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Campus ConnectionAn update from the president to alumni and parents

M.Ed. program celebrates its 10th graduating class in Jamaica through partnership of Catholic College of Mandeville

Brother Robert Smith, FSC, Ph.D., hands a diploma to the one of the recent graduates of the M.Ed. program at the commencement ceremony at Catholic College of Mandeville on Oct. 27.
On Oct. 27, the Master of Education in Teaching and Learning program celebrated the commencement of 25 Jamaican learners.
This was a momentous occasion, as this was the 10th learning community to receive their M.Ed. in partnership between Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and the Catholic College of Mandeville.
The Master of Education in Teaching and Learning program celebrated the commencement of 25 Jamaican learners. This was a momentous occasion, as this was the 10th learning community to receive their M.Ed. in partnership between Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and the Catholic College of Mandeville.
Brother Robert Smith, FSC, Ph.D., senior vice president for University Initiatives and special advisor to the president, presented the graduates with their degrees, and Lynn Albee, Ph.D., interim dean of the School of Education, offered an official welcome and an address during the Catholic College of Mandeville’s commencement ceremony.

Celebrating a 300-year Lasallian heritage
Saint Mary’s University joins Lasallians across the globe in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the death of Saint John Baptist de La Salle, the patron saint of educators and founder of the De La Salle Christian Brothers.
The Holy See declared 2019 a jubilee year in honor of De La Salle and his life’s work of making a quality and relevant education accessible to all students, especially the poor.
In addition to recognizing the anniversary of De La Salle’s death, the jubilee celebrates the impact of the mission he started. The Lasallian mission is present in 80 countries around the world, with between 3,500 and 4,000 De La Salle Christian Brothers and 90,000 Lasallian Partners serving 1 million young people in 1,000 educational ministries. Saint Mary’s University — as one of 65 Lasallian higher education institutions — is one small portion of a global Lasallian network of dedicated educators.
Today, Brothers and Lasallian partners work together and by association to create communities that demonstrate diversity, human dignity, and virtue and that provide transformative experiences that are innovative and holistic.
A Mass to commemorate the 300th anniversary will be held Saturday, Nov. 16, at 4 p.m., celebrated by Father President James P. Burns, IVD, Ph.D., in Saint Thomas More Chapel on the Winona Campus. A reception will follow at 5 p.m.
Additionally, a number of events have been planned in celebration of our heritage.
Ignite 300 grants
Saint Mary’s University, in honor of the 300-year anniversary, has announced recipients of the Ignite 300 Mini Grant Program. The Ignite 300 Mini Grant Program encourages innovative research within our community by incorporating an appreciation for the Twelve Virtues of a Good Teacher. These mini grants are designed to assist faculty in conducting original research that may be pilot in nature or to further a strand of current research efforts.
Other events
- In October, as part of our annual Lasallian Day of Service, 70 students here at the College completed service projects in about 30 locations, and about 125 alumni volunteered at sites in Winona, Rochester, and the Twin Cities, as well as Chicago, Milwaukee, Phoenix, and New York.
- In early November, Saint Mary’s undergraduate students sent personalized thank-you letters to grade school teachers who have influenced their lives. We celebrate all educators who are providing a caring and transformational experience to the students they teach, just as De La Salle once did.
- Students have enjoyed a movie about Saint John Baptist de La Salle’s life, a medallion hunt, and a Lasallian talent contest.
- The Saint Mary’s community was invited to submit Lasallian essays reflecting on “What does it mean to be at a Lasallian Catholic University.”

Saint Mary’s students pay to give up cell phones for a good cause
In honor of Blessed Brother James Miller, FSC, a Saint Mary’s University alumnus, undergraduate students are making the “ultimate sacrifice,” relinquishing their cell phones for one day, Nov. 25.
Brother James Miller, who earned his graduate and undergraduate degrees from Saint Mary’s in 1966 and 1974, was only 37 when he was shot and killed as he was mending a wall outside a school where he worked in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, in 1982. It is suspected that Brother James was killed because he and the other Brothers fought to keep their young students from being forced into the military.
Pope Francis recognized the martyrdom of Brother James in 2018. Brother James will be the first De La Salle Christian Brother from the United States to be beatified. The date of his beatification ceremony will be Dec. 7, 2019, in Huehuetenango. Beatification brings him one step closer to sainthood.
Participating students are asked to also donate $2. Funds raised during “No Cell Phone Day” Nov. 25 will be used for scholarships for Guatemalan students at Casa Hermano Santiago Miller, the school where Brother James worked that now bears his name. More than 75 percent of the population in Guatemala lives below the poverty line.
Participating students’ cell phones will be on display in the Toner Student Center, along with their names. Money raised will be presented in person during Brother James’ beatification ceremony.

Public invited to Valéncia Chorale debut concert
WINONA, Minn. — The community is invited to the inaugural Valéncia Chorale concert on Thursday, Nov. 21, at 7 p.m. in the Chapel of Saint Mary of the Angels, 1155 W. Wabasha St. Comprised of singers from the Winona area, the Valéncia Chorale is a mixed community choir directed by Dr. Patrick O’Shea. They explore music of a wide range of periods and genres.
Since the Valéncia Chorale was formed in September, more than 40 adults of all ages have been gathering weekly to join in song and enjoy the social, emotional, and musical benefits of preparing for their debut concert.
The audience will enjoy familiar and new pieces, including Randall Thompson’s “From Frostiana,” which adapts Robert Frost’s poems in beautiful choral arrangements; old American songs by Aaron Copland; and Scottish folk songs.
Tickets will go on sale Thursday, Nov. 14, and are $10 for adults and $5 for students. They can be purchased at the Valéncia Arts Center, 1164 W. 10th St., or one hour prior to the performance at Chapel of Saint Mary of the Angels. Cash or check only. Handicapped seating is available. For more information, call 507-453-5500 or email mca@smumn.edu.
About MCA
The Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts (MCA), an affiliate program of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, is a nonprofit community arts school offering programming in dance, music, visual art, and theater. Classes, lessons, workshops, and camps are offered for students of all ages from birth through older adults at the Valéncia Arts Center. For more information about MCA or Galleria Valéncia, visit mca.smumn.edu, email mca@smumn.edu, or call 507-453-5500.

MCA hosts printmaking exhibit
WINONA, Minn. — Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts (MCA) invites the community to view a unique exhibit, featuring the work of printmaking artists ages 55 and older who participated in a recent workshop alongside teens from Riverway Learning Community.
The exhibit opening will kick off with an open house event on Tuesday, Nov. 19, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the Valéncia Arts Center, 1164 W. Howard St., where guests can meet and greet the artists and view projects created during the generational printmaking class.
Class participants were invited to explore a variety of printmaking techniques through group and individual instruction under the direction of local teaching artist, Brianna Haupt, thanks to a generous grant from Aroha Philanthropies.
The exhibit will be on display Tuesday, Nov. 19, through Thursday, Dec. 19. Guests can visit at no cost during regular business hours: Mondays and Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to noon.
About Vitality Arts
The broad field of creative aging encompasses many things: arts education, arts in health care, creativity for those with dementia, and more. Arts education programs — those that inspire and enable older adults to learn, make and share the arts in ways that are novel, complex and socially engaging — make up a subset of the creative aging field. Often referred to as artful aging programs, they are led by teaching artists whose creative process and understanding of older adults bring connection, improved health and well-being, and a renewed sense of purpose to older adults in community and residential settings.
At Aroha Philanthropies, we’ve come to view these programs as even more than artful aging. With the term “vitality arts,” we aim to champion arts programs that keep us vital, joyful, and engaged by unleashing the transformative power of creativity in those 55 and older. More information is available at vitalityarts.org.
About Aroha Philanthropies
Aroha Philanthropies is devoted to the transformative power of the arts and creativity, inspiring vitality in those over 55, joy in children and youth, and humanity in adults with mental illness. We believe that learning, making, and sharing art enriches everyone throughout their lifetime. Aroha Philanthropies works to improve the quality of life of people 55 and older by encouraging the funding, development, and proliferation of arts programs designed to enhance longer lives, and by advancing the development of professional teaching artists working with those in their encore years. More information is available at arohaphilanthropies.org.
About MCA
The Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts (MCA), an affiliate program of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, is a nonprofit community arts school offering programming in dance, music, visual art, and theater. Classes, lessons, workshops, and camps are offered for students of all ages from birth through older adults at the Valéncia Arts Center. For more information about MCA or Galleria Valéncia, visit mca.smumn.edu, email mca@smumn.edu, or call 507-453-5500.

Inaugural reception provides community-building experience, connections for online graduate students
Looking around the reception area at the American Swedish Institute (ASI), Kim Hatley had a lot to take in, following her flight east.
On the night of Oct. 11, the resident of Spokane, Wash., had just flown into the Twin Cities for the first time, dropped her bags off at her hotel room, and stood face-to-face with four fellow classmates from four other states who, like her, had recently finished their online Master of Science in Project Management degree through Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota — one of the original programs offered when the university began offering fully online programs in 2012.
Hatley and her classmates formed a circle in the middle of the gathering space (see above) during an inaugural reception for online graduate students. The commencement ceremony the next day at the Twin Cities Campus would recognize their accomplishments in one of the 20 fully online programs the university offers.
Hatley had gone on a two-year journey with these women, all of whom had been able to connect through a variety of digital interfaces. Sharing a mutual interest to finally meet in person, they made initial dinner plans before they found out about the reception at the ASI.
“You have to bring a lot of your personal experience to your papers and your projects,” Hatley said. “We have all been able to follow each other and help each other through our careers in the last two years, trying to get to the point we’re at.”

Andrea Caroll-Glover, vice provost for Online Strategy and Programs at Saint Mary’s, speaks with Megan Quick, a recent graduate of the Special Education (M.A.) program.
Hatley stood next to Jasmin Braithwaite-Hanson, a classmate who lives on the other side of the country in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., just north of the Bronx.
Braithwaite-Hanson met her husband online through a dating site, so making remote friends with people across the country was a natural progression.
“The world is only as big as we make it out to be,” she said. “The internet is just like real life to me. There’s good. There’s bad. There’s ugly — just like when you go anywhere else.”
The other women who made up the quintet were Ajibola Agboola from Rosemount, Minn.; Jean Nelson-Overn from Baldwin, Wis., and Tonya Andrews from Ames, Iowa.
“I think it’s great being able to meet the students I worked with because they gave me a level of being competitive without knowing them,” said Agboola, who added that the motivation and feedback she received from the other four students “gives you a sense of family without actually meeting your family.”
In Hatley’s case, she was in the process of trying to advance her career by applying to a new position while taking classes at Saint Mary’s. Hatley said several of her professors helped her during the interview preparation process, which ended in her accepting a job working as a project engineer for a firm that specializes in commercial construction in Alaska.
When she started looking into graduate schools, Hatley felt as if the recruiting team at Saint Mary’s were “more personable” than other programs.
“I was not only interviewing them, but they were interviewing me to see if I would be a good fit,” she said. “And I liked that. I liked that they were asking questions about what I had done just to make sure that I was ready for the program.”
Starting a new tradition
The reception was inspired by Saint Mary’s desire to further strengthen its online student and alumni communities, while also honoring students’ commitments to making the journey to meet their “virtual” classmates.
Before the reception was announced, more than 80 students had already made plans to be in Minneapolis for the commencement, said Andrea Carroll-Glover, who in August was promoted to vice provost for Online Strategy and Programs as part of the university’s commitment to the growth of its innovative online learning platforms. “Many of these students had never stepped foot in Minnesota,” she said. “We wanted to think about how we could make this special for them, celebrate their achievements, and connect them with their classmates and the university as they moved from students to alumni.
To help make the moment memorable, attendees were offered professional headshots to use in the next steps of their careers.
“We’ll learn from this and think about how we can continue to make this a special experience for our future online graduates,” said Carroll-Glover, who worked closely with a team that included Holly Tapper, director of Online Operations at Saint Mary’s; and Lisa Sanderson, associate director of Alumni Relations.
“It’s a great way for us to celebrate the accomplishments of our students as they graduate,” said Brian Schmisek, provost and dean of Faculties at Saint Mary’s. “We’re really happy to do it, and we look forward to doing it at every commencement.”
‘The stars aligned’

Attendees at the inaugural reception for online graduate students include, from left: Jessica Zielinski, recent graduate of the Learning Design and Technology (M.Ed.) program; J.C. Dahlgren, recent graduate of the Business Intelligence and Data Analytics (M.S.) program; Alan Lubowicki, spouse of Nora McGowan (far right), recent graduate of the Human Resource Management (M.A.) program.
Nora McGowan was one of those who made her first trip to Minnesota for the weekend’s events. Similar to Braithwaite-Hanson, McGowan calls the New York City metro area home. As an administrative assistant at a financial services company in Manhattan, she regularly deals with a 90-minute commute to and from her residence in northeastern New Jersey.
“Everyone is so nice. And everyone talks to you and that usually doesn’t happen in New York,” she said with a chuckle.
McGowan earned her Master of Arts in Human Resource Management by studying early in the morning, during lunch breaks, and on weekends and occasional evenings — and emailing professors who always responded quickly, she said.
“I wanted something that was all HR, not just an MBA with a few HR classes … the curriculum was great. The ranking was great. I liked that you didn’t have to attend a class at a certain time because of my commute,” said McGowan, who hopes to become an HR associate or generalist in the near future now that her degree is complete.
J.C. Dahlgren showed up to the event on his motorcycle — in spite of the fact that he came from his home in Alexandria, Va. Unlike others, Dahlgren has been to Minnesota plenty of times. He grew up in the southern metro area of the Twin Cities, before leaving town as member the Navy after graduating high school in 1996.
“I was expecting it. All this is my childhood remembered, so fortunately, I have prepared for it,” Dahlgren said about the parking lots glistening with the first traces of snow.
Dahlgren earned his Master of Science in Business Intelligence and Data Analytics after going the one-year route. After serving for nine years in the Navy, Dahlgren currently oversees IT portfolio management for the U.S. Department of Justice. He decided to earn his master’s degree from Saint Mary’s with the goal of becoming a chief science data officer for the U.S. Government.
When he was looking for an online graduate program, he remembered his roots in Minnesota — and the fact that he could not afford to initially begin his undergraduate studies after high school, leading to his decision to join the Navy. If he could, Saint Mary’s was his school of choice.
“It just so happened when I looked for Saint Mary’s, boom, there it was … the stars aligned,” Dahlgren said. “So this is 22, 23 years in the making, but I finally get to walk the halls.”
Carroll-Glover hopes to keep in contact with the new graduates as they embark on the next chapters in their careers.
“The inaugural event was a great success,” she said. “It helped to solidify a large reason why we all do what we do here at Saint Mary’s — to hear the stories of our students and celebrate their milestones, like graduation. I am excited to stay in touch as they start their next chapters in their careers and see their continued successes.”
Photo caption: Five recent graduates of the Project Management (M.S.) online program met for the first time on Oct. 11 including, from left: Jasmin Braithwaite-Hanson, Ajibola Agboola, Jean Nelson-Overn, Tonya Andrews, and Kim Hatley.

Students gain valuable experience in communication field

Welcoming Greg Zimprich ’86, center, are, from left: Derek Jackson, chair, Business Department, and Dean Beckman, chair, Department of Communication.
Saint Mary’s had the largest contingent of students of any other college at the recent Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Minnesota Chapter PR Skill Spark event in Minneapolis on Oct. 26. Students from the Public Relations/Business Club learned from professionals about topics such as media relations, pitching stories, and job application writing tests. The students also met Greg Zimprich, a 1986 Saint Mary’s alumnus and president of the Minnesota PRSA Chapter.
Zimprich later spent two days on the Winona Campus talking to students about his public relations, journalism, and marketing career. In addition to being president of the Minnesota PRSA Chapter, Zimprich is director of finance communication at Medtronic. He previously worked at General Mills, Honeywell, and various communication firms in the Twin Cities. We are grateful to him for sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience with our students.
Photo caption: Gathering for a photo are, from left: back, Megan Prokosch, Kelly Ferguson, Dean Beckman (faculty advisor), Greg Zimprich ’86 (PRSA president), Lauryn Rogers, Brooklyn Singleton; front, Haley Graham, Maggie Heuer, Jessica Massimo, Danielle Rhodes, and Jillian Alekna.

Career Services looks to expand services
In response to the challenging and ever-changing employment landscape, Saint Mary’s is assessing the role and function of Career Services to foster student and alumni success across the university. As an integral element to the Strategic Plan — Building a Future Full of Hope 2025 — Saint Mary’s is reshaping and expanding the vision, structure, and function of Career Services to enhance the university’s reputation and better prepare all our students, undergraduate and graduate, online or onground, for their future.
During the sixth annual Saint Mary’s Career and Internship Fair Oct. 23 on the Winona Campus, more than 200 students visited with more than 50 graduate schools, employers, and internship sites. Of those vendors, about 20% (15 individuals), were Saint Mary’s alumni vendor representatives on hand recruiting. Students are continuing to connect with those employers for interviews, internships, and job opportunities.
One week later, the Minnesota Colleges and Universities Career Services Association hosted a Government and Nonprofit Career Fair in the Twin Cities area. Fifty-five adult learners from the Schools of Graduate and Professional Programs registered to attend, as well as several undergraduate students from the Winona Campus.
Saint Mary’s and Career Services are also exploring ways to enhance career services to all campuses and students — as well as alumni — through increased staffing, on-site facilities, as well as expanding the use of Handshake, a leading career services web platform that is currently used on the Winona Campus. Other future expansions being discussed include virtual and online resources, as well as courses, workshops, coaching sessions, and other areas.

The Next Mission: Former U.S. Army colonel seeks to improve military transition into civilian life through dissertation research
It’s a small piece of limestone, about the size of a fist, encased behind glass.
To Col. Mitchell Brew, though, it means so much more.
Fractured in its nature, it would become a constant reminder of the time his career path in the U.S. Army would irrevocably change — and the cornerstone of the dissertation he is writing while working on his Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.

Col. Mitchell Brew was presented in May 2002 with this fragment from the Pentagon, along with a certificate to commemorate his service during and following the 9/11 attacks.
That’s because that limestone is a fragment from a piece of the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., that fell away from the building after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
With his sights set on graduating next October, Brew is currently conducting research on the attributes and success factors of military veteran entrepreneurs — with a particular emphasis on those veterans who served after 9/11, a group almost entirely composed of volunteers who answered the call in the aftermath of the attacks.
“I believe veterans have a lot of entrepreneurial traits,” Brew said. “You have to have agility and be able to make some decisions on the fly. You’re forced to be a leader based on your role, so those kinds of traits can work really well into owning your own business.”
At the same time, Brew believes he will be able to provide insight on some of the obstacles that many veterans face when transitioning to the private sector, such as navigating cultural differences and dealing with the mismatch of military skills to civilian skills.
“His innovative work is expected to improve transition initiatives from military to civilian careers, and increase veteran entrepreneur success,” said Jennifer Schultz, Ph.D., who is serving as Brew’s doctoral advisor. “He has been able to combine his experience from the military, knowledge as a healthcare administrator, and creativity as a student to develop a research project with depth and breadth.”
Although the research is ongoing, his work is designed to support his theory, based on his initial findings, that owning a franchise of a pre-established chain of businesses represents an ideal opportunity for veterans to become successful franchisees.
“Franchising provides you that support,” Brew said. “Plus, it’s a system that has the structure that you’re used to from the military.”
‘Something much greater than himself’

Col. Mitchell Brew’s military journey started in the early ’80s (top) as a private and was promoted to colonel in 2007, the rank he would retire at.
When his dissertation is complete, Brew wants to launch a larger conversation about what is currently being done for military members as they transition to civilian life, as an addendum to the material already distributed as part of the Transition Assistance Program across all U.S. military branches.
“Mitchell cares about veterans and how they have an encore career after a whole career of service,” said Matt Nowakowski, Ed.D., the director of the DBA program who taught Brew’s capstone course earlier this semester. “He’s looking to use his experience as a colonel to give back and help other veterans. And that is something very much in alignment with our Lasalian mission. He’s doing this because he sees something much greater than himself.”
Before enrolling in the DBA program at Saint Mary’s, Brew had earned four master’s degrees through programs geared toward military personnel. As someone who claims to be “always curious,” he is thinking about one day pursuing a tenured track professorship at a business school when he finishes his doctorate.
“I’ve been to a lot of different universities… A lot of places are there for their purpose and their interest,” he said. “Here at Saint Mary’s, they’re here for that Lasallian view of taking care of people and making people advance.”
He did not know it when he enrolled in the DBA program, but that Lasallian philosophy of service fell right in line with the model of servant leadership he had used during his time in the military: Your success is based on that of your subordinates, so the leader is responsible for setting them up for success for the good of the organization.
“You get here and you find out that professors are here to set you up for success,” Brew said. “Their whole attitude is very reinforcing, very comforting. The professors all carry that same attitude. They want you to be successful.”
Around the same time he decided to start his DBA at Saint Mary’s in 2017, he accepted his current position as a strategic account executive at 3M Health Care, where he oversees the healthcare product support for more than 1,000 accounts connected to the U.S. Department of Defense and other governmental agencies.
“The people there, I know them and I understand what their pain points are and what the customer needs because I’ve been there,” Brew said, “I’m basically helping other service members and I feel like I’m contributing.”
Given that Brew frequently travels to various military bases and medical centers as part of his job, he appreciated how accommodating his professors were to the working professional while still providing a level of rigor needed for doctorate-level courses.
“I think the professors really understand our situation,” Brew said.
The day everything changed
While working as the chief for medical operations and plans for the Office of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Brew was attending a meeting outside the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the building at 9:37 a.m. EST on Sept. 11, 2001, killing 184 people (both military personnel and civilians) in the process.

Col. Mitchell Brew speaks before hundreds of soldiers, civilians, and family members during a 10-year-anniversary 9/11 recognition ceremony in Kaiserslautern, Germany, on Sept. 9, 2011.
“They basically told everybody in D.C. to go home. As soon as I got home, I got a phone call that said ‘The Army Operations Center is going hot. Get back in here,’” Brew recalled. “So I turned around and went back. So at about 10:30, I was walking into a burning building.”
To this day, if he smells the distinct odor of dry, brittle wood, his mind will take him back to that morning.
He would stay in the building until 2 a.m. that day to help coordinate critical actions as the U.S. Army prepared its counterattack before going back for about four hours of sleep and doing it all over again. This lasted for six months. At the time, Brew was working on his MBA from George Washington University, with the idea of retiring and trying his hand in the business world after nearly 20 years of military service.

Command photo taken of Col. Mitchell Brew before he led the 32nd Medical Logistics Battalion into Iraq in 2004.
After the attacks, though, Brew felt compelled to extend his career, accepting an opportunity to guide the 32nd Medical Logistics Battalion into Iraq in 2004 upon finishing his MBA in his early 40s. He would go on to help change the way the supply chain worked in Iraq, so soldiers would have more reliable access to medical supplies.
“That’s what you live for in the Army: to lead soldiers to combat,” Brew said. “It motivated me for a higher purpose. I was very committed to doing right by my soldiers, right by our nation, right by our country. And it was a rallying cry. It helped motivate our soldiers.”
Brew earned the rank of colonel in 2007. He was then selected to command the U.S. Department of Defense’s largest medical depot: the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center Europe (USAMMACE) in Pirmasens, Germany. He would later serve as the director of Logistics and Supply Chain Management for the Office of the Surgeon General in the U.S. Army.
His own journey
Eventually, though, Brew did retire from military service, stepping down in 2015 from his position as director of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, creating a tenure of service that he can recite without hesitation: 30 years, nine months, and one day.
He also finally dove into the corporate world, accepting the role of director of operations for Cardinal Health at its Champlain, Minn., location the same year he retired from the Army — a move that led him to the Twin Cities Campus of Saint Mary’s two years later, right around the same time he started his role at 3M.

Col. Mitchell Brew stands next to a UH-60 medical evacuation helicopter in Iraq at the Al Asad Airbase in 2005.
For six months, Brew had maintained his military-grade physique by going to the gym every day and tackling projects around his house in Northern Virginia, before he decided to put his resume out into the world.
“I came up with the epiphany that, in retirement, I needed purpose. I needed something to do. I needed to contribute. I needed to feel like I’m doing something, so the retirement thing didn’t work out well,” Brew said about his own initial transition to civilian life.
After saying yes to the offer from Cardinal Health, the move to Minnesota would be the 16th for Brew and his wife, Mellissa, who is a retired lieutenant colonel after serving 24 years, six of them as a medical evacuation pilot. The two met in South Korea in the early ’90s before getting married in 1997.
Given that their oldest child of three was about to start high school, they decided they would grow roots in Minnesota. Furthermore, he made a pact with his family to not think about leaving the Twin Cities metro area — a place whose long winters can mirror those of his native Western New York town of Batavia — until their youngest child, who is in sixth grade, graduated from high school.
When Brew finished his undergraduate business degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1985, he decided to jump into a military career largely due to the fact that considering the rough economic climate at the time (in his words), he could start as a management trainee at Wal-Mart for $14,000 a year or a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army for $19,000. The choice was simple, he said.
“I got into it. I just had a great time, and I really enjoyed what I do,” Brew said.
If someone is fueled by a passion such as Brew’s interest in helping fellow veterans, he recommends taking that same mentality into starting a DBA program at Saint Mary’s.
“I would say go for it. There are some things that may try to hold you back,” he said. “You may be a little scared about taking the leap, but once you get in, it’s a lot of fun.”