops the skills and confidence to pursue an internship working on the front lines of emergency response during a global pandemic.
When Master of Science in Threat and Response Management (MScTRM) student Paul Witry received an unexpected call in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic asking if he could be in St. Louis in two days, he jumped at the opportunity. He had considered interning for a Chicago-based consulting firm, but an internship on the front lines of emergency response during a global pandemic went well beyond the scope of any role imagined at the time.
“I immediately packed my bags, hopped in the car, and 48 hours later I was in meetings watching emergency management happen at the highest levels,” Witry says. “It was an unbelievable introduction to the field. To see all the knowledge and skills I’d learned during my first year in the emergency management degree program being put to use was incredible and so inspiring. There couldn’t have been better proof that emergency management was the right career track for me.”
Laying the Foundation for a Career
Having cultivated an interest in areas surrounding emergency management while in high school and college while participating in Model UN, Witry first learned of the field from a professor his senior year in college. Upon graduation, Witry began reading up on the field of emergency management and immediately saw how it would align with his career goals and compliment his degrees in political science and international studies.
“I knew I wanted to work in an area around national security, but it wasn’t until I learned about emergency management that I realized there was more to it than just emergency response,” he says. “That an entire field existed dedicated to the preparation and planning side really piqued my interest. I knew the systems and critical thinking side of my mind would click with the field.”
He chose the University of Chicago’s Master of Science in Threat and Response Management after noting how the program's strengths aligned with his career goals. From the University’s approach to engaged classroom learning to the specialization concentrations supplementing the program’s core curriculum, there was little question it would be an ideal way to lay the foundation for his career. He knew he made the right decision when he entered his first class as a student in the program.
“The ‘Foundations of Emergency Management and Homeland Security’ class resonated immediately with all my end goals for being in the program,” he says. “The instructor, Ed Buikema, has enormous amounts of knowledge from personal experience and he was able to illuminate real-world emergencies with all sorts of important insight and perspective. But I’m already looking forward to next year when I’ll be able to take elective courses in cybersecurity.
“It’s an area so integral to everything right now,” Witry continues, “and I’m eager to develop some practical skills in it.”
Making Connections for the Future
If Witry had anticipated a world-class UChicago classroom experience before starting the program, he was perhaps less prepared for how engagement with classmates would prove equally pivotal to his learning experience. Not only had members of his cohort spent years working across many areas of emergency management, they were also eager to share their experiences and knowledge with him. Even as classes moved to a remote format with the onset of COVID-19, the cohort stayed close and continued to meet online outside of class, where they discussed assignments and deepened friendships.
“While there are students in the program like me who only recently graduated from college, others have spent entire careers in the field, so the knowledge and experience they’re able to share—particularly during the sort of time we are going through—is invaluable.”
The Graham School is no longer accepting applications to the Master of Science in Threat and Response Management program in Autumn 2024. The University will take this opportunity to consider future programming in the field.
