By Dylan Whitely
He not only serves the students of Northwestern. He also serves to protect his town and his country.
Criminal justice professor Kirk Rogers keeps a busy schedule. When he isn’t teaching his courses at Northwestern, he might be serving in the Air National Guard. When he has free time from that, he works one or two shifts for the Harper County Emergency Medical Services. To top it all off, he works eight-hour shifts on Saturdays and Sundays as a police officer.
“I have been very blessed so far,” Rogers said. “Northwestern has worked with me, and the military has been good working with me, too. I don’t know if that would be the case if it was any other branch other than the Air Force.”
Rogers’ military career began in January 1992 when he was 17 years old. Rogers signed up as a medical specialist for the Kansas National Guard, later transferring to the Oklahoma National Guard when he was attending Northwestern.
Rogers got out of the service in 2000 and focused on his law enforcement career. He started teaching for Northwestern in 2008 but still worked as a police officer and in EMS part-time.
A few years ago, when Rogers’ son was 17 years old, several military recruiters were coming to the family’s home. After one visit, a National Guard recruiter and Rogers began talking about their time serving. A few days later, the recruiter gave Rogers a call and asked if he was interested in coming back into the military.
Rogers thought about it and decided to go back in. But he found out that he had been out too long and would have to go to boot camp. When a recruiter for the Air National Guard came by his house, Rogers told him about the situation, and the recruiter informed him that he would not have to go back to basic training with them. So, Rogers joined the Air National Guard.
After joining two and a half years ago and waiting for a medical position to open up, Rogers served as a cook. Now he works in fitness and assessment. This summer, Rogers was at McGhee-Tyson Air Force Base in Knoxville, Tennessee, for mandatory training. He was there for the first few weeks of the fall semester and had to use Zoom to teach his classes at Northwestern.
While he was at training, Rogers had some downtime, so he started helping out around the base by volunteering about 150 hours for other duties. His service did not go unrecognized. Rogers received six challenge coins during a six-week period. Coins are presented in the military by those with a leadership role as a way to show appreciation for acts of service.
Rogers received coins from multiple officers, including a colonel, a lieutenant colonel and command chief master sergeants.
But Rogers said he saw the acts of service as doing the job he was paid to do.
“I’m a firm believer that when you got to go to work, you go to work,” Rogers said. “I think that’s why I balance everything so well, because when I have a task to do, I’ll do it.”
Rogers said he keeps teaching at Northwestern, despite his schedule, because he loves to do it. The secret to staying on top of things is to be a meticulous scheduler. He said he has daily schedule planned almost down to the hour.
Rogers spent the past weekend at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas. When he had time in the evenings, he was busy communicating with his students and helping them out with any questions they might have.
“My plan was to teach after I retired,” Rogers said. “But they were looking for someone to teach in criminal justice, and the opportunity presented itself. I’m glad I did it because I love the kids, and I love the campus.”