Marianela Feliu

During high school in the Bronx, Marianela Feliu '08 thought a college education was financially out of reach. As a child she'd moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic and was the first person in her family to contemplate college. “I didn't know about scholarships,” she says. “So, after graduation, I worked for a couple years until a friend told me about the military's education benefits. I went to talk to an Air Force recruiter to find out if it was true.”

Feliu enlisted and, as her six weeks of boot camp came to a close, she already had her future mapped out. She planned to become a physician who tended to GIs on military bases. Then, in the fifth week, she severely injured a leg while running the confidence course. So, instead of going off to a prestigious assignment with the White House Honor Guard, Feliu found herself remaining at boot camp for an additional two months trying to recover. Ultimately, medical complications led to an honorable discharge two years later. “That's when I began taking classes at a community college. I enrolled in science courses because I knew they were prerequisites for medical school,” she says.

While at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, New York, Feliu was recommended for a summer program at nearby Vassar that allows community college students to get a taste of the liberal arts in a four-year setting. At Vassar she studied forensic chemistry and human molecular biology. She also discovered Mount Holyoke's Frances Perkins Program. “I went to a workshop and remember thinking, `I really like the way Mount Holyoke sounds.' After checking out the Web site, I decided `I'm going there,'” she says.

Feliu credits the discipline of the military with helping her to succeed at Mount Holyoke. “The mental strength I developed in the Air Force helped me handle the academic challenges. That, combined with professors here who have believed in me, helped me excel,” she says.

As a student, Feliu has lived in the dorms, which she describes as “the greatest thing in the world. If you're stressed out, you can just go knocking on doors. You can just go to someone's room and start talking. It's like I have all these sisters—some are younger, some are older. And the women in the Frances Perkins Program form a strong community.”

During her time at Mount Holyoke, Feliu revised her career plans and now wants to be a pharmacist—perhaps at a VA facility—and then a pharmacy professor. “My mentor here at Mount Holyoke has been telling me all along that I'd make a great professor. I finally began to believe that it was possible.”

Though enmeshed in her studies, Feliu says that being a veteran is a large part of her identity. She adds, “Even with all the improvements needed in the military, I really do owe my education to the Air Force. The GI Bill got me started—and ultimately led me to Mount Holyoke.”