GTCC’s Veterans Resource Center helped make transition from Navy back to the classroom much easier for Justin Tyler

“I used the resource center, all the resources there. If I wasn’t up there to do any work, I was up there chatting with other veterans. It was where I hung between classes,” said Tyler.

When Justin Tyler was a senior at Walkertown High School in 2014, he knew the time was not right for college.

“I was tired of sitting in a classroom,” Tyler said.

He enlisted in the U.S. Navy immediately after high school graduation and spent the next eight years serving his country.

For the past two years, though, the Triad native has been very comfortable in a Guilford Technical Community College classroom. He graduated from GTCC earlier this month with an Associate of Arts in general studies, and this summer, he will return to the classroom, this time at the University of North Carolina Charlotte where he will major in criminal justice.

“One of the reasons I went straight to the military was because I didn’t want to go to college. I didn’t like school and was tired of sitting in a classroom,” recalled Tyler. “Now, I have a different outlook, and I’m more mature. I can ask questions in class and understand the value of higher education.”

Tyler transitioned out of the Navy in April 2022. He said he needed a change of scenery, and he felt the time was right to improve his career options. He returned home to the Triad from his final navy posting in San Diego and began his higher education journey at GTCC.

“The reason I chose GTCC was because right out of high school, I enlisted in the Navy, so I didn’t have any college experience. It had been eight years since I was in school, so I chose GTCC to get back in the groove of learning, getting the feel of sitting in the classroom again,” said Tyler. “It was the right choice for me and has prepared me for what is next.”

When he enrolled at GTCC in summer 2022, Tyler had a goal in sight: to become an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS), the civilian federal law enforcement agency. That’s why he is majoring in criminal justice at UNCC. He is already investigating the hiring process for federal agencies.

Tyler says his experience at GTCC was “great, real smooth. I didn’t have any problems.”

A major key to Tyler’s successful transition back into the classroom and eventual graduation from GTCC was the Veteran Resource Center (VRC). The VRC, in the Medlin Campus Center on the Jamestown Campus, provides student veterans the resources to be successful and a quiet place to study, relax, and connect with other veterans.

“I used the resource center, all the resources there. If I wasn’t up there to do any work, I was up there chatting with other veterans. It was where I hung between classes,” said Tyler.

“It’s comforting in the VRC. Civilians don’t think like us, they don’t talk like us. It’s a safe place; everyone else in the VRC gets me. Sometimes I wanted to talk and tell stories about my time while serving, and I could do that in the VRC and know others would understand.”

For more information on GTCC’s Veterans Resource Center, visit gtcc.edu/admissions-and-aid/how-to-pay-for-college/veterans-resource-center/index.php.