Good day, My name is Brian Selby and I was born in Sturgis South Dakota. my family never had a lot of money and in all honesty I was never the best student in high school. After I graduated, I was working at a slaughterhouse in Rapid City trying in vain to save money for school. I decided this path wasn't going to work, so like many of the kids I went to school with I joined the Army in 1992. My path to higher education has been paid for with military service. I discovered something about myself when I got to college after 13 years in the military. With my work ethic, I was very successful. The unspoken problem with being a non-traditional student is being forced to catch up educationally. Many of the things I learned in high school were fifteen years out of date. To pass a freshman biology class with a lab, I had to teach myself all of the science required as a prerequisite for the course in addition to keeping up with a full time load of other courses. I was clearly unqualified educationally to be in that course. At the end of the course, I had the highest score in the class. I had completed every extra credit assignment I could because I was scared of failing. My final grade was an A; I had earned one hundred and six percent of possible points available. All of the classes I took for the first two years were like this. I had to relearn everything. My plan for my education is to use my skills as a paralegal in the area of veterans advocacy. While many veterans have help in the form of educational subsidy and other programs, getting these benefits is challenging. Many veterans apply for help and are turned away for arbitrary reasons such as incomplete paperwork. I want to use my skills to help veterans get the benefits they have earned through the sacrifices made on behalf of our country. I have been to many veteran standowns and seen frustrated men and women trying in vain to get the help they need. It breaks your heart to see this desperation. Many of these veterans suffer from mental health and substance abuse issues; this exacerbates their ability to deal with complicated paperwork in the benefits process. I want to develop the skills to give these folks a fighting chance and show them people really care. The problem veterans face is one of perception. These are the people who need the help. They are not cuddly or easy to deal with. They need someone who sees past the anger and frustration and help them focus. They need someone who sees them as they person they were without judgment of their current conditions. They need a combination of a friend and advocate. They need someone who will undertake their cause with the tenacity of a mad dog. Please help me to be that guy.

Good day, My name is Brian Selby and I was born in Sturgis South Dakota. my family never had a lot of money and in all honesty I was never the best student in high school. After I graduated, I was working at a slaughterhouse in Rapid City trying in vain to save money for school. I decided this path wasn't going to work, so like many of the kids I went to school with I joined the Army in 1992. My path to higher education has been paid for with military service. I got injured pretty severely and was medically separated in 2004. I loved being a soldier. When I got out of the Army I lost a huge part of my identity. I was faced with reinventing myself. So I enrolled in college in 2004. I discovered something about myself when I got to college after 13 years in the military. With my work ethic, I was very successful. The unspoken problem with being a non-traditional student is being forced to catch up educationally. Many of the things I learned in high school were fifteen years out of date. To pass a freshman biology class with a lab, I had to teach myself all of the science required as a prerequisite for the course in addition to keeping up with a full time load of other courses. I was clearly unqualified educationally to be in that course. At the end of the course, I had the highest score in the class. I had completed every extra credit assignment I could because I was scared of failing. My final grade was an A; I had earned one hundred and six percent of possible points available. All of the classes I took for the first two years were like this. I had to relearn everything. My plan for my education is to use my skills as a paralegal in the area of veterans advocacy. While many veterans have help in the form of educational subsidy and other programs, getting these benefits is challenging. Many veterans apply for help and are turned away for arbitrary reasons such as incomplete paperwork. I want to use my skills to help veterans get the benefits they have earned through the sacrifices made on behalf of our country. Being a disabled veteran myself, I can tell you from personal experience navigating the benefits process is frustrating and requires a certain level of legal acumen. I have been to many veteran standowns and seen frustrated men and women trying in vain to get the help they need. It breaks your heart to see this desperation. Many of these veterans suffer from mental health issues and substance abuse issues and this exacerbates their ability to deal with complicated paperwork in the benefits process. I want to develop the skills to give these folks a fighting chance and show them people really care. The problem veterans face is one of perception. We are perceived as being angry and troubled. In many instances, this is true. These are the people who need the help. They are not cuddly or easy to deal with. They need a person with shared experience so trust can be established. They need someone who can see past the anger and frustration and help them focus. They need someone who can see them as they person they were without judgment of their current conditions. They need a combination of a friend and advocate. They need someone who will undertake their cause with the tenacity of a mad dog. Please help me to be that guy.