A Veteran Lifestyle

By Kelly Contreras | Published by Oct. 25, 2018

Just a few years ago, Louis Valderrama was working on a MaxxPro vehicle designed to withstand explosive device attacks. Today, you can find him in class, taking courses in Public Administration.

Valderrama was in the U.S. Army for four years and is now one of 256 veterans studying at Kean University. He is currently working on a second bachelor’s degree in Public Administration and is expected to graduate this spring.

Some veterans had poor experiences in the military and get uncomfortable discussing them. But 29-year-old Valderrama saw the army as a positive experience.

“[The Army] does change you as a person, I want to say, mentally because you’re so used to the culture you are living in,” Valderrama said.

It even changed him physically. Valderrama went into the service at 130 pounds and came out 200 pounds.

“Our sergeants were prior physical fitness trainers so they would take me to the gym every day and tell me what to eat,” Valderrama said.

He credits the service with teaching him discipline, structure and improved time management skills.

“… It was definitely a shock when I first went in,” said Valderrama. “because right off the bat, they try to break you down. They want you to have that military bearing so they want you to think as a team and work as a team so they can give you a bunch of obstacles to complete whether it be physically [or] mentally.”

At first, the given tasks are not getting completed. But this structure was for troops to be able to work without hesitation. Hesitation can put a stop in a plan and lead to harming your team.

This system challenges you to think ahead and plan out what you are going to do and how.

In the army, he was stationed in Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training and then went to  Fort Bliss in Michigan to work with contractors at Navistar. He was in Fort Benning in Georgia for two years and he was also in Texas at one point.

While in Michigan he had to work with civilians on a MaxxPro vehicle which was designed to protect those inside the vehicle from an improvised explosive device (IED) attack. He needed to take apart the vehicle top to bottom, reassemble it, and have any task given to them completed on a deadline.

This kind of work forced many to become structured in a manner where they can handle a lot of pressure and having a deadline that may as well be 30 minutes from the moment they received the task.

Valderrama joined the Army in 2014 after graduating from Montclair State University with a dual degree in animation and illustration. At that time, he was interning at Marvel Comics where he discovered animation wasn’t what he had imagined.

He decided to sign up for the military because he wanted to see the world.

Today, when he’s not in class, he works in the Kean University Veteran Student Services Office, where he assists veterans in applying for their benefits online and guiding them through the process.

Although the Veteran Student Services Office does not provide tutoring, Valderrama, when he has free time, personally tutors any veteran who needs help, including helping veterans to pick out their classes.

He is also very civil-minded. He volunteers for Project Adelante here at Kean where he is the tutoring mentor for the ESL kids.

During the summer, he worked in Elizabeth at Proceed, Inc., where they have a homeless prevention program. He mainly did case management work, but would occasionally do social work as well.

Within this program, even if he, or anyone else in the company could not help, they would still guide them into another company with programs which would assist the family further in their situation.

Like others, Valderrama sees both a positive and a negative side to being a veteran.

Some pros are that all of his classes are already paid for, they receive the same first pick for classes as athletes do, and the $100 graduation fee is waived.

He is currently using his GI Bill post 911, which basically covers his entire tuition. He considers this benefit, not a scholarship, but more like a promise provided by the government as long as he fulfills his contract.

And although he does receive the military discount in many other stores, he does not like to use it. He feels, “there are other veterans that deserve better,” stating that his opinion is that he did not do much to deserve the benefits and there are other veterans who have done more.

Valderrama doesn’t talk much about being a veteran. Unless necessary, he said many will not share the fact that they are veterans. They do not like to be spotlighted.

“We don’t like that attention …  with me personally it just gives me anxiety,” he said. “I don’t see myself as I did anything great you know?”

After he was discharged, he came to Kean University.

“At first it was kind of rocky … I haven’t done math since 2010 … for so long I felt like I couldn’t do it … I don’t think this is for me, I need to switch majors.”

He made his decision, and after being inspired by one of his friends who works with helping others at Planned Parenthood, he decided on Public Administration as his major.

For many, leaving the army can be a tough road. Valderrama considers himself lucky.

“When you get out of the military, you are always given a test to do, but when you get out, no one’s telling you what to do anymore so you kind of have to figure it out for yourself.”

Valderrama continues to explain the issue veterans face when returning back from the military.

“I want to say that a lot of veterans have trouble adjusting when they come back because they don’t have that structure so I think it’s important to also continuously keep yourself busy.”

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