Across the ten campuses of the University of California, student veterans and active-duty servicemembers are building new lives after military service. These students bring with them discipline, a sense of purpose, and camaraderie that influence their academic journeys.
Hanh Dinh, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and first-generation college student at UC San Diego, pursued higher education after serving four years in the military. She initially joined the Marines to access GI Bill benefits for college. Dinh worked as an ammunition technician before returning to California to finish her service and enroll in community college. Her participation in the Warrior-Scholar Project helped her transition into university life.
“When I left the military, I had a lot of self-doubt about going back into school,” says Dinh. Attending a bootcamp at Yale University after her first year of community college boosted her confidence, and she eventually transferred to UC San Diego. It was intimidating, but she reached out to the veterans center before even arriving on campus. Soon, she became a regular.
Dinh later became a transfer peer coach supporting other nontraditional students and went on to earn a master’s degree in higher education administration at Penn. She is now Undergraduate Student Veteran Program Director at Cornell University.
“What was really integral to my success at UC and beyond was just knowing there are so many people like me who are unfamiliar with the higher education system, and connecting with them and other student veterans,” Dinh says. “It was empowering to know that, ‘Hey, we’ve done a lot of challenging things in the military, but now we can forge our own path, whether that’s similar to what we did in the military or completely different.’”
Amanda Lassiter serves in the Coast Guard Reserve while studying Informatics as a fourth-year transfer student at UC Irvine. She grew up in rural Virginia where educational opportunities were limited unless self-financed. At 15 she decided to join the Coast Guard for both humanitarian work and educational support through GI Bill benefits.
“I grew up in a very small town in rural Virginia. A lot of farm land, a lot of trees, but an environment where I knew that an education wasn’t going to be afforded to me unless I worked for it myself,” says Amanda Lassiter.
Lassiter has served 15 years in the Coast Guard across various locations before transferring credits accumulated during her service toward her degree at UC Irvine. Balancing reserve duties with academics has been challenging; she once had to pause studies due to being recalled for FEMA hurricane response work five weeks into her first quarter.
“I was five weeks into my first quarter at UC when I was recalled to active duty to work for FEMA hurricane response,” she explains. “Initially, I was frustrated because I had already gotten halfway through the quarter and I was so excited to step forward into being a full-time student. But the mission made it worth it.” Lassiter was gone for two months and had to scrap the fall quarter, retaking the same classes in winter. But her resilience and Coast Guard discipline kept her on track.
She now works at UC Irvine’s Veteran Services Center helping others adjust from military structure into civilian academic life: “It can be a really hard transition… Now we’re all kind of out on our own… Finding each other… We’re not wearing the uniform anymore, but we’re not alone.”
Sebastian Smith retired from two decades as an Air Force cybersecurity specialist before enrolling as a plant biology major at UC Davis with plans for doctoral study and scientific research. He previously attended Syracuse University but dropped out due partly to lack of family experience with higher education.
“The military forced me to confront my weaknesses and learn to do things that were uncomfortable, like public speaking,” he says. “I had so many spectacular experiences throughout my career… But I didn’t necessarily enjoy my professional field.”
Smith mentors younger classmates—some seek his advice instead of approaching professors directly—and shares his educational journey with his children; his youngest lives with him while finishing high school online.
Nathaniel Wentland is pursuing an MBA at UC Davis after serving as both merchant marine officer and Navy reservist over ten years around the world—including deployments during COVID-19 lockdowns abroad—and raising his family stateside thanks partly due accessing GI Bill benefits for advanced study.
Wentland found support through campus resources such as Veteran Success Center where he also works planning events tailored toward financial literacy among peers: “He now plans events for military-connected students like himself including programs on financial planning budgeting how strategically use GI Bill benefits.”
These stories highlight how veterans across University of California campuses navigate challenges unique among nontraditional students by drawing upon their backgrounds while forging new paths academically.
