EMU student veteran shares value of Veterans Day, campus support

When Eastern Michigan University student Nicole Wood graduated high school, entering the military seemed like the natural thing to do. “I grew up poor, and having money for college was not a thing. I really just wanted to serve something that was bigger than me. It allowed me to see new places, meet lots of new people and it taught me discipline; I really needed that," Wood told The Echo. "The benefits of being able to leave what I had known to something that I didn’t know was really inviting." Wood joined the U.S. Navy in 2013, planning on serving in the military until retirement. She served on the USS Theodore Roosevelt for three years as an undesignated seaman maintaining the boat before transferring into an administrative role. After leaving the Navy, Wood raised her children as a stay at home mom for five years. “But then my marriage failed. I didn’t have a job or a skill set, and so I decided to go back to school and use my GI Bill,” she said.

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