Veterans Next Generation Scholarship

Being the daughter of a veteran has not only shifted the way I see the world, it has truly shaped who I am as a person. From a young age I have been going to military bases, staying in the hotels, shopping at the BX, and getting groceries at the Commissary. It was natural for me and was always something I looked forward to doing with my family. This automatically gave me a different experience growing up from other kids due to the career my dad chose to have. My dad was in the Air Force for twenty-eight years and during those years he left many times for different deployments. When he left the last time it was to go to Iraq for Operation Enduring Freedom. I was in elementary school and I understood why he left but it was difficult to understand what he was doing over there and to have him gone for what seemed like forever. My mom and I spent Thanksgiving and Christmas on Skype with my dad having conversations without knowing how long they would last or what would happen at the base during the call. Although I was young I still vividly remember the six months being away from him and the exact moment I got to see him again. These moments are going to stay with me for the rest of my life and I wouldn’t change that experience for the world. Being the daughter of a veteran has helped show me how to be strong and persevere. My dad worked his way up the ladder to become an E9 Chief Master Sergeant during his time in the Air Force. He showed me how hard work pays off and that giving back has beneficial outcomes. My dad’s character has always shown through his actions and even at a young age that was seen in the way he devoted his life to helping and serving in the Air Force. This led me to a career path that also is devoted to giving back. I am pursuing a career in the field of Marine Biology because I am passionate about restoring our oceans and ecosystems. This includes giving back to the earth and helping out the organisms in a variety of environments which in turn will hopefully help to restore certain aspects of this earth. My dad has always encouraged me to work hard and be selfless in the way I interact with people. Whether I realized it or not, that attitude and mentality has carried over into my career choice and helped me have a stronger understanding of what I want to do with the rest of my life. I believe that receiving this scholarship will help me to continue on that journey.

My father served in the Army for six years and drove tanks during Operation Desert Storm. Throughout my life, my father would share stories from his military experience. He mentioned that his fellow soldiers were his closest friends. I always enjoyed hearing his stories, and I developed a great appreciation for his service. Although my father has great memories from the military, he experienced a lot of trauma from war. About a decade ago, he was diagnosed with war-related PTSD. Due to my father having mental health struggles, I had a very different experience growing up than most. I saw early on the struggles my father faced due to his sacrifice. He would constantly wake up in the middle of the night due to nightmares and often had flashbacks. In high school, I facilitated PTSD support groups for Veterans. These groups provided a safe space for Veterans to share their experiences and struggles. I was also involved in several fundraising events for the Vietnam Veterans of America and Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America. These events consisted of car washes, bake sales, stand downs, and teaching Veterans to fly fish. Fly fishing especially was my favorite because I have very valuable memories with my father. Through my volunteering experience with these Veterans, I gained a passion for mental health. I do not think I would be in my current field of study if it weren't for seeing my father and other Veterans face mental health struggles. My passion for helping has led to me to major in Social Work. This past semester, I shadowed a Social Worker for 46 hours at the VA Medical Center. This Social Worker provided treatment for Veterans who have substance abuse issues. I gained a lot of knowledge and understanding through hearing the Veterans' stories. A significant amount of these Veterans use substances to "escape" from their flashbacks and traumatic memories. During my internship here, I was able to obtain an even greater understanding of the trauma Veterans experience. Many of these Veterans and their stories reminded me of my father; many hardships they faced, my father also endured. My favorite part of my experience here was seeing the Veterans complete the program and how they changed their lives for the better. Unfortunately, my father is still struggling to get relief from his trauma. He is 100% service connected due to Gulf War Syndrome and his PTSD. I am confident that my father will be able to get relief through mental health services. I know that if my father had gotten the proper treatment years ago, he would be doing a lot better today. My father's experience has had a great impact on me that has shaped my career aspirations. So many families are affected because of untreated mental health issues in Veterans. Many children have grown up seeing their parent struggle. I have experienced this personally, and I want to provide therapy for Veterans and their families, so they can have a better experience than I did. Mental illness and PTSD among Veterans is a crisis that needs to be addressed. I plan to advocate and support Veterans and their families as a Social Worker in the future, and this scholarship can help make that possible.

The Marine Corps motto is "The Few. The Proud". The motto is meant to represent the pride that one feels being part of such an elite and exclusive group; one that people all over the world admire. This same motto can also apply to being the son or daughter of a Marine. We are also an exclusive group that gets to feel the pride of having a parent who served in the Marines. I am proud to be the son of a Marine. When someone asks how your experience as the son of a Marine shaped your career aspirations it is easy to assume the answer would be discipline. After all, the Marine Corps is known for its commitment to discipline. And while my father has taught me the importance of discipline in achieving my career goals, there are plenty more attributes he has instilled in me that have shaped my career aspirations. One of the most important is having drive. Being driven to accomplish any goal I set for myself. All parents tell their children they can be anything they want to be, but many do not take the time to teach them the importance of having the drive needed to accomplish their goals. You have to want it deep down in your soul and be committed to putting in the work needed to reach that goal. Becoming a Marine requires going through an intense boot camp. To make it through that, you have to have the drive to become a Marine. For me to accomplish my goal of becoming a video game designer, I must have the same drive my father had. He also taught me the importance of honor. Doing the right thing all the time; even when people aren't looking. The reason we admire the Marine Corps so much is that in everything they do, they put honor at the forefront. Growing up and seeing how proud my father was of being a good honorable person made me also want to be an honorable person. This is why I am always making sure that I am doing the right thing; be it in school, at work, during sports, or with my friends and I will continue to be an honorable person throughout my career. But one of my favorite traits he has taught me was empathy for others. When people think about the Marine Corps they think about how they perform during wartime. But what makes the Marine Corps special is what they do during peacetime. The Marine Corps is committed to helping those who cannot help themselves. Making the world a better place by lending a helping hand whenever it is needed. My father served in 2 conflicts where the mission was to help the people of those countries; Somalia and Haiti. But he has also shared stories of helping to repair an orphanage in Israel, helping with cleanup after hurricanes in the United States, and building houses in Romania. He has always talked about being able to help others while in the Marines with more pride in his voice than anything else. I want to be able to provide the same level of help to anyone who needs it. This is why I volunteer whenever I can and tutor other students at school. So while my path will not lead me into the military, it was the lessons that I learned from my father's time in the military that will help me be successful in my career and also allow me to help those around me.

Being the daughter of the veteran has profoundly shaped my life. My dad was always my hero as a child. He was larger than life. He was in the Army for nearly 25 years and while he loved it, it did not leave him unscathed. My dad has pretty significant PTSD, he has woken up in the middle of the night ransacking our house looking for his gun. While the goofy and playful man I adored as a child is still in there, he is increasingly difficult to find. As a child, it is incredibly hard to watch your dad change into someone you don't recognize. He is no longer as playful, he is serious and angry at the world. He mourns the friends he lost daily just as I mourn my dad. As the oldest this has always put a burden on me, I had to help my mom raise my brother and keep our house in order. I am lucky to have parents who are devoted to one another and more in love daily. However, this caused my mom to call into long depressive states when my dad was deployed for up to 11 months at a time. I had to be the parents quite often. Now that I am older I want people to avoid the mental health issues the military has caused my parents. I am a psychology major because of these experiences. I live by the quote "Think globally act locally", I want to help families have fulfilling relationships with one another. I want to help parents create developmentally nurturing environments for their children. I think that if psychology is used in the household then children will experience happier childhoods and hopefully parents like mine will have someone to lean on. My career goals are tied to the military because so much of my childhood centered around my dad's deployment. On March 8th, 2023 I married my most amazing man. We had been together since the beginning of high school and I knew that there was no one else for me. Instantly I knew he was the one. My husband is in the marine corp and his career has only just begun. Already he tells me of the poor mental health of veterans and active service members. My dad's fate seems almost inevitable. I can tell he is unhappy, he misses his old self too. In all of these young struggling service members is promise. With counseling and psychological help then they can be happier and more fulfilled than my dad. As a psychologist I will be able to change my communities, I can help families be more connected. Happiness should be the ultimate goal in life and I hope to help people reach that.

Just like every other teenager, I went through a point in my life where I was lost and confused in determining the person I wanted to become for the remainder of my life. My dad, who is a retired United States Marine, became my anchor at this time of uncertainty and helped me discover my passion for biology and healthcare. Growing up in a household under his mentorship, I was constantly pushed to be the best version of myself and apply discipline to my life the way my dad learned in the military. He taught me everything from how to take care of my body through nutrition and exercise, how to become a more accountable person by creating a daily routine, and even seemingly simple things such as how to make my bed the way he was taught in boot camp. The installment of military-influenced living fused with the traditional element of parental guidance in the household set me up to become a responsible and goal-oriented person with a strong mindset to achieve my ultimate career aspirations and not settle for less. Social psychologist Dr. David McClelland of Harvard once said that “the people you habitually associate with determine as much as 95 percent of your success or failure in life.” One of the most important lessons I learned from my dad during my time in high school was to surround myself with positive influences: people that were constantly trying to be more successful than the day before and expected nothing but the best out of themselves and others. My desire to enter this competitive field of medicine roots in the opportunity to surround me with others like myself who are always pushing themselves to their limits academically and are not afraid to put in the work necessary to be successful. I believe that having a support system built off discipline and positivity like that of my dad is priceless and gave me direction on my goals and career aspirations. When I was younger, my dad would always share his war stories and his time in battle in The Gulf War and all the friends he made during his time in the military that I was fortunate enough to meet. The stories he would tell would always leave me in awe, inspiring me to follow in his footsteps and instilling a sense of pride in serving the country. With both a father and grandfather who served in the military (marines), I’ve been able to learn about the brotherhood in service that gave them their closest bonds in life and influenced me to keep close only to those who had the best intentions for me.

From the day I was born I was always told that my dad had a plan for me. Even when he was sent on deployment soon after I was born he was still paving my way. Since preschool my dad has been my rock. He’s been the one to teach me how to multiply and divide and read at almost a college level in the fifth grade. He’s really given me my work ethic and helped me to find who I am as a person. Though it was frustrating at times to have to deal with the drill sergeant mindset, he’s always helped me accomplish what I wanted and help me get to where I wanted to be. Now as I’m moving on in life to college I have to step out of his first sergeant wingspan and take control of my own life. His army mentality has really shaped my mind into who I am today though it can make me a little cynical sometimes I have learned that there’s always a time and place for fun and a time and place for work. My dad was a military policeman for 22 years in the US Army and he always talked about how it built him up from a teenager into the hard-working fearless man he is today. It also taught him how to serve and protect others. And this led to him teaching both me and my brother to think of more than just ourselves. The effect this had on me is what seems to be my driving force because I’ve always been drawn towards the medical field so this mindset inspired me to become a nurse. And though my father always asks why I don’t go on to be a doctor, I always reply that doctors are too caught up with so many patients and treatment plans that they never get to connect fully with their patient, while a nurse is more of the empathetic voice of reason to the patient. Nurses get to build a connection with their patients while they are there and make sure that they are getting what they need. That’s what I want to do in life I want to make sure no one is being overlooked especially with how fast paced and overwhelming this world is today. I feel like this also comes from my dad teaching me to always stick up for the little guy and to never let someone walk over me or anyone else. My father gave me my backbone and almost every piece of information I know today. He gave me the basics and the foundation of what I am and I know if I can make it through college and become the nurse that doesn’t let a patient get overwhelmed by medical jargon or get belittled by a doctor because they don’t understand I know I could make my dad proud.

My father is a retired Army veteran of 17 years. He retired medically and has served five tours. He is a sociable person, or at least he used to be, but never did he talk much about how things were overseas. I wish I could tell you some honorable story about how he was a role model, and how id love nothing more than to be just like him. Truth is, my father was never there, and after my mother divorced him, he wasn't back in our lives until I was about fifteen years old. Due to my father's PTSD and extensive drug use prior, too, and post his service. He is no longer able to comprehend reality and lives in a pretty miserable world all by himself. It's not something I can but, only mental health professionals could explain to you. Point is, not everything about the military is as pretty as they make it out to seem. I truly believe the military kept my father with the purpose for a long time, however, the only lessons I learned were detrimental ones. Seeing how hard he did work, and just simply thinking about all of the time he spent overseas in battle, or even posted outside of his country of residence, you can't help but respect him as a soldier. After researching I was able to find the DEA chapter 35 benefits, and apply successfully. Still, I pay for a two-bedroom house alone and need more help. Back on topic, I use to believe I was going to be in the military, and had aspirations of becoming a member of the Army, just like my father. Thankfully life doesn't always go according to plan and considering my inevitable past, I chose to pursue and shape my own career aspirations. I am the first in my family to go to college unless, of course, my little sister beats me to it! I always tell her, "By all means please make me proud!" I'm by no means an author, to some I'm barely considered qualified for college, or intelligent enough, but if you ask me. Why not me? So my father did play a role, and I appreciate his sacrifice, but this is my world for the taking and like a soldier, I won't be denied. I love my father with all my heart, and I wish that there were better help for our veterans. I've tried to help my father, but have been told to leave him be. He rents an extended-stay hotel, and posts on Facebook all day, talking to himself when he's supposed to be retired and enjoying the money he earned. My aspirations are supposed to be living the way he's living? I'm sorry you can have that back Sam, because "I WANT YOU" to take better care of my father. I probably won't win this but, I enjoyed getting it off my chest. Thanks, Good luck.