Supporting San Diego’s veterans in their pursuit of STEM degrees

The San Diego Military Advisory Council Foundation was created specifically to support local veterans enrolled in undergraduate STEM degree programs. The goal was to enable enlisted personnel who served in San Diego to stay in the region once they left the service, something that demands a good job. “But good jobs in San Diego take a college degree, which most enlisted personnel don’t have,” says Pete Hedley, a retired Navy Captain and one of the founders of the SDMAC Foundation. Hedley explains that the GI Bill has long offered funding for a four-year undergraduate degree at a public university to anyone who has served honorably for three years. “But as we learned, many of the degrees veterans were pursuing were in technical STEM fields that regularly take five years to complete,” he says.

“That extra year was a tremendous burden for veterans just starting out in their civilian careers,” adds Mark Rodriguez, a retired Marine Reconnaissance Team Leader who succeeded Hedley as foundation president in 2018.

The SDMAC Foundation was established in 2014 as an offshoot of the San Diego Military Advisory Council, a chamber of commerce-type association formed ten years earlier that now represents more than 250 organizations involved in the military and defense industry. The foundation’s first grant recipients were veteran STEM students at San Diego State University in 2016. In 2018, the program expanded to California State University San Marcos, but in the past five years the GI Bill has changed substantially and now covers most undergraduate STEM degrees.

What does remain financially challenging, however, are the certification programs, exams, and tools needed for STEM jobs ranging from jet-engine mechanic to nurse. Together, they can cost thousands of dollars not covered by the GI Bill. The foundation is now looking to expand into the vocational arena with the community college system, beginning with aviation and diesel mechanic accreditation programs.

“Pete and the others wanted to be impactful,” says Mark Balmert, a retired Rear Admiral and executive director of the Advisory Council itself. “That’s the reason we started small — to make sure the help we offered would make a difference to those who received it.”

Though only six years old, the SDMAC Foundation is well-connected and from the start has had matching support from major institutions, including the Midway Museum, General Atomics (where Rodriguez is a staff engineer), Navy Federal Credit Union, San Diego State, and CSU San Marcos.

It is a growing program where a small donation can make a big difference. sdmac.org/foundation

David Falconer, a 28-year-old retired Marine sergeant and recipient of a 2019 SDMAC Foundation grant, could not be more appreciative of the opportunity it has offered him and his family.

“The timing was perfect,” says Falconer. “My son was just getting set to start kindergarten and because of the grant, my wife and I were able to move to a nicer home in a better school district.”

Falconer, who is currently in his last year at CSU San Marcos studying Computer Information Systems, met his wife, Army veteran Kelyann, while in the service, and today they have two children. Falconer is also a full-time employee in the security department at Viasat in Carlsbad, one of the many San Diego companies that looks to hire and support veterans. “There are probably ten vets in my department alone,” says Falconer.
“My boss is a retired Marine master sergeant.”

Born in a suburb of New York City, Falconer signed the papers to join the Marines at 18 while still in high school. Following bootcamp and training in South Carolina, MCAS Miramar was his very first duty station, where he spent four years working in Aviation Logistics Information Management Systems. “My day-to-day job was managing computer accounts for a squadron,” Falconer explains.

He applied to Viasat while transitioning from active duty at the end of 2015 and to CSU San Marcos some two years later. Just as the SDMAC Foundation wanted and hoped, Falconer looks to make the San Diego region his family’s permanent home.