It was the missing piece of her puzzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat I’m working on now, I would attribute to what I’ve learned,\u201d Van Sickle said. \u201cI mean everything that I have remembered for the last two and a half years has made a great difference on the last three months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van Sickle joined Ursa Major Technologies as a proposal and program transition manager weeks after graduating from the MSOLS program in December 2025. The aerospace company designs and manufactures rocket engines, missiles and satellite propulsion systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the proposal and program transition manager, she works with the new product development team. When her company gets a project request, Van Sickle collaborates with engineers and finance team members to draft a proposal that captures the client\u2019s vision and needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBridging that gap is my job now,\u201d Van Sickle said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new career opportunity and the smooth transition were made easy, thanks to the degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey were looking for someone with my experiences; I was looking to try something new,\u201d Van Sickle said. \u201cUrsa Major is a start-up, which is definitely a little different coming from what we would consider a prime (player) in the aerospace world. I’ve just had a blast these last three months and I imagine it will continue to go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
Learn more about Purdue’s 100% online MS in Organizational Leadership and Supervision<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Van Sickle started her master\u2019s program in 2024, she handled government contracts for Northrup Grumman, an aerospace defense and security company. But she wanted to learn more about managing proposals, evolving technology and how to be a better leader. The MSOLS program covered those and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said the benefits were immediate. Her program gave her the opportunity to learn more about cybersecurity and artificial intelligence while connecting with people in the aerospace industry. It enhanced her project management skills. It gave her skills and knowledge that she used immediately at Northrup Grumman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe master\u2019s in organizational leadership and supervision is designed to do more than build knowledge, it transforms how individuals lead, think and show up in both their professional and personal lives,\u201d said Purdue Polytechnic Institute associate professor Katrenia Reed Hughes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe program equips students with practical, immediately applicable skills in areas such as communication, project leadership, and strategic decision-making, while also strengthening their confidence and sense of purpose as leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the middle of Van Sickle’s program, the Graduate Certificate in Technical Communication became available. As someone who communicates daily about the value of her team\u2019s services and products, she said the decision was easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey were just really helpful,\u201d Van Sickle said. \u201cEverybody likes to think, \u2018Hey, I’m the greatest writer in the world. I can do everything.\u2019 But these classes helped me to strip back everything that I thought I knew and rebuild the best way to write something for the average layperson, who may not understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said one class project required her team to select a household appliance and translate its instructions into text that could be easily understood by an elementary school student. Her 4th grade cousin became the team\u2019s reviewer for its waffle maker instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat was such an influential project,\u201d Van Sickle said. \u201cIt was so funny, but being able to write information that goes to everybody, and not just a specific group of people who may already know how to do it anyways, was amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat just made things click for me and my job. One of the complaints that we got all the time on the stuff we wrote was, \u2018This is great. It’s super technical and it’s fancy, but we have somebody who is going to be awarding the money off of it and they don’t understand what you’re saying.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As she neared the end of her program, Van Sickle decided it was time for a career change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI feel like everybody has that experience,\u201d Van Sickle said. \u201cIt’s like, \u2018Oh, I’ve graduated! I just have to go get a new job!\u2019 I had a lot of great support and people said, \u2018You’ve reached another level,\u2019 but there wasn’t exactly a way for me to go forward where I was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She networked, looking for a role that matched her vision. Around the same time, Ursa Major was looking for someone to fill a newly created position. The timing was perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne thing about aerospace is it’s a big, old happy family,\u201d Van Sickle said. \u201cEverybody ends up working together. So, I put out a couple of feelers to see if I could go into a new role that fit what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy dad, also a Purdue graduate, always tells me, \u2018I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up.\u2019 And that’s the thing I operate off of, but this was something I really want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Van Sickle calls Purdue \u201ca family school\u201d because so many of her aunts, uncles and cousins graduated from the university. Her parents even met at Purdue in the early 1990s while completing their degrees: Ron\u2019s in electrical and mechanical engineering, Marlene\u2019s in accounting. They married and moved to Tipton, Ind., where Van Sickle and her sister were born, before relocating to Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut we always had close ties to Purdue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a girl, Van Sickle said she hated math and writing and had a speech impediment. Her parents\u2019 solution? Keep practicing math and present a monthly research paper on an assigned topic. In addition to improving her skills, that guidance fostered a love of learning, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Purdue connection remained in Texas: Van Sickle majored in finance at the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech, named after Purdue alumnus Jerry Rawls. When she mentioned to her mother that she was considering her master\u2019s, her mom suggested Purdue. Van Sickle agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt changed my life,\u201d Van Sickle said of the MSOLS program. \u201cIt changed what I thought I was going to do with my life. I had so many people reach out to me when I posted that I was going to Purdue. They said, \u2018We know what you’re going through. We want to help you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is what the program is designed to do, Hughes said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have had the privilege of working with many students like Sara, who fully embrace the experience and emerge with expanded opportunities, stronger professional identities and a clear vision for their future,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cGraduates leave not only with advanced credentials, but with a deeper understanding of how to lead with intention, navigate complexity and create positive change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information about Purdue\u2019s online Master of Science in Organizational Leadership and Supervision,\u202fvisit the\u202fprogram\u2019s\u202f\u202fwebsite.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sara Van Sickle found a solution to life’s contradictions in Purdue’s online MSOLS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":10334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"area-of-study":[9],"person":[74],"class_list":["post-10329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-success","area-of-study-communication","person-students"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sara-Van-Sickle-and-parents-edited.jpg\")
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