Rounding third and heading for home
Senior vice president for the Detroit Tigers baseball franchise gives himself a masters degree is administrative leadership as a 40th birthday present.
The Motor City may be 1070 miles from Norman, but that hardly matters for Duane McLean, senior vice president of business operations for the Detroit Tigers. McLean, OU Master’s of Liberal Students student, has traversed Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri over Internet and Telephone wires to be one class away from graduation.
“I have been impressed by how easy it’s been to complete the program entirely from Detroit,” he said. “As much as I’d like to be able to visit, my schedule hasn’t permitted it, but in terms of being able to balance my education, it’s worked out really well.”
His degree, however, has not always been so tantalizingly within reach. McLean had a baseball scholarship to the University of Wisconsin - Parkside and after completing his four years of school and eligibility, it was necessary to find a job. “I wanted to continue my education but I didn’t have the financial wherewithall to do so,” he said.
On his 40th birthday two years ago, while working as senior vice president of business operations for the Seattle Seahawks football organization, McLean made a decision. He chose to apply to the OU Liberal Studies master’s program in administrative leadership. “I treated myself to that birthday present,” he said. “I just wanted to do it for myself. I felt it was important, at least it was important to me, and it was important that I emphasize to my kids that education was important. Regardless of how long it takes, there is always time.”
He did some research online, spoke with college staff, and felt comfortable that OU was an institution from which he would be proud to graduate. The hardest part of the application process for McLean was writing the admissions essay. He said he was out of the paper-writing mindset for so long that was given a second opportunity to rewrite his paper, and he did much better.
“After I got back in the swing of it, [the program] progressively got easier for me. I believe there is a certain skill set mindset where you are in school, and I had been away from it for so long that it took me a while to get back into it,” he said.
“Many of the tings that I have learned [and] many of the class I have taken broadened my perspective on things that I do everyday in a leadership position,” he said. “is found something useful [in] everyday class I have taken that I can apply to my current job.”
Along with new skills came a new appreciation for the process of learning, McLean added, maturing from the view he held in his twenties. He enjoys lessons more and gets more out of them that he did when he was younger.
“Everybody has their own reasons for wanting to continue their education," said McLean. "In my case, it wasn’t necessarily for economic benefit or career advancement. I wasn’t to continue my education for myself because I never had a chance to do that. That’s the mindset I had and the goal I had in mind, and I am one class away.”
McLean is set to graduate in December.
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