At the end of the 2023 winter term, Jose Torres became the first Oregon State University student to complete an honors degree online.
Ask him how he got here, and his story might surprise you.
“Nobody in my family’s ever gone to college or university, so it wasn’t even in my mind. We’re all working class people, and so that was my thing,” he says.
Torres is a U.S. Navy veteran who joined the service straight out of high school and did three deployments in Japan, San Diego and Guam.
“I was going to become an aircraft mechanic. That was my goal,” he says.
But while stationed in Guam, he saw another possible path for himself when he decided to volunteer at the Guam Wildlife Refuge. There, he worked with the Indigenous Chamorro people to help support native species in the refuge.
“I was just like — ‘How do I get your job?’” he says. “I just had no idea this was a possibility or a career choice that somebody could get paid for.”
So when his contract with the Navy ended, Torres applied to the fisheries, wildlife, and conservation sciences bachelor’s program through Oregon State Ecampus. He also applied to the Oregon State Honors College, which is known for high levels of faculty engagement and creating research opportunities for undergraduates.
Read more, here.
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