"What is my potential?” is one of Larry Randle’s favorite sayings. Those four words built an attitude that has allowed the Wichita native to earn two bachelor’s degrees from two universities, train as a year-round athlete, embark on a master’s degree in engineering management and secure a job at Cessna Aircraft as an industrial engineer. Not to mention, he is only 26 years old. At this point, no goal seems too high to him.

Randle played football and competed in track at Emporia State University while earning his first bachelor’s degree in physics. He also competed in indoor and outdoor track while earning his second bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering at Wichita State University.

Any full-time student athlete must possess drive to succeed as Randle did, but he said his determination came from growing up in an active and academic-minded household. Randle said his parents were adamant about his education.

“I had the same attitude in sports that I did in class. I’m always trying to better myself, and I was able to persist because I really wanted it,” Randle said.

As a child Randle thought he wanted to be an inventor. As his education progressed, he took a liking to math and science. With some encouragement from his father, he set his sights on becoming an engineer.

In March 2005 as an undergraduate student at WSU, Randle got an internship at Cessna where he now works full-time. He said getting there was no small task.

“Time management was a struggle. Juggling group projects, work, practice and athletic events on the weekends was hard. There were courses that were almost unbearable, but being now what I wanted to be then is the most rewarding part of my experience,” Randle said. “It’s not even about the money; it’s about making it to that point.”

He said he chose to pursue graduate school for a number of reasons.

“It has a lot to do with being future minded. I am about improvement of myself. I love to learn, and I’m interested in the topics. I decided that a bachelor’s degree was not enough. I can do more,” he said.

His wife, Christina Randle, is also in graduate school at WSU working toward her master’s degree in social work. She has also been inspiring to him in his decision to further his education.

Randle not only believes in the importance of giving back to his community, but also acts on that belief. He and his father have been coaching a Little League football team of middle school students for more than five years. He has been with the team since they were in second grade. Randle said he feels like he is a mentor and a coach to the boys. He has taught them about a lot more than football.

“If they have a school problem, we deal with that first, then sports,” he said. “I want to be a positive role model for them.”

In addition to investing time in coaching, for the past two years Randle has also acted as president of the Wichita chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. One of the largest events of the year is the NSBE national conference, to which Randle will be able to take a group of young WSU men and women to network among engineers from several other universities.

"Overall, the NSBE tries to increase the number of culturally responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community," he said.

Randle plans to complete his master’s degree in engineering management in December 2009.