For Nicholas Marinelli, life as a teenager was tough. Growing up in Brockton, Mass., Marinelli attended public school his entire life, dropping out when he was 16. "While working on my GED, I took on dead-end jobs for three years," he says. "That's when I decided to do something with my life, so I enlisted in the Massachusetts Army National Guard when I was 19." Marinelli underwent a year of combat training before he was deployed to Iraq in 2011. He was assigned as mechanic and crew chief on a Sikorsky HH-60M medevac Blackhawk helicopter unit that covered most of western Iraq.
Marinelli went back to school in 2012, studying at two local community colleges and obtaining an associate degree in liberal arts before transferring to UMass Lowell in the fall of 2014.
This is part of the reason why Marinelli became involved with the Student Veterans of America (SVA). He has been working with the organization for three years beginning in 2013, when he helped establish a chapter at Bunker Hill Community College. This year, he was elected president of the UMass Lowell chapter, called the Student Veterans' Organization.
After graduation in 2017, he plans to pursue a career in the biotech industry or the sustainable energy field. "Either way, I'll definitely continue with my graduate studies, hopefully earning a technical master's degree or an MBA in the process," he says.