Bringing Veterans and JWU Community Together

Bringing Veterans and JWU Community Together

On November 11 of every year, we honor those who are currently serving, or who have served, in the United States Armed Forces. Veterans Day isn’t just about the service these individuals have completed. Rather, it’s about the dedication, responsibility and honor that these veterans chose to commit themselves to — not only for themselves, but for their country.  

To honor these heroes, Johnson & Wales University held events on each campus celebrating JWU’s staff, alumni and student veterans. JWU Charlotte hosted their event on November 10, and JWU Providence held their event on November 12. Both campuses invited the JWU community to come together for an evening of connection, gratitude and service.  

Gillian Howard '20 – Encouraging Connection Between Students and Alumni    

JWU Charlotte was ranked #7 by U.S. News & World Report among "Best Colleges for Veterans.” JWU is a recognized university for being certified for the GI Bill and participating in the Yellow Ribbon program. Campuses that are eligible meet a minimum number of enrolled undergraduate veterans and active-duty service members; they also provide a higher Yellow Ribbon funding rank than other institutions.  

Gillian Howard '20 was this year’s keynote speaker at the campus’ Veterans Day event. She served in the U.S. Air Force for 11 years and is the co-founder of The Junior Cultured Chefs, a culinary camp that teaches youth about food culture and sustainability.  

Howard’s discussion with the audience focused on how JWU has impacted her now that she’s a successful entrepreneur, as well as offering actionable measures to JWU alumni to get involved with the current student body.  

In her speech, themed ‘Never Leave a Wingman Behind,’ Howard shared that after her first six years of active duty, she came back to the U.S. and “struggled finding community, finding village, and finding tribe.”  

Howard was “truly falling in love with the idea of a ‘Chef Gillian.’” But after her first deployment, when she returned to JWU as a sophomore, she wasn’t the same. “No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t ‘snap’ out of it. I also didn’t know who I could talk to that would ‘get it.’”

But due to chefs and professors at JWU who took an interest in how Howard was doing, plus a field trip to a food desert, she realized that this is where she belonged. Helping people see food as medicine, teaching them how to use that food, and eventually co-founding The Junior Cultured Chefs made her feel a deep connection with what she was doing for people.  

Howard left veteran event attendees with an important message: “Every student is capable of amazing things; they just have to activate their superpowers.” She worried that sometimes students can’t see the power they have — and that’s where alumni come in.  

“As alumni, we have been there and done what they are doing,” Howard told the crowd. “We are actively doing it. Our kitchens, food trucks, stalls, carts and shops should be what ‘on the job’ training looks like for any of our future chefs! If I could be so bold, I’d say we were the liaison between someone else’s dreams and reality.”  

Howard ended the evening by inviting fellow JWU alums to step up: “Who was it in your career that emboldened you, that validated the gift you always knew you had but didn’t know how it could show up? What is stopping YOU, the alumni, from going back, taking the hand of a yesterday’s you, and pulling them forward, front and center?”  

George L. Ortiz '23 – Helping the Less Fortunate    

George L. Ortiz ’23, keynote speaker of JWU Providence’s Veterans Day event, served in the Marine Corps for 15 years. Today he is president of The ELISHA Project, a nonprofit working to address food insecurity.  

During his opening speech for the event, Ortiz focused on homelessness and how important community is when people need help the most. “Our mission was: how do we help people before they’re homeless?” he asked the crowd. “How do we help the people in-between who are going to school, who are working, who are trying to better themselves?”  

He shared some examples of his own service to people in the community: “A year ago, we (he and his wife) took over a veteran's organization that has a store in Joint Base Cape Cod, for the U.S. coast guards and the Air force, and a sandwich shop. Today, we held an event where we gave out 4,000 Home Depot buckets to 55 different Massachusetts police teams.”  

The idea was for the different police teams to have a more compassionate alternative to taking veterans on the streets to jail, instead giving them clothes or hygiene products to support them. This is what Ortiz's nonprofit is all about, which is helping to bring the community together.  

JWU was a big part of getting his nonprofit started. Recalled Ortiz: “The chefs here heard my story and said, ‘Why don’t you get food here?’”  

Ortiz explained why alumni are so important, sharing how chefs at JWU during COVID-19 came to the school in groups of two and three to cut down pounds of meat to be distributed in Rhode Island. The pastry department then got involved and started to donate pastries to homeless veterans.  

This tradition of The ELISHA Project collaborating with JWU’s Wildcat Food Rescue continued for several years. The Wildcat Food Rescue have since been combatting food insecurity in other ways.  

Ortiz ended his speech with a message: “You learn every single day, and network and community are super important. I’m proud of what you guys are doing, and I love what we’re doing here.”  

A Veteran Professor’s Perspective on Campus   

Bernard Brennan, Ph.D., is an assistant professor for political science at JWU Providence and has taken on the advisor role for the veteran student organization on that campus. He served in the Marine Corps for about 11 years.  

Brennan finds it a bit difficult to separate his teaching style from his experience in the military, as the two seem to go together. “I spent most of my 20s in the Marine Corps, so it’s a large part of my personality, my outlook on life and the way I see the world,” he shares.  

Brennan turned 21 in boot camp and has served two years in Iraq. He shares that he’s been studying political science ever since. "It’s hard for me to separate those things,” he shares. “I’ve just been ensconced in this stuff for my entire adulthood.”  

As the advisor for the veteran student organization on campus, Brennan shared, “We’ve had some success and some failure, but we have a handful of involved and interested student veterans. And we’re very much wanting and inviting everybody else with a military background at JWU.”  

Brennan wants to have that community aspect within the veteran student organization: “College is about social interactions and finding common interests among people.”  

When asked how it makes him feel as a veteran that JWU Charlotte was ranked #7 by U.S. News & World Report among "Best Colleges for Veterans,” Brennan responded, “I’m extremely pleased about that because for one thing, North Carolina has an enormous Marine Corps presence. There’s a huge number of my fellow Marines who could be served by JWU Charlotte. I think that’s a fantastic opportunity, and I wish them a lot of success.”  

“I think that’s an enormous potential source for JWU students. Student veterans come with funding, they come with the GI Bill and have government backing. So, this is a win for everybody. More student vets at JWU, absolutely!”  

A Student Veteran’s Take on Veterans Day   

Marina Kearns ’26 is studying Hospitality Management on the Providence Campus; she also served in the Navy for five years. Now out of the military, she describes her experience as a student on campus: “The military provides you a sense of structure and adherence to deadlines. Having that military background set me up for success, as well as the mindset that failure is not an option.”  

“Knowing that graduation is the end goal, and everything else in between is a mission, helped me stay on track of my schoolwork and my success here,” Kearns adds.  

As a veteran student on campus, Kearns does find some challenges: “I think sometimes there’s a disconnect with age and experience that makes it hard to connect with the student body.”  

While there may be a gap between Kearns and her peers, supportive faculty members have helped her feel that connection on campus.  

“Tapping into that community of professors and letting them know I am struggling led to them giving me insight guiding me on how to be a civilian and a student,” she shares. “It’s been a great tool to be able to be open about certain things and how they understand it.”  

In fact, Kearns notes, “Some of my professors have had family in the military, and we’ve had conversations about that. It’s a good connection because if I were to be having a difficult time, there’s an understanding from that professor.”  

Kearns summarizes what the military has given her and what she believes it could offer other people: “I think it gives you a foundation for life, a sense of discipline, responsibility, pride and accountability — and those things can’t be purchased.”  

JWU Staff Connecting with Veterans on Campus   

Liam “Auggie” Coll, JWU Charlotte’s veteran student services associate, helped coordinate the campus’ Veterans Day event. Coll works with students and parents to navigate applying their VA Educational Benefits, explaining, “It can be complicated and confusing, so I make sure students are taking full advantage of their benefits.”  

Coll expresses that working with the armed forces has been great for him: “They bring a maturity and responsibility which make my life easier!”  

While Coll has not served in the armed forces himself, he has “family members who have served including both my grandfathers (Navy and Army).”  

This has contributed to his drive that “there is always more we can do to give back to our service members.” He explains, “I am more than happy to give back and help them navigate their benefits and everything they already earned through their service.”  

Supporting Veterans at JWU All Year long   

While veterans are acknowledged every November, for many people, it’s a yearlong celebration of the people in their lives who choose to make a difference for themselves and their country.  

JWU is a Yellow Ribbon school, which means making sure that the veterans on campus feel supported in their academic, social and professional challenges at JWU is important to the staff and people involved.  

This funding from Yellow Ribbon Universities covers the cost of tuition that isn’t covered by the GI Bill, including extra fees and benefits. This ensures that student veterans and active-duty service members can have the coverage they need to attend the public, private, or out-of-state universities that they want to attend.  

JWU wants every veteran – whether staff, students, alumni or families – to feel acknowledged not only on November 11, but every day of the year. So, whether you’re new to campus or have been here, JWU thanks you for your service and is here to help you in any way we can!

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