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In 2002, recent high school graduate Chris Mentz of Collinsville, first set foot on the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville campus. After two years of taking computer engineering courses during the War in Iraq, Mentz decided to enlist as a soldier for the U.S. Army. His life was forever changed.
Chirs Mentz, of Collinsville is a former Green Beret who soon graduate from the SIUE School of Nursing / Submitted Photo
“I saw what was going on between 2001 and 2003 as far as the war, and I felt a personal obligation to join the military and help do something about it,” said Mentz.
During a five-year career with the Army, Mentz was able to obtain several honorable achievements, including the role as a medic for the prestigious Army Green Beret (special operations unit).
His training through the Green Beret program took him to every region of the U.S., including Georgia, North Carolina, Colorado, Florida, Vermont, New Mexico and Utah. After enduring more than two years of physically and mentally challenging training, Mentz was deployed to Iraq for nine months.
“After my service in the military, I knew that a career in medicine was what I wanted to pursue,” Mentz said. “Once I left the military, I was looking for the fastest way to get back into medicine and back home to my family – the SIUE School of Nursing was my best option.”
Mentz is six weeks away from graduating from the SIUE School of Nursing.
With aspirations of becoming an Army Ranger before joining the Green Beret, it is apparent that Mentz is someone who strives for greatness – a unique feature about SIUE that he said he recognized early on within his education from the School of Nursing.
“There are a lot of great instructors in the School of Nursing,” Mentz said. “They put in a great deal of time both inside and outside of the classroom. The instructors provide each student the individualized help that is needed in order for them to be successful.”
Mentz emphasized how seamless his transition was from soldier to student, especially financially.
“With SIUE being a ‘military friendly’ school, my Illinois Veteran’s grant and Post-9/11 GI Bills were used to continue my education without ever causing a headache for anyone to process,” he said. “I have a lot of veteran friends who are attending other schools who have really had a hard time getting their veteran bills processed.
“When you need money and it’s not there, it turns into a pretty stressful situation. It was nice that SIUE made it so that I never had to go through that.”
With graduation just weeks away, Mentz is excited to pursue his future endeavors. Ideally, he would like to return to SIUE and enroll in the Doctor of Nursing Practice Nurse Anesthesia (DNP NA) program. His dream job would be to work alongside an anesthesiologist or to assist in a critical care/trauma setting.
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