Student veterans at each of University of Detroit Mercy’s campuses have bravely served and defended our country in many different branches of the military. In recognition of Veterans Day, Detroit Mercy is proud to highlight several student veterans. Their responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Joe Maki
Joe MakiMajor/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 Detroit Mercy?
I felt that Detroit Mercy 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 Detroit Mercy. 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 Detroit Mercy?
Currently I’m not really engaged much with the veterans center at Detroit Mercy. But there are ways that the veterans center has helped me, for instance. Detroit Mercy 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 Detroit Mercy?
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 Detroit Mercy 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
Lauren HarmanMajor/Program: Social Work
Military branch: Navy
Years served: Seven
Where they served: Naval Air Station Jacksonville
Why did you choose to study at Detroit Mercy?
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 Detroit Mercy?
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 Detroit Mercy? / 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.
What advice would you give to other student veterans who are transitioning to college?
I would say know what you’re getting into, know what the Post-9/11 gives. Because if you’re going to be a veteran, if you go into a college, you’re going to go full-time. I would say know all your people, know who’s going to help you. University Registrar Diane Praet, she helps all the veterans.
David Shears
Major/Program: Political Science major, Religion minor
Military branch: Army
Years served: Four and a half
Where they served: Fort Richardson in Alaska, traveling to Australia, Afghanistan and Germany
Why did you choose to study at Detroit Mercy?
As a private institution, they were the most willing to accept my conglomerate of credits that I’ve accumulated throughout the U.S. and with my professional licenses. And they also were going to allow me to hit all the prerequisites and ideally make it into the Detroit Mercy School of Law.
What has your experience been like as a student veteran here at Detroit Mercy?
Having not been in school for nearly almost a decade, it was an adjustment to make. However, I am finding success in the structure of campus and how they orient the day. And I built it around my real-world life, which I think is critical to someone’s success.
What motivated you to join the military?
I was motivated by a history of service with both of my grandfathers in Korea and Vietnam, as well as an older brother who still serves in the Army.
How did your military training prepare you for your academic journey?
I’m at a point where my academics are my mission as an airborne infantryman. You always put the mission first. Sacrifices have to be made sometimes to succeed in those missions. And that’s where I’m at. I am putting forth the effort, the diligent time and strokes of work necessary to complete the course, work to move on and achieve a bachelor’s.
All of that — the skills that are being exuded and showcased to those young students. It’s something I learned early on.
Why did you choose what you’re studying at Detroit Mercy?
Because it is the quickest segue with my accumulated credits and licenses to get me into law school, which is my end goal.
How do you think the University has impacted you as a student?
I’m still kind of in the throes of that as it’s my first semester and we’re just now getting close to midterms. It’s made a deep, profound impact. It’s helped me realign myself spiritually and given me the space I need to be successful academically. Detroit Mercy wants you to be successful here. They offer The Writing Center, the tutoring center and the lounge, and ample outdoor spaces like this that are comfortable. They offer you opportunities, and even if you don’t live on campus, you can get your work done.
What advice would you give to other student veterans who are transitioning into college?
Make education your goal, if that is something you wish to pursue. Make it your mission. As veterans we have narrower insight into what it takes to be successful and what the margin of failure can be. And this is your life, so what do you want to do with it? Personally, I want to go be a lawyer one day. It took me a few years to understand what that meant, and now I’m on the correct path to that.
What do you hope you can do with your career?
Once I graduate from here, I hope to move into Detroit Mercy Law and pursue my Juris Doctor there. And from there with that, I would be back into the public service, working with the court systems. Finally, justice for myself, for other veterans and for those in need that can’t afford it.
Right now, I haven’t really honed in on the one expertise. But veteran law is appealing to me. Obviously, it’s within my demographic and wheelhouse and I’m familiar with it. But also family law, I think, is important.
Jeanne Robinson
Major/Program: Social Work
Military branch: Air National Guard
Years served: 31
Where they served: Selfridge Air National Guard Base
Why did you choose to study at Detroit Mercy?
I had really good interactions with everyone I spoke with. I like it because it’s a faith-based university. It is all good things, all the boxes were being checked for that kind of stuff. And it was a good program. I had actually checked the other places and I checked out Detroit Mercy, and I said ‘Yep, this is it, this is the one I wanted to go to.’
What has your experience been like as a student veteran at Detroit Mercy?
Really, I don’t really know. I just really like being able to talk about my faith, and not having to worry about it and not to be guarded when I’m talking about my faith, but still be respectful of all the other faiths, which I am. But it’s still nice to know that I have a faith community there.
What motivated you to join the military?
I was always very patriotic. I love my country. And it just got to a point in my life, it’s like I want to do something different from where I was at the time. So I reached out and I joined the military and just kept going.
How did your military training prepare you for your academic journey?
In the military you’re constantly learning something. If you want to do anything or make yourself into anything, you’re constantly learning. And I really enjoy learning. So going to UDM was like, okay, now I can get back on the track to doing what I love to do. And being in the military, it helps you with that because you constantly have to learn something new, because you have to be an expert in so many different levels and so many different areas of where you work. You’re not just doing one job, you’re doing a bunch of different jobs, so you’re constantly learning.
Why did you choose what you’re studying at Detroit Mercy?
Because I kind of already do it. It’s just kind of like in my blood, so to speak. I was checking out different areas just to explore something different in my life, because I could feel God was pulling me in to doing something different. I just started looking at the curriculum of social work, and I wanted to try this. I think it’s just a really good fit for me.
How has the University impacted you as a student veteran?
This is just my first semester, so that’s hard to answer. I haven’t used it, but I know that they have a place set aside just for veterans. And once you go into the office and they give you a key, so you’ve got a place that you need to go and just chill out for a minute, to study, things like that. Next semester I will be on campus and I plan on taking advantage of that. And they give me more one-on-one assistance with applying for all the stuff that I need as a veteran to help me with school.
What advice would you give to other student veterans who are transitioning into college?
Be open, explore, reach out to other students and reach out to see what other assets there are on campus, because there’s a lot that they have to offer. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and reach out for that assistance.
What do you want to do with your career?
To help people even more than I am now. I think there’s a lot of resources that are available, but the majority of the people don’t know how to access them and don’t even know that they’re available. And I want to be able to connect those dots for the people.
— By Marketing & Communications student intern Jamie Whitener