Finding identity through community
Thanks to the Military & Veterans Center, Rachel Duff ’20 has found peace in being a veteran
By Kyle Hobstetter on November 10, 2020
Sometimes you stumble into something good. For Towson University senior Rachel Duff ’20, that was the story of her college experience.
In fact, she admits that was how she found TU. Duff is a U.S. Army veteran, having served as a unit supply specialist at Fort Hood in Texas.
With her time in the army coming to a close, Duff was looking toward her college career as a way to explore something totally new.
She chose molecular biology.
“I’m a little bit of a masochist,” Duff laughs. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, just everything I didn’t want, which was logistics and anything military related. But when I was getting my associate degree, I was in a biology class, and we were looking through microscopes at plant cells.
“I was able to see the little organelles moving inside, and my mind was just blown. It was incredible. I didn’t know job-wise or career-wise what that meant, but I wanted to be doing this.”
Duff was looking for a four-year school with a good molecular biology program for her bachelor’s degree. One of the first colleges that came up was Towson University, close to her hometown of Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Duff admits she didn’t know much about the area, the college or that TU had a Military & Veterans Center (MVC).
She first encountered the MVC before her first term in 2017 when she was trying to learn where to send her G.I Bill®. Still, she didn’t interact much there until the next term.
In fact, she admits it was another stumble that led her back to the MVC. One day while eating lunch at Au Bon Pain, Duff couldn’t find a place to sit. As she was walking down the hall of the Psychology Building, she remembered the MVC’s office was just a few steps away.
She was nervous they would need to see her veteran’s card, but they told her to sit down and enjoy her lunch. It was that welcoming attitude that kept bringing her back to the MVC offices as well as its events and programs.
This was a breath of fresh air for Duff, who admits conflicting emotions surrounding her service.
“I don’t know if I would say I was embarrassed about being a veteran, but I definitely didn’t feel like a veteran,” Duff says. “Being a female in the military, our credibility is challenged and undercut in every way imaginable."
Duff was nervous that the MVC would repeat that experience, but discovered a welcoming atmosphere.
As she started to get more involved, she found new opportunities. One was becoming president of the Student Veterans’ Group of Towson University (SVG)—another situation that came by chance.
During summer 2019, the SVG president position was vacant. Not wanting to see the group disband, Duff took the leadership position. She hit the ground running and started to recruit new members and push the organization to fellow veterans on campus.
While it was hard, especially with the second term of her presidency in a pandemic, she truly believes in the SVG.
“For me, the SVG was like the gateway to embracing that I am a veteran and accepting my time and service and everything that happened because of it,” Duff says. “It also gave me so many opportunities to bond with people and to make the most meaningful friendships that I've ever had in my life.”
Duff has also worked inside the Military & Veterans Center as an administrative assistant, a job she found, yes, by chance.
Along with being a veteran and a full-time student, Duff is a mom to a six-year old boy. In 2019, she was facing losing her childcare eligibility because she was focusing on school instead of employment.
The MVC offered her a job where she interacted and supported her fellow veteran students.
Initially the job was uncomfortable, because she was plunging headfirst into the military lifestyle that she tried so hard to forget. But Duff admits that job was the best thing that could have happened to her.
“My confidence is so much higher,” Duff says. “My self-respect, the way that I am able to connect so much more easily now with people, is so much better than before. While it was uncomfortable, it was exactly the kind of uncomfortable that I needed.”
And according to MVC Director Dario DiBattista, Duff’s energy and passion for her fellow students has been a spark in the MVC office and community.
“Rachel’s energy is the pulse note to our operation,” DiBattista says. “Since I've been here, she has showed up, been active, engaged and has assisted us in promoting the community through the programs we do.
“She's been authentic as a frontline peer support specialist and a leader. And her impact has extended to many in our community.”
As she gets ready to graduate this December, she’s already finding new ways to impact a new community. She has already started a job at Johns Hopkins Hospital as a patient coordinator, which is similar to the work she was doing as an MVC employee.
As she gets ready to leave TU, she can’t help but think how the Military & Veterans Center has affected her life in such positive ways.
“I hope that [people] can understand that it's more than just an office for us,” Duff says. “It's been absolutely life changing for not just me but for so many other vets as well. My hope is that the MVC continues to grow and that helps the entire Towson University campus become more inclusive and open to veterans.”
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The mission of the Towson University Military & Veterans Center is to provide outstanding support and services to student veterans and qualified dependents. The MVC supports about 250 student veterans and about 460 dependents (family members who have G.I. Bill® benefits passed along to them).