The GI Bill is something that is very popular amongst our military servicemembers. Navy Veteran, Antonia Stephenson II, took full advantage of his military benefits, post his Navy career. He’s currently enrolled at DeVry University and is majoring in Finance. The transition to full time active duty servicemember to full time student and business owner has been quite the challenge but Antonia seems to be up for the challenge.
“I can’t lie, at first I was overwhelmed and I was just in a weird space in my life because I was so used to a certain lifestyle for eight years”, Antonia explains. The government does an amazing job and making sure our military veterans are made a priority when it comes to education and jobs. “The reception I’ve gotten since being out of the Navy has really been amazing, there are so many resources that’s available to me that I honestly don’t even know where to start with them”, he laughs.
Antonia said he wasn’t quite ready to take on the full-on campus lifestyle of going to class every day and socializing with students who just graduated High School so for now he’s enjoying learning online. Education was never a big priority to Antonia until he realized the huge need for more African American men to be in the finance space. “I saw an article that predicted that wealth in the black communities would be 0 in a few years and that honestly, just didn’t sit right with me”, he says. It’s safe to say that he has found his mission and is taking it on full steam ahead. He’s considering getting his masters as well but says he just wants to focus on his Bachelor’s Degree for now. He hopes that all military veterans are taking advantage of all the government funded programs that’s been laid out for them because his experience so far has been amazing.
Antonia is hoping to be an inspiration to other military veterans that are on the fence about pursing their education, post their military careers.