Anthony Sears ’21 will become a Woods College double Eagle this summer when he graduates with a master's degree in cybersecurity. (Photo by Caitlin Cunningham)
In 2014, Anthony Sears was a sophomore at Curry College in Milton, Mass. By the following summer, he’d traded in his student ID for an assignment aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Mobile Bay, an icebreaker ship based out of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. It was the first of many assignments he would have over the next four years.
It was a dramatic shift, but Sears always relishes new experiences, even when they steer him down a nontraditional path. “I wanted to challenge myself on a new level,” he said. “People think you’re supposed to go to college at 18 and graduate at 22, but there’s no timestamp on a degree.”
Sears finished up his spring semester at Curry in 2015, swore into the Coast Guard and headed for boot camp. Assignments to the Great Lakes, Virginia, and Rhode Island followed, but after three years, he was considering his next move.
“People think you’re supposed to go to college at 18 and graduate at 22, but there’s no timestamp on a degree.”
Going back to college to complete his degree appealed to him, but the logistics seemed complicated. “I wasn’t really sure how my credits would transfer, or what weight my GPA would carry,” he recalled. “When you’re a veteran, you don’t have a high school guidance counselor helping you, and I didn’t really know where to look.
Sears acts as the coxswain in charge aboard a 29-foot Response Boat-Small II during a training in Block Island Sound.
Home on leave in the fall of 2018, he made an impulsive decision while driving near Boston College. “Like all kids from Massachusetts I had wanted to go to BC at one point and I thought, ‘What the heck?’” he recalled. “I parked and joined the first tour group I saw. I felt at home right away.”
The visit turned into an hours-long meet-and-greet with staff at the Woods College of Advancing Studies, noted for offering veterans high quality academics, flexible course schedules, and personalized advising within a supportive community. He also met with members of the BC veterans community.
After finishing his Coast Guard contract, he was honorably discharged from active duty and attended his first class as an Eagle in the fall of 2019.
Being back on a college campus felt novel to Sears, but the academic pace didn’t faze him. He took pointers from a classmate who was a Marine veteran, and aced his first midterm. The Coast Guard had prepared him to absorb “a fire hose of information,” and to put in the work necessary to master material. He enrolled in all sorts of classes, relishing the next phase of his adventure.
“I had such an awesome experience because I got to take classes that ranged from leadership to criminology, to topics like Christianity in Africa and History of New England,” he said. “Plus, I had people in my corner rooting for me like my advisors and the other veterans.”
“One of the best resources at BC for veterans is other veterans,” he said. “We have a similar background, a similar outlook on life, and we’re not afraid to engage in dialogue and debate. We bring a lot, I think.”
The Woods College advising office helped Sears use previously un-transferred JST credits from the Coast Guard to graduate a year early, allowing him to use the remainder of his GI Bill to cover a master’s degree. A Navy veteran who became Sears’ unofficial mentor encouraged him to enroll in the Woods Cybersecurity Policy and Governance program, and Sears applied, taking his first two courses—Role of Intelligence and International Cybersecurity—while still technically an undergraduate.
Looking back, it’s impossible for Sears to separate his BC experience from his identity as a veteran. He feels he owes much of his academic success to the preparation he received as a Coast Guardsman, both in the classroom there and as part of a diverse crew working toward a common goal. At the same time, having other veterans in the classroom at BC, as well as access to the University’s student-veteran resources, helped ease his transition from active-duty serviceman to full-time student.
“One of the best resources at BC for veterans is other veterans,” he said. “We have a similar background, a similar outlook on life, and we’re not afraid to engage in dialogue and debate. We bring a lot, I think.”
This summer he’ll begin another fresh chapter, with a newly minted master's degree and a new career in the technology sector, all while continuing to serve in the Coast Guard Reserve.
He’ll be 27 years old, and he wouldn’t change a thing.
Alix Hackett | University Communications | May 2022