Lifelong learning at RRU: from cadet to BComm alum

Learn more about the Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurial Management.

Scott McGregor grew up in Langford, BC and marched the grounds of nearby Hatley Park as an 848 Squadron air cadet. He joined the armed forces and, serving in all three branches — army, navy, air force — travelled the world, from basic training at CFB Cornwallis in Nova Scotia to training Afghan Army soldiers in Kandahar. He worked in intelligence both in the military and with the RCMP. He started businesses and consulted and wrote books about international security.

A thread running through all of these experiences is Royal Roads University.

“I have so many memories of marching [on the Royal Roads grounds] at night and having the peacocks around, and just the history of it,” McGregor says. “The pride that you feel in a patriotic sense, especially in a place like that, when you’re standing at the castle and you can see the lagoon…”

Indeed, even long after he was a cadet, he returned to those grounds multiple times, first teaching self-defence at the Royal Military College (RMC) before it was reimagined as  a public university, and much later, after he retired from the military, having been injured in service, to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurial Management. He graduated in 2013.

“It was one of my life goals to go to Royal Roads [University],” says McGregor, who, among other jobs, worked as a diplomatic defence attaché to the Kingdom of Bahrain and an intelligence advisor to RCMP Federal Serious Organized Crime. “I had wanted to go to [the former] RMC from the time I was a cadet, so going back was very fulfilling and familiar because I had so much time all over the grounds. I knew every inch of that place.”

In addition, the course was invaluable as he pursued a lifelong interest in business, taking courses in social sciences and leadership, and discovering ways his military training and experience could transfer and translate into working in the civilian world.

“Going back, it was very rewarding,” he says. “It opened my mind to a lot more of the world in terms of the way that it was run, with the international students attending.”

He credits his BComm classmates with enhancing the educational experience, saying, “The cohort was uplifting, it was rewarding. It motivated me.

“Royal Roads set me on a path at a young age and it inspired me to want to do something for the country,” he adds. “And at the same time, I think, it enhanced my appetite for diversity… I’ve always been around other cultures and Royal Roads really embraced that, and I think that’s something to be celebrated — we’re all in this together.”

Learn more about the Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurial Management.