“Navigating my way through school as a first generation college student, I made a lot of mistakes. I could have done things a lot differently if I’d had mentorship or guidance on how to make decisions. I believe that I went through that and found myself within the military higher education space over six years ago, really just wanting to be what I needed when I got out.” - Justine Evirs

Justine Evirs is the Senior Director of Programs at Service to School. She is a Navy veteran and Navy spouse, and has helped countless veterans find and be accepted to their ideal college and grad school programs. She started out as a Fireman in the US Navy, and has dedicated the last 6 years to transforming our active duty, military spouse, and veteran community through academic advising & program development. She has worked at ECPI University, the University of Maryland, and College of San Mateo in veteran services coordinator positions. The top reason to listen to this episode is:

1. Education - Justine has spent over 6 years helping veterans find the right school (undergraduate or graduate) and program to accelerate their career. She's got extremely helpful advice about how to maximize your educational experience
2. Entrepreneurship - Seth talks about starting a business, a brewery, and a foundation all at the same time
3. Mentors - Seth does a great job of talking about how to find and learn from mentors as veterans pursue their civilian career

Our Sponsor:

• Audible is offering one FREE audio book to Beyond the Uniform listeners. You can claim this offer here, and see a list of books recommended by my guests at BeyondTheUniform.io/books

Selected Links

• Related Episodes - if you liked this episode, I would recommend you check out the following episodes:
  • Tim Hsia - Founder of Service to School
  • David Lee - used Service to School to go from the Marines to the Stanford Graduate School of Business
  • Alex Chivers - Army Ranger NCO to Dartmouth
• Service 2 School
• Veterati - Veterati is a free mentorship platform. Our mentors are professionals volunteering to serve those who have served our country.
• Student Veterans of America (SVA) - Student Veterans of America presents groundbreaking research about student veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
• American Corporate Partners - Founded in 2008, ACP aims to ease the transition from the military to the civilian workforce.
• LinkedIn - essential for networking and very underutilized by veterans

Show Notes

• 2:39 - Justine’s background
• 3:47 - How Justine found herself unexpectedly facing a career transition far earlier than she expected
• 8:00 - Justine’s road from the Navy, through higher education, to Service to School
• 10:40 - Why Justine advocates education after military service instead of going directly into industry
• 13:50 - An overview of Service to School
• 21:30 - Some common mistakes that veterans make when applying to attending higher education after military service
• 29:20 - How to start to uncover - while on active duty - what you may want to do afterwards
• 35:10 - How to find the right school for you
• 41:45 - Advice on pursuing education after the military vs. while on active duty
• 46:00 - Recommended resources
• 48:08 - Final words of wisdom