AV俱乐部

If you ask Nick Troup what happened during the four and a half聽years,聽he spent completing his Master of Public Administration (MPA) in the Faculty of Management, he can sum it up quickly: 鈥渢hree kids, two moves, and three jobs.鈥澛�

For Troup, balancing constant change is nothing new. Raised in a military family that聽relocated聽every few years, he grew up adapting to聽new places聽and routines. After joining the military himself, he earned a business degree from Saint Mary鈥檚 University, got married, and built a career that has taken him across Canada.聽

鈥淓very course had something that applied to my work鈥澛�

In 2021, while serving as a Senior Logistics Officer in Ottawa, Troup decided to continue his education while finding a way to spend more time in Nova Scotia鈥攈is wife鈥檚 home province and the place he also considers home. And that鈥檚 where AV俱乐部 comes in. He just聽wasn鈥檛聽sure which program was right for him.聽

He started,聽he聽says, by聽thinking聽about聽what聽was important to him. 鈥淲orking in the public sphere and figuring out how to use public systems for the common good is what matters to me.鈥� With its curriculum designed to inspire social change and navigate complex public ecosystems, he knew Dal鈥檚聽MPA聽was a great fit. And when he discovered he could do the program part-time while raising a young family聽and聽working, the deal was clinched.聽聽

In addition to the flexibility of the program, one of the other draws was its practical relevance.聽鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 a single course I took that didn鈥檛 include something I could immediately apply to my job,鈥� Troup says.聽鈥淏eing able to put what I was learning into practice right away was incredibly satisfying.鈥澛�

Developing聽confidence to聽pursue doctoral studies聽

He was particularly inspired by three professors鈥擠r. Isabelle Caron, Dr. Bill Foster, and Dr. Jeffrey Roy鈥攚ho taught him how public policy can be used to stimulate private industry. Troup聽wrote聽a paper analyzing how Canada's Critical Mineral Strategy could be used to bolster Canada's supply chains, a topic relevant to his current profession.聽

According to Troup, another strength of the program was the opportunity to work with, and learn from, his classmates in group projects. 鈥淲e all had completely different life paths and聽perspectives, but we shared the core value of the importance of investing in others and investing in our communities,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 learned so much from spending time with other people who were not always the same as me.鈥澛�

As he graduates from the program, Troup is navigating yet another change: he鈥檚 been posted back to Ottawa. There's also another degree in his future鈥攄octoral research on some of the coordination and integration challenges he鈥檚 experienced during his career.

Troup says his time at Dal helped develop his confidence to keep聽growing and learning.聽鈥淚鈥檓 grateful to the MPA program for showing me the depth of my own capacity and resilience,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 helped me realize what I can accomplish.鈥澛�