安东尼·西尔斯 ’21 will become a double Eagle this summer when he graduates with a master's degree in cybersecurity. 凯特琳·坎宁安摄.
In 2014, 安东尼·西尔斯 was a sophomore at Curry College in Milton, Mass., busy building an impressive résumé as a member of the Communication Scholars Program while acting in Curry Theater productions. 到了第二年夏天, he’d traded in his student ID for an assignment aboard the Coast Guard Cutter 莫比尔湾这是一艘位于威斯康星州斯特金湾的破冰船. It was the first of many assignments he would have over the next four years.
这是一个戏剧性的转变, 但西尔斯一直喜欢新的体验, 即使他们把他引向一条非传统的道路. 今年夏天，他将开启新的篇章, graduating with a Master of Science in 网络安全政策与治理 from the 伍兹高等教育学院, 在科技领域开始新的职业生涯. He’ll be 27 years old when he accepts his diploma, and he wouldn’t change a thing.
“我在库里做得很好, 但我住的地方离我儿时的家只有一条街, 我想在一个新的水平上挑战自己,他最近说。. “People think you’re supposed to go to college at 18 and graduate at 22, 但是度数上没有时间戳.”
“我想要旅行，我想要冒险，我想要服务。”
Growing up in Boston, Sears had plenty of inspirations for military service in his family. 他的父亲是一名海岸警卫队队员, and his paternal grandfather had joined the Marine Corps before attending Harvard University and later commissioning as an Army officer. His maternal grandfather joined the Navy following the attack on Pearl Harbor, 参加过第二次世界大战和朝鲜战争.
In 2015, 西尔斯结束了他在库里的春季学期, 宣誓加入海岸警卫队, and hopped on a bus to Training Center Cape May for boot camp. By August, he was underway on the Great Lakes with the 140-foot 莫比尔湾. “I had aspirations to sail the world, but they had other plans for me," he joked. “我改航行到五大湖."
Sears acts as the coxswain in charge aboard a 29-foot Response Boat-Small II during a training in Block Island Sound.
第二年, 他前往弗吉尼亚接受水手长训练, 升为士官, 在接下来的三年里，他驻扎在纳拉甘西特, 罗德岛州. 在这里, he gained the biggest responsibility of his life as a coxswain in charge aboard 45-foot and 29-foot response boats, tasked with conducting maritime search and rescue missions in Block Island Sound. 准备, Sears underwent a rigorous qualification process that evaluated his abilities in both seamanship and leadership.
“They basically hand you a $4 million boat at age 22 and say you’re in charge, 别搞砸了,他回忆道. “We’d train non-stop in vessel navigation and towing, damage control, first aid, and firefighting.”
西尔斯发现纳拉甘西特地区很美, 但仍然不是他梦寐以求的热带港口停靠. 他开始考虑下一步行动. 他突然想到要重新入伍, but his superiors had made it clear that a far-flung assignment would only come after another multi-year commitment. Going back to school appealed to him, but the logistics seemed complicated.
“I wasn’t really sure how my credits would transfer, or what weight my GPA would carry,他回忆道. “当你是一名老兵, 你没有高中辅导员帮你, 我真的不知道该去哪里找.”
“我又有什么可失去的?’
Sears was home on leave in the fall of 2018 when he got the answers to his questions. 戏剧迷, he was returning from a casting call for the movie Ted 2 (he ended up being an extra in the film) when he caught a familiar glimpse of Gasson Hall in the distance and made an impulsive decision.
“Like all kids from Massachusetts I had wanted to go to BC at one point and I thought, “管他呢?”?’”他回忆道. “我停好车，加入了我看到的第一个旅行团. 我马上就有了家的感觉.”
The visit turned into an hours-long meet-and-greet with members of the Woods and BC veterans communities, and Sears spent the next three months “putting his heart and soul” into an application for admission. 他完成了海岸警卫队的合同, 光荣地退出现役, and attended his first class as an Eagle in the fall of 2019.
Being back on a college campus felt novel to Sears, but the academic pace didn’t faze him. He took pointers from a classmate who was a Marine veteran, and aced his first midterm. The Coast Guard had prepared him to absorb “a fire hose of information,并投入必要的工作来掌握材料. He enrolled in all sorts of classes, relishing the next phase of his adventure.
“I had such an awesome experience because I got to take classes that ranged from leadership to criminology, to topics like Christianity in Africa and History of New England,他说. “Plus, I had people in my corner rooting for me like my advisors and the other veterans.”
伍兹学院的咨询办公室帮助西尔斯使用 以前未从海岸警卫队转移的JST学分 提前一年毕业, allowing him to use the remainder of his GI Bill to cover a master’s degree. A Navy veteran who became Sears’ unofficial mentor encouraged him to enroll in the Woods 网络安全政策与治理 程序, 西尔斯公司申请了, taking his first two courses—Role of Intelligence and International Cybersecurity—while still technically an undergraduate.
海岸警卫队的座右铭是 时刻准备着他谈到自己的驾驶时表示. “我们随时准备好了.”
“大社区中的小社区”
Looking back, it’s impossible for Sears to separate his BC experience from his identity as a veteran. He feels he owes much of his academic success to the preparation he received as a Coast Guardsman, both in the classroom there and as part of a diverse crew working toward a common goal. 同时, 在BC的教室里有其他退伍军人, 以及进入大学的通道 student-veteran资源, helped ease his transition from active-duty serviceman to full-time student.
“One of the best resources at BC for veterans is other veterans,他说. “我们有着相似的背景, 相似的人生观, 我们不害怕参与对话和辩论. 我认为我们带来了很多.”
在2月份, Sears was nominated by his advisors for the American Council on Education’s 2021 Student Veteran of the Year Award, which recognizes veterans who have used military education credits to earn a college degree. This summer, he’ll receive his second BC degree, start a new job at Dell EMC, and begin pursuing an M.B.A. 卡罗尔管理学院的教授同时继续在海岸警卫队预备役服役.
不走寻常路，走上正轨.
Alix Hackett b|大学通信| 2022年5月