From Boots to Business

Jillian Ventrone is a higher education counselor for service members aboard a federal installation, working with Service members and their families to help them transition to education or to other professions. She is the go-to expert for professional advice for Marines, sailors, and dependents who want to successfully transition into higher education. She writes for the base Education Newsletter monthly and has an article published in the Service members Opportunity Colleges Consortium publication.Robert W. Blue has been a civilian education and career counselor for the military since 2001, working in the San Diego area on Navy and Marine Corps bases providing higher education services to Marines and sailors of all ranks, from junior enlisted to admiral. He has been responsible for setting up college programs, including classroom instruction, on dozens of U.S. Navy ships. His duties have included marketing, writing, and editing education newsletters for four different bases. Counseling one-on-one or in large group formats, he assists sailors, Marines, and dependent family members with pursuing their higher education goals. Before his career as a civilian educator for the military, he served 24 years with the U.S. Navy. For most of that time, his assigned duties were as a military career counselor and an educational services officer, helping sailors pursue vocational certifications and college programs through stateside bases, overseas duty stations, or on ships in the fleet. The U.S. Navy assisted him in attaining a United Services Military Apprenticeship Program Department of Labor certificate in counseling, an associate’s degree, and a bachelor’s degree. Through the GI Bill, he also obtained two master’s degrees completed aboard military bases.Roxanne Rapske is a franchise associate, specializing in using the company's proven franchise matching system and her own unique experience in the business world to consult with clients and to match them to a franchise that offers the best personal and professional fit for their needs. After creating a profile that reflects their skill sets, interests, experience, finances, and goals, I consult with clients on the best opportunities for their goals. I personally understand the difficulty in finding and starting a business, because I have applied the same strategies I use with my clients to my personal life as my husband and I found and started a franchise. She teaches for a transition seminar for service members held aboard the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base in California. In this seminar she teaches active duty service members, veterans, and military spouses about the process of owning a franchise to demonstrate that it may be a viable option for those service members who prefer to start their own business versus working for someone else.Julie LaCriox has been a career counselor in private practice for ten years, based in Southern California, serving adults of all ages. Her role is unique in that she has direct access to the greater population of adult professionals in need of career guidance, and she sees a wide variety of adult transitions at various stages of life, and with varying personality and career complexities. Because of this, she focuses her practice on two core services: guiding individuals into career alignment and mobilizing a job search with resumes that reflect skills needed in the workforce today.