On Veterans Day, Monday, Nov. 11, the nation will pause to acknowledge and honor those who have served with the uniformed military services in defense of the United States of America. From coast-to-coast, the country’s veterans will take part in public celebrations, cookouts, ceremonies and parades; though some may seem significantly smaller than those in years past.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Theresa Cross ’99, who graduated from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences with a bachelor’s degree in international relations, will be the guest speaker at the University’s official observance of Veterans Day this year. Cross says that to her, Veterans Day is as “American as apple pie.”
One thing that makes it personally important for her to observe the day is the low percentage of citizens who do choose to serve, “The total number of people who have served in military service to our nation is around 6%. To me, that’s a very small amount of people, and I think it’s a small amount to pay for the many sacrifices that those people have made for our country,” Cross says.
“At the time I was married, I had two children, and I had done my time in the Army. I knew I needed help with the kids to go to school full time, and Syracuse was a family school,” says Cross.
When Cross calls Syracuse University a “family school,” she means the school runs through her family’s veins through multiple generations of Syracuse University alumni, including most recently her own daughter, who graduated from the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the School of Education in 2014.
