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Veterans Day 2023 - Video

At University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), we salute our veterans for their sacrifices and service to our country. In 1949, UMGC was the first university to send faculty overseas to educate active-duty military personnel in Europe. This Veterans Day, we’re sharing the experiences of students and staff who understand what it means to serve, both in the military and in civilian life.Ìý

Image Still for Video: 2023 Veterans Day Video

Transcript

VIDEOAUDIO
OPENING TITLE GRAPHICOPENING MUSIC

Stock footage

ÐÒ¸£±¦µ¼º½ and students

NARRATION:

Service has always been at the core of the U.S. military through the decades and the conflicts – it’s a mission that University of Maryland Global Campus shares with many of our students and staff.

Lower third
Sharon Fross
VP and Dean, School of Integrative and Professional Studies, UMGC

Sharon Fross:

My father enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor. You grow up with that and understanding, you know, the role of the military and how important that they are.

Lower third
Larry Hill
UMGC Graduate and Veteran

Larry Hill:

And it was also one of the best decisions that I've ever made to join the US military.Ìý It was.Ìý And first and foremost, to serve my country.Ìý

Caitlin pix

Lower third
Caitlin Bassett
UMGC Graduate and Veteran

Caitlin Bassett:

I came from a family of service. My father was infantry in Vietnam. My grandfather was a pilot in World War Two. What was happening in the world always felt like the family business.Ìý So, I turned 18. A week later, I enlisted in the United States Army, and a month after I graduated, I was off, and I’d do it again.

Old BW UMGC footage

NARRATION:

Starting after World War Two, UMGC was right there alongside the military … offering college classes around the globe.

Lower third
Joe Arden
Former UMGC Faculty and Administrator

Stills

Joe Arden:

We always took unusual pride in beginning classes in very out of the way, distant locations where there were only a few U.S. soldiers, whether that was in Australia, Moscow, Beijing, whether it was in the Balkans.

Lower third
Robert Scott
Former UMGC Faculty

Robert Scott:

I remember one of my colleagues described it as being in the education foreign legion.ÌýThey were very, very dedicated to the work they were doing.

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Joshua Camacho-Leuck
Customer Relations Management, UMGC Europe

ÐÒ¸£±¦µ¼º½ students

Joshua Camacho:

Being a military brat, it helped form the ideas of sacrifice, the fact that it's kind of a greater good.

It's important to put students first and they're the ones that are going to enrich their lives socially, economically, as well as career-wise, with one of the degrees that we provide.

Lower third
Vernon Taylor
UMGC Graduate and Veteran

Vernon Taylor:

I used the University and the GI bill to finish my four-year degree. In that process, I fell in love with the education process. Ìý

Vernon pictures

Narration:

When Vernon Taylor joined the Army in the early 1970s, he was looking to transform his life, he didn’t know the military experience would propel him to a career of helping others transform theirs.

Ìý

Vernon:

Something ingrained that says I will and want to give back, not only to those that I'm serving, but to the United States as a whole.

Soldiers video and pix

Narration:

That dedication to service led Taylor to help craft what is today known as the Joint Services Transcript. UMGC uses that to determine whether a student may obtain college credits for military experience – meaning they can reach their goal of a degree faster.

Soldier pic

Vernon:

It makes me feel good that most people right now in the military, once they see that, it's an automatic accomplishment. They move forward on it. It's easy to start when you have some credits than absolutely nothing.

Ìý

Vernon:

And that’s how I think overall that’s how you make the world a better place.

Lower third
Patricia Jameson
Director, Diversity and Equity Training,
UMGC Europe

Patricia Jameson:

I was born in a military hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. My father is Army. He served in the Army for 28 years.

Patricia footage

Narration:

For UMGC Staff member Patricia Jameson serving the military has been a lifelong job.

Patricia:

It's what I know. It's also giving back and supporting my colleagues.

Patricia pix

Patricia:

Working with UMGC is important to me because we get to provide educational opportunities to service members here overseas away from home.

We can bring opportunities to our service members here that they otherwise might not have.

And I just can't imagine life without the military.

LOWER THIRD
Kellen Zitani
Veteran and Military Education Coordinator,
UMGC Stateside

Kellen Zitani:

Being in the military, particularly when we are getting ready to deploy, is less to do about myself personally and more to do with, you know, the men and the women that I'm serving with my brothers and sisters. And it becomes about serving them as a means to, you know, better yourself.

Kellen stills

Narration:

Kellen Zitani had boots on the ground in 20 plus countries, including Japan, Iraq and Afghanistan. Since retiring, he’s been a teacher and now a military student advisor with UMGC.

Ìý

Kellen:

If there's something that I've learned, it's that the most valuable thing we can be is just a good human being. If we lived a life where we put other people's needs first, this would just be a much better world.

Flag shot and desert class

NARRATION:

That sense of mission that started at UMGC more than 75 years ago – still shapes who we are and what we do every day.

Lower third:
James Cronin
Vice President and Director
UMGC Asia

Jim Cronin:

So, I've been working with and for the military for my entire adult life. I kind of bleed ÐÒ¸£±¦µ¼º½ and bleed the military. It's part of my DNA.

Patricia:

I fell in love with UMGC. It's like, you know, you get to serve the military. You get to serve the students.

Ìý

Kellen:

Whether you serve in the military or whether you just do good deeds, I think having a servant's heart would really make this a better place for all of us.

Veterans sign

NARRATION:

ÐÒ¸£±¦µ¼º½ thanks our military, veterans, and family members for their service.