When 1st Lt. Gordon Adams (MPPA/MBA ’14) learned last week that he had been chosen as a Presidential Management Fellow, he was covered in mud.
Adams, a commissioned officer in the Marine Corps, was at a two-week training course in Virginia when he got a text message from classmate Chris Palmer (MPPA ’14) congratulating him. He’d been outside all day, completing the fieldwork needed to become certified to coordinate air support missions and call in artillery and mortars. So while he had his cell phone with him, Adams hadn’t had a chance to check his email.
“It’s probably not the typical way PMF finalists find out about their selection,” says the Deerfield, Mass., native.
But then, Adams isn’t the typical PMF finalist.
His studies were put on hold last year when he deployed to Uganda to support the African Union Mission in Somalia. During his seven-month deployment, Adams led a team of Marines, Army and Navy personnel to train Ugandan soldiers. They were preparing the Ugandans to fight against Al Shabaab, the Somali militant group behind last year’s Kenyan shopping mall attack.
That attack was just a few weeks after Adams returned to the United States. And he started classes at the Center for Public Policy and Administration just a couple days after returning home. Since then, Adams has remained active in the Reserves while carrying a more-than-full course load.
He has distinguished himself as a student by integrating at every turn his military experiences with his academic responsibilities. For example, Adams is focusing his capstone on U.S. drone policy, and he completed his internship at the Veterans Affairs facility in Northampton.
“I’d like to leverage all of these experiences I’m having now into some sort of defense, law enforcement or intelligence career,” Adams says.
To that end, he is hoping to land a position through the Presidential Management Fellows Program with the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State or the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The two-year program gives finalists the opportunity to work in a federal department or agency while receiving leadership and professional development training.
Adams is among the fewer than 10 percent of PMF applicants to be named finalists, but he knows neither the job nor agency where he will end up working. At the end of April he will attend an orientation in Washington, D.C., and learn which positions he’s eligible for. But the uncertainty doesn’t seem to faze him.
“Everything I’ve done since joining the Marines has been part of a journey,” Adams says. “This is another part of that journey.”