“In Afghanistan, I went to towns where kids have zero opportunity,” says Ben Brickman a Marine veteran. “They grow up to turn a field with a shovel 12 hours a day until the day they die. That gave me so much perspective to recognize the opportunities in our country and made me want to seize every chance I have.”
Ben enlisted after high school and completed two tours in Afghanistan before attending Syracuse University in his mid-twenties. He is the first walk-on football player at SU since the 1930s. Now a senior, he looks back at his time attending SU positively and thankful for how support the University has been. Recently, SU has been ranked the #1 private institution for military veterans and #4 overall.
“I found out at Syracuse they cover 100% for veterans which was a massive weight off my shoulders,” says Brickman. “Coming out of the Marines, you think a school like Syracuse is out of reach but this University really went above and beyond for me as they do all veterans. They even found me some extra money to cover housing.”
He goes on to say how helpful the separate veteran organizations on campus are for supporting veterans, “I grew up two hours away but I still didn’t know anybody here,” says Brickman. “Within an hour of getting here though, the Student Veterans Organization and the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs introduced me to three or four people that quickly became my good friends.”
To read the full story of Ben Brickman, Marine veteran and walk-on football player, you can go here.