April is the Month of the Military Child. For Sabrina Lussier, it is also the month she wraps up four years at Syracuse University: three majors, a semester in Florence, a research fellowship, and a master’s program waiting on the other side.
Military service runs deep in Sabrina Lussier’s family. Her grandfather served in the Army. Her father, a Navy captain, flew P-3s and logged 30 years of service. When his own father died young, all eight siblings put themselves through college on Navy and Air Force ROTC scholarships, their mother raising the family on her own.
“The ROTC programs were how my grandma afforded for all of her kids to go to college,” Sabrina said.
That legacy of finding the “door” the military opens for higher education is exactly what Sabrina did at Syracuse University. By utilizing post-9/11 GI Bill® benefits, the Yellow Ribbon Program and being awarded the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Endowed Florence Scholarship, that put a Maxwell education within her reach. She finished three majors, spent a semester in Florence, and after graduating in May she is returning for her master’s degree.
A Year in Stuttgart and a Lesson That Stuck
Sabrina’s father spent much of his post-flying career in defense contracting at Fort Meade, and his reserve commitment meant the occasional weekend away, not the back-to-back deployments or cross-country moves that mark other military childhoods. But when Sabrina was 5, he took an active-duty assignment in Stuttgart, Germany, and the family went with him.
For a year, Sabrina and her sister attended German-language school. Her mother, originally from Germany and in the U.S. on a Fulbright scholarship when she met Sabrina’s father at George Washington University, worked her job remotely. The family visited relatives stationed in Naples. Sabrina was too young to fully understand what she was seeing and experiencing, but the impact of that travel helped shape her for years to come.
“I was able to see a different style of urban planning,” she said. “Where it’s much denser, there’s a lot of focus on walkability, being able to bike places. My sister and I could go down the street and get fresh bread in the morning.”
That one year in Stuttgart quietly pointed her toward everything she would study at Syracuse University. She is now finishing three majors at the Maxwell School: citizenship and civic engagement, geography, and environment, sustainability and policy. Her senior capstone focused on the I-81 demolition project and its impact on the East Adams neighborhood. She served as vice president of client relations for Slice Consulting, Syracuse University’s student-run pro-bono consulting firm, and spent the last two years as a Lender Center for Social Justice Research Fellow, wrapping up with a public panel presentation just last week.
” I am deeply interested in urban planning and city infrastructure. After seeing how important walkability and development was in other countries, I wanted to bring that to life for communities in the United States. Those are the environments I want to help create,” she said, “so that there’s more economic opportunity and better social justice outcomes.”
Next fall, she returns to Maxwell for a master’s in public administration through the five-year accelerated program.
Making It Work Financially
Sabrina’s older sister went to the University of Rochester. Their father, who spent 30 years watching the military keep his family afloat, split his Post-9/11 GI Bill® entitlement between both daughters, four semesters of tuition assistance each.
For students attending private institutions, the Post-9/11 GI Bill® covers tuition and fees up to the VA’s annual cap of $29,920.95 for the 2025-2026 academic year. At private institutions, that cap can still leave a gap in what students need to cover. The Yellow Ribbon Program closes it.
Syracuse University contributes toward remaining tuition costs, and the VA matches that contribution dollar for dollar. To qualify, students must be eligible for the post-9/11 GI Bill® at the 100% benefit level. For those who do qualify, Syracuse University places no limit on the number of students who can participate in the program and no cap on what it will contribute. That combination puts Syracuse University among the most accessible Yellow Ribbon institutions in the country.
For Sabrina, this made all the difference. The Yellow Ribbon benefit, combined with the Post 9/11 GI Bill®, made Syracuse University a real option instead of a reach. “It made the most financial sense to come here,” she said. “Obviously it influenced my decision.”
She had not planned to visit Syracuse University. It was a stop on a college road trip, on the way to Boston, because a cousin had gone there. She walked campus on a warm August day, toured the student center, and something clicked.
“The campus was inviting, the support services for military connected students was unmatched, and I didn’t realize the Maxwell School was so highly ranked with such a variety of majors,” she said.
Once she enrolled, using her GI Bill® benefits turned out to be one of the simpler parts of starting college. The Office of Veteran Success, which sits within the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs (OVMA) and manages education benefit certifications for thousands of military-connected students every year, made the process straightforward.
“I haven’t had any trouble when I’m trying to apply my military benefits,” Sabrina said. “The OVMA and OVS team made it really easy to focus on my coursework without worrying about financial processing for my tuition.”
Finding Her Place in the Community
Not every military-connected student at Syracuse University is a veteran. The community includes ROTC cadets, active-duty students, military spouses and dependents like Sabrina, who grew up shaped by service without wearing a uniform themselves.
She felt that quietly when she first arrived. “I always felt hesitant to use OVMA resources,” she said. “I don’t want to say I don’t deserve to be there, but I have a different level of commitment to the United States military.”
In her junior year, Sabrina received The Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Endowed Florence Scholarship, with her military connection giving her a sense of community and acceptance to identify as a military child at Syracuse University.
Daniel D’Aniello ‘68, a Navy veteran, is one of the most committed supporters of military-connected students and programs at Syracuse University. His giving helped establish the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF), funded the National Veterans Resource Center that now bears his and Gayle’s name, and underwrote an endowment to send veterans and military-connected students to Florence. The reason for Florence is personal. D’Aniello studied abroad in Florence as an SU student himself, and he wanted that experience available to students for whom it might otherwise seem out of reach.
“Being able to apply for that and then receiving it felt like recognition that my status in the community still existed and still was important, even if I myself hadn’t served,” she said.
In Florence, she met a close friend who was also a recipient. They had not known each other was military connected until they were sitting together in Italy, comparing notes.
“I said, I didn’t know that your parents had served,” Sabrina recalled. “Little things like that make it feel like you’re part of the community, that it’s okay to not have served but still be military connected.”
You Belong Here, Too
Sabrina is not an outlier. Syracuse University has one of the largest and most supported military-connected student populations in the country, and military children are a real part of it. They show up having moved every few years, having held families together through deployments, having built resilience in circumstances most of their classmates have never faced. That experience does not disappear when they walk through the gates.
Her advice to any military kid figuring out what comes next starts with something practical.
“Higher education is so expensive,” she said. “Do your research about what you or your parents qualify for. I was lucky that my dad is organized and knows what I qualify for. But I know for other people it can be really overwhelming to navigate the paperwork.”
Then she makes it simple.
“There are a million different ways to get to the same place,” she said. “Go the place that will give you the most opportunities to become what you want to.”
For Sabrina, that was Syracuse University. She finishes her undergraduate degree and comes back in the fall to work towards her master’s in public administration.
If you grew up in a military family, your story matters here. Syracuse University’s Office of Veteran and Military Affairs is your starting point, for education benefits, for scholarships like the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Endowed Florence Scholarship, for processing your GI-Bill® or Yellow Ribbon benefits, career support, and for the community of people who understand where you come from.
Military children are part of this military community. OVMA is your front door.