Originally from Washington State, LaNae Dedmond joined the Army National Guard at the age of 17 for three years of active duty. Once she finished her service, she turned her attention to being a mom of three children and working to support them. Ready for a change, LaNae moved to Chicago with her kids in the summer of 2015. At the time, she was going to Eastern Washington University so she knew she wanted to continue her education. But she also knew that with such a big move, she wanted to ease into a new school. That’s when she found City Colleges, and specifically Harold Washington College in the Loop.
Once she enrolled in classes in the fall of 2015, one of her first and most frequent stops was the Veterans Services Center. Marcus Williams, who runs the Center, helped her find additional resources to support her education, and specifically helped her find a scholarship for Veterans that helped pay a large part of her tuition. Once she knew where she wanted to transfer to, he even helped connect her to the St. Xavier University Veterans support representative.
“The Veteran community is already such a supportive network, but Marcus became like family,” said LaNae.
LaNae was able to take what she learned from Marcus and share it with other Veterans. She was also able to participate in volunteer activities set up by the Veterans Services Center, both on and off campus.
Now at St. Xavier with a liberal studies major and a concentration in religious studies, LaNae has her sights set on law school. She will graduate in the spring of 2019, take the LSAT, then take a short break before she jumps back into school to prepare to practice family law.