After experiencing his own wayward path into college, Marine Corps veteran Ryan Pavel is helping other veterans navigate the complexities of higher education.
Pavel started the Warrior-Scholar Project, a nonprofit organization, to prepare veterans and active-duty military members for access to the colleges of their choice, leading them to a life beyond service.
Pavel, who serves as the foundation’s CEO, started a series of one-week boot camps on college campuses that allow veterans to study one of three courses: college readiness, business, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
The Warrior-Scholar Project has helped more than 2,800 veterans through boot camps and additional workshops. Alumni of the boot camps boast a college graduation rate of nearly 90 percent, with many going on to earn bachelor’s degrees.
How It Started
At 17, Ryan Pavel was denied acceptance into the college of his dreams, so he decided to pursue the Marine Corps.
“Instead of licking my wounds and just staying at home, I’m gonna go do something else,” Pavel told DAV.
In the Marine Corps, Pavel became a linguist and served in Iraq twice. He said the Marines provided direction and he thought about the goals he wanted to achieve after the military, which meant giving college another shot “with a lot more focus, a lot more drive,” he said.
He Googled “Arabic, veterans, and college,” which led him almost nowhere, but he was able to apply for the University of Michigan. He did not get in.
“The difference was that, at that point, I had a lot more drive and I had grown,” Pavel said. “And so, I called the admissions office.”
Not deterred, Pavel phoned officials at Michigan who provided clear, honest direction.
“You have to show you can be a good student,” they said.
Pavel completed community college courses on base and eventually Michigan said yes. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Ann Arbor and a law degree from the University of Virginia.
Clearly, he was a good student.
Program Helps Other Veterans
Paul Donato, a fellow former Marine, is one of the program’s success stories.
Donato, a member of Disabled American Veterans (DAV), received help from back-to-back Warrior-Scholar boot camps a few years ago, studying college readiness at Harvard University and the other in STEM, provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Like many veterans, Donato was inspired to join the military after Sept. 11, 2001. He was an active-duty member from 2008 to 2013, then served in the Marine Reserve until 2016.
In the reserves, Donato took courses at a community college, but it didn’t provide the direction he was hoping for, so he left school and began a job in manufacturing.
Eventually, he started thinking about college again.
Donato learned about the Warrior-Scholar Project, but still wasn’t certain he was fit for college. But he was pleased the program had a good comprehension of the veteran experience. He enjoyed an intense week of learning, talking to other veterans and instructors and finishing assignments with his peers, similar to college.
“We’re all there to be the best version of ourselves,” Donato said. “And I think everybody came out of the program extremely hungry and eager to just learn.”
Teaming With the Ivy League
Tom Nelligan, an Army veteran, is a junior at Harvard University. Nelligan completed the boot camp in 2022, hosted by Georgetown University, as an active-duty member.
“It really just gives you the confidence to say that, yeah, I do belong in these places, and these are not too far out of reach for me,” Nelligan said. “It really gives you that agency of your own, kind of like destiny in a lot of ways, which is just remarkable.”
Along with MIT and Harvard, Warrior-Scholar hosts boot camps at several prestigious schools, including Brown, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Michigan State and several others.
While attending the boot camp, Donato was introduced to DAV, which partners with the Warrior-Scholar Project. DAV provides veterans with resource information about benefits and how to apply for them.
Following both boot camp experiences, Donato, raised in an immigrant family that emphasized hard work over education, said he felt the urge to go back to college, armed with the confidence that he could accomplish his dreams. He’s currently a sophomore at LaGuardia Community College and wishes to transfer to Princeton University, hoping to pursue a career in equity research, collecting financial analysis and providing tips to investors.
Warrior-Scholar plans to offer its next boot camp in the summer. Veterans interested can apply through its website.
