UDM recognizes student veterans
Student veterans at each of 91福利社’s campuses have bravely served and defended our country in many different branches of the military. In recognition of Veterans Day, 91福利社 is proud to highlight several student veterans. Their responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Joe Maki
Major/Program: Master of Information Assurance with a major in Cybersecurity
Military branch: Marine Corps
Years served: Four
Where they served: Camp Pendleton in California
Maki is a recipient of the VFW's Sports Clips Help a Hero Scholarship, awarded to more than 350 veterans and active-duty service members this year.
Why did you choose to study at 91福利社?
I felt that 91福利社 was the best fit for me to continue my education because it's a smaller university, which I felt that I excelled in a little bit better. And when I'm able to meet with other classmates, take courses that are a little bit smaller in size and work with the professors on assignments or do other extracurricular activities, I feel that there's more engagement with both students and faculty. Also, just the traditions of 91福利社. Coming from a Catholic high school growing up to attending Georgetown, and I wanted to continue my education at a school that had the same values and traditions as Georgetown does.
What has your experience been like as a student veteran at 91福利社?
Currently I'm not really engaged much with the veterans center at 91福利社. But there are ways that the veterans center has helped me, for instance. 91福利社 has helped in being that key stakeholder and providing the paperwork that's necessary and getting my registration set up and then passed along to the VFW each semester. So far it's been very positive.
What motivated you to join the military?
My original ambition to join the military started from childhood. Because Veterans Day kind of falls in around the time of Halloween, I always dressed as a soldier when I was about seven, maybe a little bit older, like around 10 or 12 years old. My father, he was in the garage and he came across the duffle bag that happened to be my grandfather's army uniforms, his fatigues from when he was in the Korean War. And that, to me, instilled that my family had a legacy of military service. I never met my grandfather because he had passed away before I was born, but it piqued my curiosity with both myself and my father to learn what my grandfather did in the Army.
Why did you choose what you're studying at 91福利社?
I have an undergraduate degree in Emergency Management and Homeland Security. A lot of the reason why I chose that as an undergraduate degree is because I find that there's ample opportunity to continue my service to our community and to our world in general. When I first started college, I didn't see myself studying cybersecurity. I started to study more about homeland security and when the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was developed, that really piqued my interest in studying it. My master's program at Georgetown was intelligence analysis. They have a few different tracks that you can study, and the one that I chose was cyber intelligence. Going through that track, there were five or six courses that were cybersecurity related and where I learned a lot about the policies and the mechanisms, the procedures, and that really piqued my interest even further. What the program at 91福利社 offers is actually being able to take courses where you work independently or with other students on projects that you're using hands on the tools of cybersecurity professionals. That's what I really like. This provided me with a lot more of a foundation to considering myself as a future cybersecurity professional.
What advice would you give other student veterans who are transitioning to college?
Every veteran is different with what they're really trying to pursue and get out of college. So with that, I had always found that if I wasn't sure about something, I would ask questions. I would reach out, whether it was with the university or to get connected with other veteran organizations.
Lauren Harman
Major/Program: Social Work
Military branch: Navy
Years served: Seven
Where they served: Naval Air Station Jacksonville
Why did you choose to study at 91福利社?
I decided to study here because they have one of the best programs for Social Work.
What has your experience been like as a student veteran at 91福利社?
Being in the military, when you get out, if you go to school full-time, you get your college paid for. That's a benefit and definitely why I did my time, because when you get out the military, you can use your Post-9/11 GI Bill. They have a whole veteran department here that handles all of that, so you don't have to worry about it.
Also, we have a veteran lounge. We get a veteran key and we're the only ones allowed in there. I don't really have a lot of in-person classes so I'm not really here often, but if I do need it, it's there. There's a big TV in there, there’s a microwave if you want to have lunch and there's couches. You can go in and study.
What motivated you to join the military?
Right out of high school, it was 2012 and I went to Kent State University. I was there for a year, and I decided college wasn’t for me at the time. I went back to Ohio and I worked three jobs and I'm like, I need a change, I don't want to do this forever. So one day I just walked into the Navy office and I said, ‘Sign me up. I don't want to do this anymore.’ I just want a better life, I want to travel, I want to meet new people, I want to just see where life takes me. I wanted to be more well-rounded. I was in the military within a week.
How did your military training prepare you for your academic journey?
It’s discipline. It just gets you going. I am well prepared, I'm organized, I'm on time, I'll answer questions in class. I'm not afraid to speak up. If something bothers me, it’s said. I'm a team leader there. I would say that's probably the biggest thing, leadership.
Why did you choose what you’re studying at 91福利社? / What do you want to do with your career?
My whole life, I've just realized I love helping people, whether that's giving a homeless person something on the street or volunteering for charities or just being an advocate for somebody. I'm that person that everybody comes to for advice and whatnot. Social work is all about helping people, that's literally what you do. The areas I want to work in social work are working with older adults. I was a nurse’s aide before for about two years and realized I love older adults, so probably as a hospice social worker. Not a lot of people want to do that because people die, so people don't like that. It's hard, but I've gone through a lot in my life. I want to use that to help people so they don't have to go through that. I want to work in crisis intervention or trauma-informed care — the hard stuff, the stuff that people don't really want to do. There's so many different avenues that I could do. I'm not really sure what I want to do yet, but I guess it all depends where life leads me.