It started when Jesus Avila was playing high school football. The work ethic and natural abilities of the San Antonio-born student caught the attention of his coaches at Princeton High School. They told Avila he had the traits of a soldier and that he should look into it.
No one in Avila’s family had attended college, and the comments shed a light on a possible way Avila could afford to change that.
Avila stopped playing football for half of his senior year at Princeton to concentrate on getting his grades up so he could get into Thomas More College. He worked afternoons and weekends at Max & Erma’s to raise the money. Once he was admitted to the Crestview Hills college in the fall of 2014, he made the Saints’ football team and continued working shifts at Max & Erma’s around his class and practice schedules.
“When we had breaks in school, like winter, spring or summer break, I would work those weeks instead of relaxing like my other friends,” Avila said.
When it came time to pay tuition – roughly $4,500 per semester – Avila paid it in cash. His mother, who raised Avila and his younger sister by herself and often worked from 5 a.m. until 7 p.m. to pay the bills, helped.
While he was a freshman, Avila also reached out to Eddie Oestreicher, associate professor of business administration and director for veterans’ assistance and ROTC at Thomas More, to learn more about what it would take to become a soldier and how that might help him pay for college.
Oestreicher, a 32-year military veteran and retired U.S. Navy captain, pointed Avila toward a U.S. Army program that lets enlisted members shadow and learn from officers.
“Jesus is a good student and a good example of the type of person I would want in the military,” Oestreicher said. “He’s dedicated and has desire.”
Avila joined the Army in the spring of 2014 and became part of the National Guard. In January, he left for 180 days of basic training and advanced individual training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. When he returned to Thomas More in June, Avila joined the ROTC program, which stacked daily trainings onto his academic course load, football practices, and once-a-month guard duty commitments.
Completing the basic training made Avila eligible for veterans’ benefits, though, which include four years of graduate-level education after he’s completed his undergraduate degree, and joining the ROTC program guaranteed him a commission in the military after graduation -- he can choose to pursue active duty in the army or continue in the guard.
In addition, Avila qualified for a Thomas More academic scholarship, an out-of-state award and a need-based grant that collectively cover his room and board, meal plan and books.
Last month, Avila learned that he also would receive full cost of tuition for the rest of his undergraduate career when he was honored with an ROTC scholarship based on his exceptional academics, training and physical fitness.
It’s a story, said Thomas More President David Armstrong, of a young man committed to pulling himself up by the bootstraps. “This kid has taken advantage of every opportunity that has come his way,” he said. “You just don’t see that kind of stick-to-itiveness these days.”
Oestreicher plans to use Avila, the first Thomas More student to receive a full-tuition ROTC scholarship, as an example. “I’m bringing him into the classroom with me now and having him showcase the opportunities available to students through the military and ROTC,” he said. “The program is growing by leaps and bounds because he received that scholarship.”
For Avila, it’s icing on the cake to serving as a role model for his family.
“There’s a little bit of pressure associated with being the first person in my family to go to college and join the military, but I like it,” he said. “My mom (who attended Avila’s swearing-in ceremony at Thomas More in May 2014) is really, really proud of me, and she is the reason I am the man I am today.
“My work ethic is a representation of her. She has inspired me to work hard.”
