SAMPLE PROFILE — FILM SLOT
His story is coming to the series soon.
Priced Out
Brandon Okwu's parents came from Nigeria and treated college like oxygen. The problem was never his grades. It was the bill. He got into good schools at eighteen and watched the family math fall apart at every one of them.
He spent a year and a half at a job he hated, watching his friends post from campuses, before a cousin who'd enlisted told him what the National Guard actually pays for.
The Guard pays my tuition, one weekend a month. Do that math before you take out loans.
One Weekend a Month
He enlisted at twenty, put in his time, and got picked for officer candidate school. The Guard's tuition benefits cover state schools, so at twenty-eight he finally started the degree he'd been priced out of at eighteen.
Now he's a lieutenant finishing his coursework at the U of I, drilling one weekend a month, walking past the Armory on campus in a uniform he earned twice over. He tells high schoolers to run the numbers out loud. Loans have a cost. So does service. At least service pays you back on paper.