{"id":4654,"date":"2016-06-21T11:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/?p=4654"},"modified":"2016-07-15T10:31:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T15:31:58","slug":"masters-in-emergency-management-graduate-now-bomb-technician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/masters-in-emergency-management-graduate-now-bomb-technician\/","title":{"rendered":"Master\u2019s in Emergency Management Degree Boosts Career of Bomb Technician"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Grant
Grant Jongejan, Master’s in Emergency Management graduate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sergeant Grant Jongejan knew very early in his law enforcement career that he wanted to work with the bomb squad. \u201cBut you don\u2019t just start off as a bomb technician,\u201d he says. His process began when he joined the police department in Edmonton, Canada, and eventually petitioned to move to SWAT, followed by the bomb squad.<\/p>\n

If you think that working with bombs requires different skills and knowledge, you\u2019d be right. \u201cIt\u2019s a very technical field,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s heavy in science and requires lots of background studies. I had to learn chemistry, physics, and biology all over again. But I really enjoyed the science and the learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the learning doesn\u2019t end. Jongejan notes that like other forms of technology, bombs continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, requiring law enforcement to do the same.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Going for the Master\u2019s<\/h4>\n

Knowing that his chosen field requires continuous learning, he began pursuing a master\u2019s degree. \u201cI\u2019d applied for a role in nuclear response and didn\u2019t get it,\u201d he explains. \u201cI wondered if a master\u2019s would help. I looked around and saw quite a few people at that job level had master\u2019s degrees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the decision was made, he pursued his degree with gusto. While working full time, he began the Master\u2019s in Emergency Management program at Capella University in 2008 and finished in 2010, just in time for the arrival of that year\u2019s Olympic Games in Vancouver. \u201cI was working in disaster emergency applications,\u201d he says, \u201cand I was using what I had just learned.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2009, Jongejan was promoted to sergeant, and by 2012, he became a full-time bomb tech, the position he holds now. This was a position he\u2019d wanted for most of his career, and he knows his master\u2019s helped him attain it.<\/p>\n

Besides holding his dream job, he\u2019s also president of the Canadian Explosive Technician\u2019s Association<\/a> \u00a0(CETA), a national nonprofit group focused on supporting, training, and advocating for explosive experts across the country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Top Cop Award<\/h4>\n

As if he wasn\u2019t busy enough with his work, family, and leadership of CETA, Jongejan has also been a volunteer high school football coach for 20 years, an accomplishment that led to his recently being named Edmonton\u2019s top cop of 2015<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t like to just sit around,\u201d he says. The Kiwanis Club of Edmonton, which awards the honor, noted his long-time commitment to volunteering, as well as his efforts to recruit other Edmonton police department employees to volunteer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Value of Advanced Education<\/h4>\n

Would he recommend other people in criminal justice consider an advanced degree? Yes\u2014with some caveats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know people who think about it, and I tell them, \u2018Stop thinking,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cBut you have to want to do it, want to learn, not just do it for career advancement. It\u2019s a lot of work. My thought was, \u2018Hopefully it will help me in my work, but regardless, I want to do it for me.\u2019 It makes you more of an analytical thinker, and that\u2019s only going to make you a better officer or bomb technician.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Learn more about Capella\u2019s master\u2019s and doctoral <\/em>emergency management degrees<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
See graduation rates, median student debt, and other information at Capella Results<\/a>. <\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt makes you more of an analytical thinker.\u201d A Master\u2019s in Emergency Management graduate shares the value of an advanced education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":4681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[316,151],"tags":[67,318,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4654"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4658,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions\/4658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}