{"id":263428,"date":"2026-05-08T13:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/263428\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:28:13","slug":"how-one-veteran-turned-tragedy-into-a-tech-career-wftv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/263428\/","title":{"rendered":"How one veteran turned tragedy into a tech career \u2013 WFTV"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 For many students at the University of Central Florida, graduation marks the start of a new chapter.<\/p>\n

For Preston Strenth, it is the culmination of a journey shaped by military service, personal loss, and a determination to completely reimagine his future.<\/p>\n

Just a few years ago, Strenth was stationed in Kuwait serving in the National Guard. At the time, earning a computer science degree and landing a job in the tech industry felt far out of reach.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Before attending UCF, Preston Strenth was stationed in Kuwait, serving in the National Guard. For Preston Strenth, graduation is the culmination of a journey shaped by military service, personal loss, and a determination to completely reimagine his future. <\/p>\n

That changed after a tragedy involving a fellow service member. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a vehicle rollover accident, and we lost one of our service members,\u201d Strenth said. \u201cHe was 20 years old, was expecting to go to college up at the University of Michigan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Osceola County native said that loss became a turning point for many in his unit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Before attending UCF, Preston Strenth was stationed in Kuwait, serving in the National Guard. For Preston Strenth, graduation is the culmination of a journey shaped by military service, personal loss, and a determination to completely reimagine his future. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to do something with your life because we never know when we\u2019re going to get called,\u201d Strenth said.<\/p>\n

After returning home, Strenth enrolled at UCF, making the difficult transition from active duty to student life. He left military service in September 2023 and found himself sitting in classrooms with teenagers just four months later, and all while tackling one of the university\u2019s most demanding majors: computer science.<\/p>\n

Strenth said the sudden shift in structure was one of the hardest adjustments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Before attending UCF, Preston Strenth was stationed in Kuwait, serving in the National Guard. For Preston Strenth, graduation is the culmination of a journey shaped by military service, personal loss, and a determination to completely reimagine his future. <\/p>\n

That is when he connected with UCF\u2019s Office of Military and Veteran Student Success, a campus program designed to help veterans transition into academic life.<\/p>\n

Program director Mike Kepner said the support system is producing measurable results.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last four years, we\u2019ve watched the metrics, and we are seeing an increase in both our completion and our persistence rates,\u201d Kepner said. \u201cWe\u2019ve increased our GPA average over the past three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The office pairs transitioning veterans with peer mentors and provides guidance ranging from academics to career preparation.<\/p>\n

Strenth said many of those lessons were entirely new to him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Before attending UCF, Preston Strenth was stationed in Kuwait, serving in the National Guard. For Preston Strenth, graduation is the culmination of a journey shaped by military service, personal loss, and a determination to completely reimagine his future. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of like coaching me and mentoring as well,\u201d he said. \u201cLike saying, \u2018let\u2019s go over what a resume is.\u2019 I realistically never had a resume before. I never had LinkedIn until I came here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, as he prepares to walk across the graduation stage, Strenth already has a job lined up in the tech industry with BNY<\/a>, an opportunity he says came through connections he made while attending UCF.<\/p>\n

He says the years of pressure and sacrifices ultimately paid off.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Before attending UCF, Preston Strenth was stationed in Kuwait, serving in the National Guard. For Preston Strenth, graduation is the culmination of a journey shaped by military service, personal loss, and a determination to completely reimagine his future. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a lot of long nights, there have been a lot of stressful moments, and we have climbed the mountain, and now it is time to reap those rewards,\u201d Strenth said.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 For many students at the University of Central Florida, graduation marks the start of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1059,113630,51361,2652,16928,113625,109166,634,113628,115,113627,139,141,140,55141,113624,113629,7219,113626,1045],"class_list":["post-263428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-alexa_lorenzo","tag-bny","tag-carl_willis","tag-central_florida","tag-director","tag-kuwait","tag-linkedin","tag-local","tag-mike_koepner","tag-news","tag-office_of_military_and_veteran_student_success","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-osceola_county","tag-preston","tag-streng","tag-ucf","tag-university_of_michigan","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}