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------The following article is submitted by Michael Brown------

The Veterans Upward Bound Project: Battling for a Higher Rung

 By Ken Lizotte

At this no-frills graduation ceremony, proud triumph was clearly in the air. Twenty-two adult graduates filed in to occupy their metal seats, lined up before giant floor-to-ceiling windows that peered out on Boston’s South Bay. Every onlooker in this large assembly room sensed (or knew) how much these grads had gone through to get themselves here. These were not your typical school daze graduates. These grads had faced down far deeper life challenges than athletic events, proms, frat parties and campus pranks. These graduates of UMass Boston’s Veterans Upward Bound Project had literally battled their way to get here, fending off job and marriage pressures, kid-raising, unending bills and taxes, and, for many of those present today, the high risk of getting maimed or killed while on duty in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The academic program they were completing had been no picnic either, of course, as the program’s director Barry Brodsky let everyone know as he opened the ceremony: “Since the 1970s, the staff of the Veterans Upward Bound Project has worked tirelessly to give veterans the very best of an education,” he began. “And we have insisted that our students never lower the bar as they labored here, so that they will be able to leave this program, get into a good college and do the work.”

To this, Joan Becker, Associate Vice Provost at UMass Boston, where the Upward Bound program is based, added: “It’s an honor and a privilege to be here tonight with these graduates, and we have some young children here tonight too. Thank you to all our veterans in the room for making it possible for them to have a safe future.” Addressing the soon-to-be-graduates directly, she bolstered Brodsky's words:  “You may have wanted to give up along the way. Some days you may not have wanted to come back here to school, some nights it may have felt just too hard. But you didn’t give up… this was your time, the beginning of a new time in your life when you invested in you. So with stick-to-itiveness, courage, whatever it took each day to keep going, you made sure you kept coming back/ You made sure you would be here tonight to graduate.”

Decked out in their blue caps and gowns, the graduates soaked up these many kudos while obviously relieved and thankful to have made the grade. But seeds of anxiety lurked inside as well, anticipations and fears about what would be next for them. Graduation meant that now they must climb to a loftier rung, a precarious higher level where they very well might fall. After this, each would head to a college with presumably tougher academic standards, and, as well, greater mental challenges and, likely, greater emotional challenges too. Could they hack it?

A large white board on a wall in the back of the room listed in large letters where each graduate would be going from here. Colby College was up there, Regis was up there too. A few would be coming right back here to UMass Boston as full-fledged day students, others to community colleges with names like Mass. Bay, Roxbury or Bunker Hill. All shared the same nagging in their ear: wherever they found themselves a few months from this day, the process they had begun here would not get any easier.

Founded in 1970, the Veterans Upward Bound Project aims to “provide a unique opportunity for men and women veterans of all ages to acquire academic skills required for entry into higher education institutions, and/or to acquire the equivalent of a high school diploma.” Classes are offered evenings over two 16-week cycles that span the academic year. Most of its graduates go on to attend good colleges and universities, an opportunity that would otherwise not have been possible but for the specialized instruction, tutoring and pep talks available to them here.

So on this late spring night, with a color guard of vets culled from Vietnam, Korea, WW II and even WW I, the National Anthem played to utmost attention, no ballgame whoops breaking out before it ended. Here the Anthem was listened to, respected, had meaning. Though a sumptuous catered buffet lay on long tables on a mezzanine above, no one cared about that right now. Though these festivities would work up everyone’s appetites, first came full attention to flag, country and graduates.

Keynote speaker Fred Green quickly ramped up the focus. “As veterans, because of your time in the service, you have discipline, structure,” he pointed out. “You’re ahead of the game in that way, you have advantages over students younger than you are who are less structured than you are. But it’s still not gonna be easy as you head into college life. You gotta have a system there, you have to let yourself get away by yourself at times, go some place where you can study and think… Always work one assignment ahead… Always prepare for next week, not just for this week, so that if some crisis comes up in your life and you miss the chance to study for that week, you’re ahead of the ballgame.”

Fred’s advice drew from personal experience. Today the Executive Director of the CEO Club of Boston, and formerly a very young CEO at a major insurance firm (age 38), in earlier years he had spent much growing-up time in the merchant marines, serving two tours of duty in Vietnam, plus missions to Malaysia, Africa, Europe and South America. His father had made him do it. “Back when I was in school, I was the class clown,” he recalled. “I had too much freedom. I hated studying. All I was good at was chasing girls! My dad took my freedom away by sending me to the Mass Maritime Academy. This was during the Vietnam War, so by taking away my freedom, he gave me structure and introduced seriousness into my life.”

When his merchant marines service ended, Fred faced a too-typical grim choice as a civilian: Drift into a job with no future or commit himself to a profession that might require extra hours of study and sweat to get ahead. As a young finance manager at an insurance firm, he earned a college degree part-time, went on to study for an advanced degree and hunkered down also to attain professional certification. He pursued all these goals while raising a family and holding down his full-time job.

“When I studied for those insurance exams, I had every hour of every day blocked out,” he told the room. “I once blocked out three hours so I could watch a Super Bowl, then it was back to studying right after the game ended. I used to go right to the library after a long day of work to hit the textbooks, then I’d go home about 7:30 PM, have some dinner, then climb the stairs in my house afterward to study some more. Next day it was up at 6 AM and I’d start all over again. Preparation, motivation, planning, discipline… these are the things that will get you to really work toward your goals. You’re in the process of giving yourself something that will have an impact for the rest of your life. So now is the time to buckle down.”

Fred knew exactly what these graduates could expect. He knew too how they needed to think, and what they needed to do, and what they needed to decide to do. With help from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, he summed the whole thing up: “Great is the art of beginning,” he quoted. “But even greater is the art of ending.” Translation: These graduates’ life challenges were not over with yet.

When Fred sat down, it was time to call the grads up and make it official. Famous quotations were read aloud as each diploma was handed out.

• “Well done is better than well said.” --Ben Franklin

• “Great minds have purpose, others have wishes.” --Washington Irving

• “The great thing is not so much where we are but in what direction we are moving.” --Oliver Wendell Holmes

• “The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot.”--Walter Baycaot

Some got special awards too, meaning a plaque and extra applause. And on the way back to their seats, diplomas and awards in tow, each seemed noticeably lighter, more erect, glowing with pride. Families and friends, and robust recent vets, and older vets consigned to wheelchairs all beamed and sparkled amid the boisterous camaraderie now enlivening the room.

“I salute you as you embark on the next phase of your journey,” Becker told them, amid a final burst of applause for all the new grads. It was a “next phase” that might prove their most formidable mission yet. But each felt equipped to accomplish it, not with a rifle but with the evidence of their completion of this program that they now held in their hands.

Ken Lizotte CMC is Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO) of emerson consulting group inc. (Concord MA), a consulting firm that transforms business experts and companies into “thoughtleaders.” Author of ”The Expert’s Edge: Become the Go-To Authority People Turn to Every Time” (McGraw Hill), he is a professional speaker at major business events and ongoing seminar leader at Harvard University. Visit his website www.thoughtleading.com

2008 Worldwide Public Affairs Symposium

April 01, 2008 Secretary of the Army Pete Geren presented the Civilian Broadcast journalist of the Year award to Tony McKinney as part of the Keith L. Ware Awards ceremony held during the 2008 Worldwide Public Affairs Symposium in McLean, Va. McKinney is the chief of broadcast operations at American Forces Network-Bavaria. Five other Army public affairs professionals were also honored during the ceremony. Photo by C. Todd Lopez...

April 01, 2008. Secretary of the Army Pete Geren presented the "Rising Star" for Outstanding New Broadcaster award to Spc. Nathan Jones as part of the Keith L. Ware Awards ceremony held during the 2008 Worldwide Public Affairs Symposium in McLean, Va. Jones is assigned to American Forces Network-Bavaria as a broadcast journalist. His morning radio show there reaches an audience of about 80,000. Five other Army public affairs professionals were also honored during the ceremony. Photo by C. Todd Lopez

BLINDED VETERANS ASSOCIATION

South Texas Regional Group

***NOTICE OF MEETING***

PURPOSE: General business meeting
DATE/TIME: Friday, April 18, 2008 at 1200 - 1400 hrs.
PLACE: VFW Post 8541, 2222 Austin Highway , San Antonio , Texas . The VFW Post is located 0.35 miles southwest of the intersection of Perrin Beitel Road and Austin Highway .

There will be live music for your entertainment.
Free lunch: We will be eating Chicken Fried Steak.
Hopefully, the cold weather and the flu season will be behind us. Let's celebrate Spring with good music, food and fellowship. 

Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Sidney Ordway JD, Ph.D.
President, STRG/BVA

Respectfully,
Mark A. Cornell, Director District 6
Blinded Veterans Association
Secretary-South Texas Regional Group

PHILADELPHIA (March 22, 2007) The decommissioned aircraft carrier EX-John F. Kennedy (CV 67) is towed Saturday, March 22, 2008 into the Port of Philadelphia, Penn. to join other decommissioned ships at the Navy Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ann Marie Gorden (Released)

The Air Force Thunderbirds solo pilots perform the crossover break maneuver during the March 11 acceptance show at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The acceptance show marks the beginning of the 2008 show season, which includes 37 showsites in the United States and Canada. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Justin D. Pyle)

Disabled Veteran Ski Clinic - More than 450 disabled veterans will ski the Rocky Mountains at the 22^nd National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass Village, Colo., March 30 – April 4. The clinic, co-sponsored by VA and the Disabled American Veterans, is open to U.S. military veterans with orthopedic amputations, visual impairments, spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries, certain neurological problems and other disabilities who receive care at VA or military medical treatment facilities. (more)

Old Glory's Journey of Remembrance

“Old Glory's Journey of Remembrance” is a nationwide flag raising effort that began on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, Dec. 7, 2007, and will culminate at the U.S. Capitol on Memorial Day, May 26, 2008.

During the six-month period, an American flag flown over the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 2007, during the Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremony there, is visiting 25 national cemeteries and historic battlefields before completing its journey during the National Moment of Remembrance ceremony in Washington, DC.

The Journey of Remembrance is organized by the White House Commission on Remembrance, which has partnered with the USS Arizona Pearl Harbor Memorial Museum to honor the service and sacrifices of America’s fallen heroes and the families they left behind.

In addition to 10 VA national and state veterans cemeteries, the flag will be flown at historic sites such as Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Appomattox Court House in Virginia, the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania and Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.

Members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, elected officials, military service representatives, veterans and their families, veterans cemetery representatives and other patriotic organizations are participating in the flag-raising ceremonies.

Click to view flag-raising schedule

"I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender nor retreat".  William Barrett Travis, The Alamo, 24 February 1836

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