Local Veteran Shares SIUE Journey

EDWARDSVILLE - Veteran Jared Jess recently graduated from SIUE with a master’s degree, and he’s sharing his story to inspire other military members and first-generation students.

Jess’s path to SIUE wasn’t linear. After his active duty service, he knew he wanted to go to college but wasn’t sure where to begin. He credits the Warrior-Scholar Project, an “academic boot camp,” with helping him get the head start he needed.

“Ultimately, I would say, if you’re a veteran and you are thinking about going back to school, or maybe you even started going to school but you’re struggling in places and you think you could benefit from an academic boot camp like this, I would say just sign up, because it’s only going to help,” Jess said. “It may seem like a big step, and a lot of times veterans can be hard-headed or stuck in their ways, however we want to put it. But it’s only going to help, and it’s going to be a great experience.”

Originally from Jacksonville, Jess joined the Army at age 21. He served as an artilleryman in Washington State, then returned to the Midwest and joined the Illinois National Guard out of Springfield.

In the daytime, Jess would commute from Jacksonville to Lincoln Land Community College. He’d then drive back to Jacksonville to work as a corrections officer for the Warren County Sheriff’s Department in the evenings. Though Jess knew he wanted to go into engineering, he figured law enforcement could be a good “backup plan.” He spent his weekends running drills with the National Guard.

“I was just kind of trying to figure out where I was going to fit in in the civilian world,” he remembered.

With the help of the Warrior-Scholar Project, Jess soon started to thrive in school. He explained that the project invites veterans to enroll in a two-week program where they relearn basic writing, reading and STEM skills as a refresher before returning to a university setting.

At this point, Jess had graduated high school seven years earlier. The Warrior-Scholar Project gave him the opportunity to get comfortable in the classroom again. He attended the program at Princeton and learned from Princeton professors, then returned to Illinois with a renewed focus and passion for learning.

“I was exploring the idea of going back to school and then found this program and attended it, and then it kind of opened my eyes to what I could expect. It made it all seem a little bit more possible,” he explained. “It was just a really great experience and a really cool opportunity for veterans. It helped me a ton, and I’m sure it could help many other veterans. It was exactly what I needed to set me up for success.”

After his time at Lincoln Land, Jess transferred to SIUE in 2021 to enroll in their mechatronics and robotics engineering program. With a solid handle on his academics, he was able to engage in extracurriculars like Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity. He even “dabbled in politics” with the Student Government.

During his senior year, Jess joined an accelerated master’s program at SIUE. He graduated last month with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and now works at MiTech, Inc. in St. Charles, doing exactly what he always wanted to do.

Jess encourages other veterans to consider joining an academic boot camp like the Warrior-Scholar Project. He emphasized that there are a lot of resources available for veterans and first-generation students who want to attend school. He suggests doing some “internal research” to decide what field of study you’re interested in, then looking into programs that can help you get to where you want to be.

Above all else, Jess hopes his story reminds people that hard work and a little help can go a long way.

“There’s many, many programs out there to help you, just like the Warrior-Scholar Project,” he added. “Really, some of these programs are what some of us need as veterans. We haven’t been to school for sometimes a decade for veterans, sometimes more than that. A lot of these programs can help us get better into the mindset of what to expect and what is possible.”

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