When life handed lemons to Fontasha Brown when she was on the Coast Guard's search and rescue team, she made lemon cakes.
"I used to have nightmares after Hurricane Katrina," says the 29-year-old Brownsville resident, who was stationed in Guam, South Carolina and New Orleans and served during Hurricane Katrina, Haiti and Japan's earthquake. "I would wake up in the middle of the night and bake. The smell was calming — it was enjoyable to see something pretty that you baked versus the look of a body you picked up."
So after leaving the military 10 years early due to an injury, Brown channeled that stress-relieving hobby into a formal culinary education. "I wanted to learn from people, not YouTube," she explains. "It was stressful at first, but then I remembered my 9/11 GI Bill — that's been a blessing." She recently completed her diploma in professional pastry arts at the International Culinary Center in Soho and aspires to own a dessert bar.
Brown's not alone. According to the Center for American Progress, approximately 646,000 veterans were enrolled in a higher education institution in 2012.
Brown's transition into civilian life was "easy" thanks to supportive family and friends — though it wasn't so easy for John Dugan.
Despite leaning on his support system, the 33-year-old Marine corporal, who's been the executive sous chef at Midtown seafood restaurant Oceana since 2011, recalls his mind playing tricks. "I remember walking across 23rd Street holding my keys in my hand, thinking everyone around me was going to attack me," he says.
After having served in Iraq and Asia, he got through mind tricks with the mantra, "Failure is not an option. Suck it up and deal."
Dugan dealt by pounding the pavement. "I literally took the train to a different spot of the city every day to hand out my resume. I must have handed out at least 500 resumes, scoured Craigslist."
Out of the blue, an Italian restaurant asked him to work in the kitchen at their downtown location. And, with his father's prodding, Dugan pursued a formal culinary education at ICC. "Cooking's always been natural for me," says the East Harlem resident. "It's always been my go-to."
For nine months, Dugan worked full-time while attending school — without a day off. Thankfully, his years working in pizzerias as a teen were a solid learning base. "I knew this sauce needed celery, carrots and onions because the chef told me," he explains. "I didn't know that's the classic combination base flavor of certain things."
While his diploma in professional culinary arts taught him the reasons behind the recipes, it also helped him land a job. "Schooling definitely helped me network. The career services center told me about an opening at Convivio, which then got me a job at Oceana."
Thomas Jones leads his fellow veterans in cooking classes as a chef and teacher at the International Culinary Center in Soho.Photo: Michael Sofronski
Like Brown and Dugan, Chris Maloney learns vital new skills and leverages his education to network. The Upper West Sider returned home after deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Marine Corps. He's currently pursuing his MBA at Fordham, calling it his "two-year deployment in New York City."
He initially didn't sweat navigating civilian plans. "I tried to do it smartly," says the 34-year-old of his gradual integration. "I knew I had to decompress." He came home in October 2012, got reacquainted with family in the Philadelphia area, got into the reserves in Newburgh and matriculated in Fordham the following August.
The budding entrepreneur helps the 400-plus Fordham student vets ease their adjustments by running orientation. "Transitioning from the military to higher ed can be overwhelming," he says. During the orientation, everyone introduces themselves, the faculty and staff so veterans know who's who. "That's huge," he says. "You have names with faces and people who are on your side."
Volunteering because he wants to see vets "move onto bigger and better things," Maloney suggests researching the financial assistance schools offer. The post-9/11 GI Bill includes full funding of a public four-year undergraduate education to a veteran who has served three years of active duty since Sept. 11, 2001.
"Even with the GI Bill, students may need to take out a $20,000-a-year loan to afford some of the higher-ranked grad schools," explains Maloney. "Is it worth it? Landing that key job at Google or Goldman may require that leap in some people's mind."
That leap, says Mike Starich, president of military recruiting firm Orion International, requires connecting the dots. "Any civilian education that solves that equation is helpful. Hard, translatable skills are still important to employers." He points out that, if vets can show relatable skills or experience and "demonstrate strong intangibles that come with military experience, they will be successful."
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