Fourth-year psychology student Asia Murchison thinks being a soldier takes two things — the will to do it and the discipline to do what's required to fit the uniform.
Murchison is a psychology and philosophy student with a military science minor who plans to go to law school to become an active duty Judge Advocate General, or military lawyer. Murchison exercises through Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) Physical Training, goes to ROTC leadership labs and attends ROTC classes, all on top of her school work.
According to the Military Times, USC is ranked as one of the best colleges in the country for veterans and military service members. Whether veterans, ROTC, National Guard, active service or military reserve, USC students find balance between academics and their responsibilities as a soldier.
Early beginnings
Murchison comes from a military family. She said being a soldier means something different to her because it took a lot for her ancestors to get her to where she is now.
“It's honorable,” Murchison said. “Because I know the sacrifices are made for me to even be in this position, as a Black student on campus, as a Black soldier.”
On the other hand, second-year public health student and Army ROTC member Noel Suidut said she originally didn’t want to join the military at all . Her brother convinced her to join Junior ROTC (JROTC), and from there she stuck with it.
“I'm not gonna lie, I did not have a lot of confidence. (In) JROTC... I started building confidence,” Suidut said. "And then once I got into this program, I started realizing it.”
USC has an Army ROTC, a Navy ROTC and an Air Force ROTC.
ROTC is a college program that sets students up to join the military as an officer instead of an enlister, which is a higher ranking. As part of ROTC, students take on a Military Science (MS) minor. They meet weekly as a unit and take lessons in leadership and military skills and three times a week for physical training between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m
Benjamin Buchalter, a second-year finance student who is in ROTC and the National Guard, said he knew he wanted to be in the military since he was a Boy Scout in high school.
“I grew up near West Point in New York, and I was always very interested in the military aspect of life,” Buchalter said. “I always knew that I kind of wanted a higher calling when it came, and I always wanted to kind of apply myself in a bunch of different areas.”
Unlike ROTC, the National Guard is a military unit that does not operate within the school and joining requires recruitment. The South Carolina National Guard contains Air Force units and Army units. One weekend a month, members of the National Guard do a Recruit Sustainment Program drill to get comfortable with the terminology and protocols that are part of guard service, according to the Army National Guard.
Members of the National Guard serve under the command of their state governors and respond to natural disasters and state emergencies, according to the SC National Guard. Eric Davis, a 2024 USC graduate and Army lieutenant stationed in Colorado, said students in the National Guard can get scholarships like the South Carolina Army National Guard scholarship.
A transformative experience
Buchalter said ROTC and the National Guard have made him more disciplined and responsible.
“I can't be up studying until one in the morning because I have to be up in four hours,” Buchalter said. “So it allows me to kind of plan my schedule out better, and it allows me to manage my time in a way where I can be successful, both academically, physically, mentally, in all aspects, military wise and educationally wise.”
Suidut said the hardest part of being a soldier is multitasking because she has a lot of other time commitments like CrossFit and academic responsibilities.
As a soldier, Murchison pushes herself to excel in new standards, such as getting up before dawn and training her body to be stronger, she said.
"I transformed physically, mentally and my lifestyle changed,” Murchison said. “My discipline level changed. It just instilled in me a new level of respect for myself and for my peers, because we're all on the same goal to achieve a certain mission.”
Fourth-year geography student, Chad Clatterbuck served for ten years in active duty in the army. He then enrolled at USC as part of ROTC. Clatterbuck had tried the college rout before enlisting in the military but didn't graduate.
"I failed because I lacked the discipline or the foresight to see the benefits of having a college degree," Clatterbuck said. "So serving on the enlisted side, it gave me that discipline and the foresight to be like, there's better opportunity after you get your college degree."
Transitioning in and out of university environment
Students can serve in active duty or as a reservist for any of the eight branches of service while attending college, Kenneth Custer, assistant registrar for veterans enrollment services, said.
Active duty is full time service to the military while a reservist serves part time in the military, according to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
Students who are veterans often use the GI bill, which helps veterans pay for their education, and some use the Veteran Readiness and Employment program, according to the US Department of Veteran Affairs.
Most of the time students undergo involuntary mobilization into active duty, meaning they are called up to fill a position or be mobilized along with their unit, Custer said.
If students are mobilized, the Veterans Enrollment Services helps them get a military withdrawal for their classes and ensures they get back into their courses once they come back, Custer said. There are a wide range of deployment timeframes. Custer said, often students who are deployed take over four years to get their degree.
“We try to help them through that," Custer said. "We try to hopefully ease their minds a little bit and let them know that it’s going to be okay.”
The first time a student deploys they often have a lot of questions and concerns, Custer said.
“Obviously it’s a stressful time for the student,” Custer said. “You know you’re already balancing your school life of going to class and handling assignments and exams and everything. And now to have the additional stressor of getting ready to deploy.”
Returning from active duty in a structured military environment to the freedom of school life is also a big adjustment, Custer said.
Custer also said most students acclimate pretty well back into university and are focused on getting their degree as quickly as possible so they can get back into the working world and seek employment.
Next year, Davis said he will return to USC to get his master's degree in international relations even as he’s enlisted.
“As a senior leader, I owe it to the people under me to be good at my job and do well and focus on that primarily,” he said. ‘So whatever it looks like, I'm going to make sure it works with what I'm doing.”
Community and respect at USC
First-year mechanical engineering student Reaghan Grobe said everyone she's met at USC holds respect for the military.
“I truly believe that this school is very open to military members,” Grobe said. “I've never encountered anybody with a negative connotation of the army whatsoever.”
The military program itself is large and diverse, Davis said. He has made friends and grown his social web in college.
“I had no problem running into lots of people that have become lifelong friends,” Davis said. “Those are the people I hung out with and continue to hang out with.”
Murchison said that while training to be a soldier is difficult, she’s doing it with a group of people who have the same ideas and mindset that she does. She said she began building connections when she met fellow military students in Military Science classes, and is closer to them as a result.
“They know my strengths and my weaknesses, I know theirs, and they're helping me become a better person,” Murchison said.