Specialist Samuel Bennett

Several years of drifting through classes and a semester as an accounting major eventually led Sam into the Army as a Cavalry Scout. According to Sam, “joining the Army not only gave me time to figure out my goals and the discipline and motivation to achieve them, but a sense of pride and patriotism that I didn’t have before.”

After seven years on active duty, many of which were spent patrolling the East German border, and the reality of a growing family to support, Sam traded in his uniform, earned an Associate’s degree and entered the high tech manufacturing industry. However, in 2008, when the computer chip plant he was working at as a manufacturing supervisor shut down, and with his children all grown – one following his path into the Army – he decided it was finally time to go back and finish the Bachelor’s degree he started over a quarter century earlier.

His degree, along with an eclectic mix of interests and hobbies developed over the years, provide the basis of his current plans where after graduation Sam plans on running a custom fabric design and printing business with his wife, as well as, continue to run their quilt shop.