In my era, women didn’t go into the service. It wasn’t considered appropriate for a young lady to go into the service. But for some reason, I was always attracted to it, so I joined the Marine Corps at almost 19. It was tough, especially at that time. Women were a very small population, so there were challenges. But I like to think my South Bronx attitude helped a lot. It helped me survive and become stronger and overcome adversity. I retired after 25 years. I used my GI Bill and went back to school. I was like 40-something-years-old, but I wanted to prove it to myself and set a good example for my kids. And now I really love what I do. It wakes me up every morning. I look forward to figuring out the problem for the day–the student who comes in, and we figure out how we’re going to help their specific, unique situation. There’s nothing better than to see them succeed. In our office, we laugh. We say, ‘Yay it’s Monday!’ And we mean it.
– Sandra Torres-Pintos, Veteran & Military Success Services Coordinator