{"id":382,"date":"2024-12-17T17:04:30","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T17:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/?p=382"},"modified":"2024-12-17T17:04:30","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T17:04:30","slug":"u-s-army-veteran-finds-strong-support-system-at-pellissippi-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/?p=382","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Army veteran finds strong support system at Pellissippi State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Brandon Ball<\/strong> is a U.S. Army veteran who is parlaying his experience as a medic in the military into a career in health care.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brandon Ball, <\/strong>a veteran of the U.S. Army, enrolled in college right out of high school, but put his academic journey on hold to help financially support his family after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After serving in the military for four years, Brandon applied to Pellissippi State after hearing about the good experience that his girlfriend, Kailea Davis,<\/strong> and her mother, Sandra Davis-Bullis, <\/strong>had during their time as students. \u201cWe were sitting in a restaurant eating, and Kailea was like, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s just apply now!\u2019” Brandon remembers. “She helped me do the application process, and I was here taking classes soon after.\u201d With his history as a medic in the Army, Brandon attended Pellissippi State planning to enter the medical field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to college caused Brandon hesitation at first, but his Pellissippi State team helped him each step of the way. \u201cComing back as a nontraditional student can be intimidating, but having my support system has been bar none — they\u2019ve really helped so much,” Brandon says. Brandon was welcomed to Pellissippi State by former financial aid coordinator Sharon Roberts,<\/strong> who helped him get acclimated with fellow veteran students during his first semester, and Kelsy Fritts<\/strong> served as his advisor that put him on the pathway to get where he needed to go as fast as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brandon also joined Pellissippi State\u2019s Student Employment Project to help him stay financially stable as a student, working at the Magnolia Avenue and Division Street campuses. \u201cTerry Lund<\/strong> and Dean (Esther) Dyer<\/strong> at Division Street are amazing, Ms. Patti (Rogers) <\/strong>and Dean (Stella) Bridgeman<\/strong> at Magnolia Avenue have been so great, and working with those types of people really pushed me towards success,” Brandon says. He also had strong faculty support from instructors such as Reza Basiri,<\/strong> associate professor of Mathematics, “who has always pushed me and checked on my grades since my very first semester, and Reza was also at commencement to watch me graduate,” Brandon notes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally, Brandon\u2019s plan was to become a physician assistant after observing their work in the Army, but he has since set his plans higher. \u201cKailea was like, \u2018You\u2019re doing really awesome, your grades are really good, so why not just go for an MD and be a full-fledged doctor?'” Brandon explains. “That\u2019s what I\u2019ve decided to do. I\u2019m going to stay focused, I\u2019m going to go to UT and apply for med school, and my goal is to become a family medicine doctor. Helping someone\u2019s quality of life is really important to me.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before he crossed the stage at Pellissippi State’s fall Commencement Ceremony last week, Brandon offered his advice to his fellow nontraditional students: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, don\u2019t give up, and it\u2019s never too late. Set your mind to something, and you can accomplish anything.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations, Brandon! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Story and photo by Jessie Tipton,<\/strong> visual media coordinator for Pellissippi State<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brandon Ball, a veteran of the U.S. Army, enrolled in college right out of high school, but put his academic journey on hold to help financially support his family after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.  After serving in the military for four years, Brandon applied to Pellissippi State after hearing about the good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}