Student Veteran Profile: Erik Fast

By Leila Ugincius

Erik Fast knew exactly what he wanted to study when he went to college: nuclear engineering. But as a freshman at the University of Massachusetts – Lowell, Fast just didn't make it to class very often. He showed up for tests, on which he did well, but he earned zero credits because of the school's attendance policy.

"I was very young and immature at the time," Fast said. "It's just as well that I didn't finish college then, because [nuclear engineering] is not a career I would have been happy in, as I later found out in life."

Now, more than a decade later, the 35-year-old is a Virginia Commonwealth University student slated to graduate in 2013. In between his stints at college, he enlisted in the Navy, which led to both a free education and the discovery of a new major that suited him far better than nuclear engineering.

Ironically, it was his enthusiasm for nuclear engineering that led him to the Navy and, ultimately, to a new career path.

"The Navy has an excellent nuclear engineering program for the most part," he said. "So I joined specifically to be a nuclear-trained electronics technician, and then ended up staying in for almost 10 years."

In that time, Fast became a jack-of-all-trades, working on submarines and traveling the world. One area that particularly appealed to him was emergency planning.

"Part of what I did in the Navy was emergency planning for nuclear and radiological accidents when I was stationed in Guam," he said. "We were responsible for any Navy submarine radiological or nuclear accident west of Hawaii all the way up to the east coast of Asia. [The project] was kind of in shambles. It was tossed in my lap and I basically built the program from scratch. And I really enjoyed it – the planning, the logistics, the training. I discovered that nuclear was not my calling in life and I really enjoyed emergency planning."

After leaving the Navy, Fast used his savings to travel. After six months, he ran out of money and struggled to find a job he liked. He was either over-qualified because of his experience or under-qualified because he lacked a college degree.

"Any job that I would have gotten at that stage would have been a dead-end job without a degree," he said. With the Post-9/11 GI Bill providing financial support for education and housing to veterans, Fast was ready to give school another chance. He looked for schools that had good emergency planning programs. That led him to VCU, where he's double majoring in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and Criminal Justice.

"I'm very happy I came to VCU," Fast said. "It's a good school."

As a student veteran, Fast can utilize the resources offered by VCU Military Student Services, which advocates for the university's military students.

"Military Student Services in general is a great resource and it's a great plan to have it. But Dr. Martha Lou Green is really what makes it work," Fast said. "She knows everything about this school. If any student veteran or anyone using Veterans Affairs benefits ever has a problem, the first place they should go is Military Student Services."

Most of Fast's interactions with university administrators has been with Green, special assistant to the provost for student veteran support, or with Reuban Rodriguez, associate vice provost and dean of student affairs, who also serves as faculty adviser for the Student Veterans Association at VCU.

"They are definitely good people to be the face of the university from my perspective," Fast said.

Now that he's found his true calling, Fast finds it easier to attend his classes.

"Although the ones that do not require attendance do not necessarily get my full attendance," he said. "The difference is that now I am an adult and going to school full time is my job since I am using the Post 9-11 GI Bill. … Also, I am more mature as an adult and recognize the value of the education and not just the piece of paper."