A government plane had made an unscheduled stop at a U.S. Air Force base in Europe and needed some quick repairs before flying on to its destination. Milton Rodriguez B.A. ‘22, an Air Force crew chief more accustomed to working on fighter jets, had pulled weekend duty and was working on it. U.S. diplomats, dressed in suits, got off the plane and one began talking to him. Covered in hydraulic fluid and engine grease, Rodriguez remembers a simple thought going through his mind: “That’s what I’m going to do after the military.”
It was not the suits and the government jet and the international travel, but rather the idea of service—an idea that had brought him to the Air Force in the first place: “Being able to serve the country that has given me and my family so much. Being able to serve a higher purpose.”
Rodriguez had never been short of drive, but that moment helped him see more clearly the destination he wanted to reach. And the Woods College would help him get there, paving the way for a master’s at the Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and now a role as a global trade compliance officer with BAE Systems, overseeing the import and export of dual use technologies.
Rodiguez grew up in Lynn, on the North Shore. His parents were Salvadoran immigrants who had escaped civil war in the 1980s to seek a better life in the United States. There were ten of them in their small home—his parents, a grandfather, and seven siblings. With only one bathroom, Rodriguez jokes, “mornings were really busy.” And with his parents each working two jobs, Rodriguez, like his brothers and sisters, had to grow up quickly. He cooked dinners for the family, did yardwork, and started working in construction at age 13. “We felt like we had just enough to get by and that made us feel good, but we also knew there were kids who had a lot more.” Rodriguez says. All of that, he says, “lit a fire under me.”
A huge part of what motivated the family was education. His parents hadn’t had much schooling, but they wanted more for their children. Growing up, he remembers, “a ‘C’ was like an ‘F’,” and college was always the objective. But his parents had taken a major financial hit during the Great Recession, were working their way back out of it, and with several siblings already in college, Rodriguez knew he didn’t want to burden them further.
Olivia Berlin, B.A. '21; Julia DeVoy, Ph.D. '06; and Milton Rodriguez B.A. '22
Following in the footsteps of his brother, who had also served, including two combat tours in Iraq, he joined the Air Force, attracted in part by the prospect of learning valuable skills. After four years, most of them spent in Asia and Europe, Rodriguez returned to civilian life and enrolled at Salem State. His high school counselor, a Boston College alumna who Rodriguez had remained close to, suggested he and his now-wife Jessica Angel look at Woods. The counselor took them to an orientation session, explaining that it was affordable and the option to take classes in the evening would allow them to keep working. They were immediately sold. “We were like, ‘Okay, this seems to be the thing. This is awesome. Essentially, where do we apply?’ ” (His wife would go on to earn an MBA at Boston College and is currently enrolled in the doctor of nursing practice program.)
While a student at Woods, Rodriguez began working at the Connell School of Nursing. That provided Rodriguez with tuition remission, which allowed him to stretch his education funding for his military service all the way to graduate school and take out loans for one year only—a huge financial relief. (Commuting to classes by walking across campus wasn’t bad either.)
And Rodriguez only had to look at his classmates for more inspiration. “You have people from all different age groups. You had friends that were 55-year-old plumbers that promised their wife they would go back to school. Young kids fresh out of high school that are working full time and then going to college. A lot of veterans. People that have been pursuing the degree for 10 years, but because of kids, and other things, had to postpone it—but they never quit, they kept going. These are all people who really want to be there and really understand the value of what they're doing.”
“ You have people from all different age groups. You had friends that were 55-year-old plumbers that promised their wife they would go back to school. Young kids fresh out of high school that are working full time and then going to college. A lot of veterans. People that have been pursuing the degree for 10 years, but because of kids, and other things, had to postpone it—but they never quit, they kept going. These are all people who really want to be there and really understand the value of what they're doing. ”
Professors who taught and mentored Rodriguez at Woods saw the same thing—in Woods students in general and in Rodriguez in particular, in the maturity with which he approached learning and in the way he sought counsel and direction.
“Woods students are very focused on, ‘How can I be the best that I could be?’” says John Fitzgibbon, Director of Digital Learning Innovation & AI at BC’s Center for Digital Innovation and Learning and a former instructor and informal advisor to Rodriguez. Students like Rodriguez, he says, understood the value of building a relationship with faculty as a way to move along their path, not in a transactional way but as a way of learning more about the world they wanted to navigate.
Fitzgibbon believes that pastoral care is one of the greatest needs of Woods students, and he always felt it was his privilege to provide it. “You're coming back and you're making this huge effort, and what is it I can do to help? If you're thinking about grad school, then maybe these are good courses to take. Or let's talk about how you can write that essay better. The students are open to it,” Fitzgibbon says. “And it's a pleasure because they need just that extra little bit and off they go and, you know, look at them now.”
Julia DeVoy Ph.D. ‘06, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs and Students at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, also remembers Rodriguez as a standout. She first met him as a student in a gender studies course she taught at Woods. He was a little incongruous—physically imposing, a military veteran—and she remembers thinking, “this is going to be interesting!” But he ended up being the academic standout of that class. For a presentation on Maria Serrano, a feminist guerilla leader in El Salvador, “he engaged with the subject on such an incredible level,” DeVoy says. “He looked at gender, he looked at motherhood, he looked at wartime, social feminism. It was fantastic. It was a meaningful and powerful presentation.” She also remembers how he would reflect on how his own military experience had made him think about masculinity and belonging. “In other words, fabulous work.”
“There was a seriousness that had, in my opinion, come from the fact that he'd already lived a chapter of his life in a way that most undergrads haven't,” she says. His interest in subjects wasn’t necessarily as mere stepping stones to a grade or a degree. “He was studying the subjects … to understand.”
DeVoy recommended that Rodriguez attend the Manresa Retreat, a two-day retreat open only to Woods College students. Offered through the Woods for Others service learning program, the Manresa Retreat is designed to allow students to discover meaning and purpose in their lives. Rodriguez treasures that aspect of his education at Woods.
“As well as all the academic stuff, Woods prepares you as a citizen, as a leader, as a person with an idea of service and public service,” he says. “They're developing us to be students throughout our lives and to bring those ideals into the real world.”
“ As well as all the academic stuff, Woods prepares you as a citizen, as a leader, as a person with an idea of service and public service. They're developing us to be students throughout our lives and to bring those ideals into the real world. ”
Rodriguez continues to live those ideals and is planning on taking the Foreign Service exams and joining the diplomatic corps. The counselor who helped him discover Woods now reaches out to him to help other high school students trying to figure out their futures. He speaks to many about Woods.
“I can't think of a better place to go than Woods, to be completely honest,” he says. “It takes a lot of discipline, going to work all day, then going to three hours of class, and then still having to do homework, write papers, and study for exams. It's not easy. But I think it produces a better person in the end.”
