Chi
Large, multinational organizations often deal with complex issues when it comes to the intersection of fiscal requirements and government regulations. U.S. Army Captain Bong Chi is among the group of financial professionals tasked with managing the Army’s budget and fiscal policies. When he graduates from the Whitman School of Management’s Defense Comptrollership Program (DCP) this summer, he will join the growing list of financial experts who have moved on to juggle the fiscal requirements for the Department of Defense (DoD), the largest federal agency in the country.
After growing up in Seoul, South Korea, Chi came to the United States for high school and soon found an opportunity to pursue a career in finance and accounting. After graduating high school in 2009, he enlisted in the military through the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) Program, a recruitment program for immigrants and non-immigrants interested in joining the U.S. military.
Upon becoming a basic finance soldier, he learned about Whitman’s DoD program and its prestigious status within the Army’s Finance Corps. Bong says he was interested in the program and made it a goal to attend later in his career when he would become eligible.
The DCP is Whitman’s flagship program for the Department of Defense. Syracuse University first developed the Army Comptrollership Program in 1952 with the DoD, and later developed DCP to be the graduate-level training needed to meet the needs of the service. The program gives future comptrollers and government resource managers the tools and management skills needed to effectively navigate the increasingly complex fiscal environment of the U.S. government.
“The program is designed for senior captains or junior majors on the officer side, or staff sergeants and above on the enlisted side. Primarily it’s for those who don’t have a master’s or graduate degree, it’s not disqualifying to have one, but it won’t move you to the top of the line,” Chi says. The 14-month education program is relatively fast-paced and is known to be a challenging program for those who are accepted. With applicants coming from all over the DoD, the screening and selection process is considered highly competitive.
Today, the DCP has evolved to offer other opportunities for mid-career servicemembers accepted into the program. The military-connected students also take classes with the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs to earn a master’s degree in public administration. It’s an important aspect of the increasingly bureaucratic nature of the government and speaks to the growing challenges with public-private partnerships and agreements.
“One of the biggest challenges with being a finance officer is figuring out how to make sure your senior leaders understand that managing resources is not just about the dollar signs in front of them,” says Chi. “If your supervisor, or the organization’s leadership, does not understand how to effectively manage resources at all, that can be the biggest challenge.”
Part of the reason DCP has higher standards and requirements is to ensure students are coming to the classroom with the right foundation of experience to build upon. Chi could have remained on the enlisted side of the military and still had the opportunity to attend DCP, but he decided to pursue becoming a commissioned officer. After a deployment to Kuwait, where he supported both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Chi was encouraged to apply for one of the U.S. Army’s most popular enlisted to commissioning programs. Each branch of service has its own unique process for qualified enlisted service members to earn a commission. For Chi, that program was the Green to Gold program, which gave him the opportunity to attend college at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
“When I joined, I wanted to just finish my initial obligation and get out, but as I spent more time in the military, I started to love the military culture and professionalism,” says Chi. “All the leaders that I was fortunate to work with made me eager to learn more about military leadership, so went through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at the University of Colorado, where I majored in business administration and minored in military history.”
While Chi was able to stay in the Finance Corps after becoming a commissioned officer, the transition also came with challenges that would pull him out of his comfort zone. Prior to coming to Syracuse University, Chi was serving as the Aide de Camp to British Major General Michael Keating, deputy commanding general for support of the III Armored Corps, at Fort Hood, Texas. Chi says that while the job was challenging, it was rewarding in how it has allowed him to gain a unique perspective in managing resources.
“All the things I have learned as a finance soldier, and as a finance comptroller officer—the information, knowledge and experience—came together in the Aide de Camp responsibility. It’s a very unique and special experience where you’re serving a general officer who continuously mentors and counsels you to become a better leader and teaches you how to think strategically in a large-scale combat operation, giving more thoughtful decision(s) at every doorstep in my professional career,” says Chi. “There is a lot of administrative stuff that people typically think about with the job, but the general I worked for was managing the resources of the Corps. A part of his responsibility is to manage sustainment operations for the Corps that has over 20,000 soldiers and families across four divisions at four different bases; not just the money, but the people, equipment and other material needs.”
Chi says the experience of working at that level was invaluable. It let him work firsthand with the complexity of a large organization with ongoing global operations. Beyond just keeping a balanced budget book, the position let him see the greater impact of his role in the organization and let him see the effectiveness of efficiently managing resources at such a large scale.
After graduating from Whitman in the summer, Chi will leave Syracuse University behind and report to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where his education will continue. Chi has been selected for promotion to the rank of major, and prior to reporting into his next unit as a finance and comptroller officer will undergo 44 weeks of training and professional development at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He says he looks forward to taking the knowledge and information he’s learned here at Syracuse and sharing it with his soldiers in the future.
“I’m already planning on how I can use everything I learned at DCP, the very first thing is maintaining a connection, not just keeping the contact information but maintaining the relationship with the leaders I’ve met here in DCP. With the potential of the knowledge and skills I’ve learned here, I want to maintain those relationships so I can always get their recommendations and develop better, or more effective, solutions,” Chi says.
Looking ahead, Chi says he wants to finish out his career with the military, with a wife and young child at home, he sees the benefits of a full military career but is open looking into other opportunities that will allow him to apply everything he has learned in the military. For now, though, he says he’s grateful for where he is and what he has learned along the way and looks forward to telling others about his time at Syracuse University.
“DCP will always be a highlight of my career to share when talking to others, even telling senior figures about not just the educational benefit of the program, but the benefit of developing management skills, your leadership style, or even just getting to know yourself better in a different environment,” Chi says.
To learn more about DCP and other programs for Department of Defense employees at Syracuse University, as well as the university’s historic commitment to supporting service members, veterans, and their families, please visit the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs.
