Teaching wasn’t always in the cards for history instructor Brian Boucher, who spent three years away from the classroom before returning to education. Yet, his time away from the provided the opportunity to learn the subject he would later teach through a job application to the United States Golf Association (UGSA).
“I was a history major and thought I would graduate college and then go right into becoming a teacher because I certainly was interested in education,” Boucher said. “I had taught when I was a senior in college, so I expected just to start my teaching career, and then I saw this opportunity in the career center at my college, and decided to apply for it, and was lucky enough to get it.”
During his tenure at the USGA, he worked to provide grants for junior golf programs in underprivileged areas. He also had the opportunity to work at USGA Championships.
“I got to help set up the course for some of their lower level championships, like figure out where they were going to put the hole location on a given day and help with scoring,” Boucher said.
Additionally, the USGA introduced Boucher to economics, enlisting him to travel to the programs the USGA was sponsoring to help determine how they could best assist economically disadvantaged communities.
“I spent a lot of time traveling around parts of the country that I would not have gotten a chance to travel to,” Boucher said.
This exposure helped him realize the significant impact that athletics can have on academics, inspiring his sports literature and society course.
“The power of sports within our society was one of the reasons I wanted to start that course,” Boucher said. “Having worked in the golf industry and seeing some of the challenges of the sports industry in the 21st century and how they have to adapt to the changing environment around them is certainly something that I saw at the USGA, and is certainly something I think that’s a pretty interesting topic.”
