Across the ten campuses of the University of California, a group of students with military backgrounds is finding new direction in higher education. These veterans and active-duty servicemembers bring discipline and a sense of community to their academic pursuits.
Hanh Dinh, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, is among those who have transitioned from military service to student life. The daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Dinh joined the Marines with the aim of using GI Bill benefits for college after seeing her brothers struggle to afford higher education. She worked as an ammunition technician before enrolling in community college during her final year and a half of service.
Dinh credits programs like the Warrior-Scholar Project for helping her gain confidence to pursue university studies. After attending a bootcamp at Yale University, she transferred to UC San Diego and became involved with the campus veterans center. Later, she supported other nontraditional students as a transfer peer coach and went on to earn a master’s degree in higher education administration at Penn. She now serves as 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 also found her way from military service into academia. Growing up in rural Virginia without easy access to higher education funding, Lassiter joined the Coast Guard at 15 years old seeking both humanitarian work experience and educational opportunities through GI Bill support. Over 15 years of service included roles as a small boat mechanic and IT specialist.
Lassiter eventually transferred credits accumulated during various postings into an Informatics major at UC Irvine while continuing part-time service in the Coast Guard Reserve. Balancing academics with reserve duties proved challenging; she was recalled for FEMA hurricane response five weeks into her first quarter at UC Irvine but persisted despite setbacks.
“It can be a really hard transition to leave the military ecosystem where you’re told what to do, where to be and when to be there. Now we’re all kind of out on our own, just finding our way as students,” Lassiter says. “Finding each other and being able to lean on each other and talk about our experiences, reflect on where we’ve been — that’s so important. We’re not wearing the uniform anymore, but we’re not alone. We’re all doing this together.”
Sebastian Smith retired from two decades in the U.S. Air Force before enrolling at UC Davis as a plant biology major aiming for doctoral research work—a significant career change after working as an Air Force cybersecurity specialist.
Smith had previously attended Syracuse University but left due to lack of guidance; he later enlisted after accompanying his wife—who was interested in joining—to meet recruiters. He describes how his time in uniform pushed him outside his comfort zone: “The military forced me to confront my weaknesses and learn to do things that were uncomfortable, like public speaking,” he says.
Now older than most classmates at UC Davis—and living on campus with his youngest child—Smith acts as an informal mentor: “They appreciate that I’m a veteran…I’ve had more than one professor tell me that it is like having a second teacher in the classroom.” His children are following similar paths through community college toward university transfer.
Nathaniel Wentland brought unique experiences—including commanding ships through dangerous waters—to his MBA studies at UC Davis after serving over ten years between merchant marine duty and Navy Reserve deployments worldwide.
Wentland used GI Bill benefits for graduate school while transitioning away from extended deployments toward family life ashore; he now works as peer advisor organizing events for fellow veterans through UC Davis’ Veteran Success Center: “I drove a $442 million ship through the Strait of Hormuz…lived out of a cargo container in Djibouti during the pandemic…spent a year documenting military casualties in Afghanistan,” Wentland notes about his background compared with typical MBA students.
These stories highlight how student veterans across University of California campuses draw upon their backgrounds while adapting skills learned during service—such as leadership under pressure—to succeed academically.
