LAWRENCE MACDONALD JR., CLASS OF 2018
I served in the United States Air
Force from 2006-2012 as a Missile Maintenance
Technician at F.E. Warren Air
Force Base, Wyoming. I grew up in the Olean, N.Y., area and knew before graduating
high school that I wanted to follow the family members before me and serve in
some capacity.
Conversations with then Master Sergeant and my Uncle Robert
MacDonald, led me to enlist in the Air Force at the age of 19 and that
experience would change my life. I lacked discipline and the work ethic to see
a task to its completion, and if anyone who may be reading this has served in
any capacity, the lack of either is typically corrected first upon arrival at
Basic Military Training.
I consider myself lucky to have experienced military service the way that I did. I may not have made it a career, but the tools to set me up for success, that all my supervisors and leaders along the way, provided have enabled me to take advantage of opportunities that come my way. A phone call to admissions in St. Bonaventure would be the catalyst of that change.
Struggling with college shortly
after separating from the service left a bad taste in my mouth. For the first
time in years I had been unsuccessful in one of my goals. I would later find
out that there are many others like me, who had trouble during their transition
into civilian life and that they felt the same way I did, that giving up and
joining the workforce, as respectable as it is, just wasn’t for us. Coming back
home to St. Bonaventure put me in the company of people who had experienced the
same things I had and through my relationships with those people empowered meto pursue my goals like never before, and in the process, create new goals.
That’s what this initiative is. It’s a new goal that this group of veterans has decided to collectively tackle, an opportunity to give back to the University that brought us all together, a chance to help our brothers and sisters in the future who may need this pilgrimage by laying the groundwork to send 2 veterans a year, and a chance for all of us to deepen the relationships that we’ve created here with one another.
Thanks for the read!
