The Wake Forest University Schools of Business recognized veterans affiliated with the school at a ceremony Monday afternoon. Veterans in uniform were joined by family and staff members in the Worrell Professional Center courtyard to observe Veterans Day.
Cody Hoyt, an MBA student and Marine Corps veteran, says it's easy for students to get caught up in campus life and forget that there are military personnel stationed around the world, ready to risk their lives for their country. He says that's among the reasons he and a group of fellow veterans formed the Student Veterans Organization. "This organization will exist as transitional tool, as military veterans move into an academic lifestyle," Hoyt says, as well as be a support structure for the veterans and their families. Forty-seven veterans have joined the group so far.
Sgt. Christopher Turner joined the Army right out of high school. He currently serves as a recruiter at Wake Forest and Winston-Salem State Universities. He gratified by the community's awareness and recognition of military veterans. "Being from Ft. Campbell in the military, where the whole community's all pro-military, coming to Winston-Salem where there's no traditional post here, it blows my mind how everyday I could be at lunch, walking through the mall, how someone will come up to me and say hey, thank you for your service."
Monday's event also recognized three veterans connected with the business school that passed recently, including:
- Mike Farrell, Trustee and Board of Visitors President who served in the Army National Guard
- John Medlin, Trustee and Executive Partners Mentor, who served in the Navy
- and Matthew Peck, a 2012 MBA graduate who also served in the Navy.