\u00a044% of students come from immigrant households<\/a>. Fuentes went on to say that his service directly helped expedite his parents\u2019 citizenship status.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWe wanted to share this information as many are unaware of this program\/benefit,\u201d said Farias Solis, president of the Veterans and Military Connected Club. \u201cEspecially with the current events going on, this (the military) can be a way to safeguard their families\u201d<\/p>\n
Farias Solis asked the students to raise their hands if they knew that their military service could help pay for their college. A couple of hands were raised.\u00a0 He then asked if the students knew that service members could get a paycheck to help cover expenses while attending school. Not a single hand was raised.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believed that it (the military) was the only thing that was going to get me my education,\u201d Fuentes said. \u201cFortunately, it did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fuentes went on to clarify that this is not a free education.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pay for that with our service,\u201d Fuentes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He discussed the physical toll of his time in the military, explaining that he continues to carry the physical pain with him every day, which is not standard for a 28-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing in life is free,\u201d said Fuentes. \u201cEverything gets paid for one way or another.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another important message the veterans wanted to communicate with the students is that the military can be a pathway to higher education, a career or a way out of a potentially tumultuous upbringing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can break cycles,\u201d said Jordan. \u201cWe tend to think that, because of the life that we’re living, that’s the only way so far, and that’s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tull told the students about his rough upbringing, explaining that he faced a high likelihood of joining a gang. He knew he had to leave to have a better life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you might have to make that call, too,\u201d said Tull. \u201cIt’s not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farias Solis also remarked on his experience growing up watching his friend group join gangs.\u00a0 He expressed that he had a desire to continue to be a part of that friend group; however, he had to make the right choice for himself. Now when he thinks about those friends and where they are now, he feels for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe military can open doors they may not even consider,\u201d said Jorden. \u201cSometimes we don\u2019t realize how much our stories can influence someone else\u2019s decisions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What made the panel unique was that it wasn\u2019t a recruiting panel. Instead, it was an honest conversation with veterans about their service, what their service allowed them to accomplish and what challenges they had to overcome because of their service.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe told them how it really is,\u201d said Farias Solis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cA lot of these kids are hungry for knowledge but may be scared to ask,\u201d said Juan Delacruz,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-517190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}