{"id":39968,"date":"2025-11-07T09:37:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T14:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=39968"},"modified":"2025-11-11T14:10:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:10:55","slug":"magazine-up-close-taking-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/magazine-up-close-taking-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Marine One crewman advocates for fellow veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brandon Parks M\u201925 has a story that traverses the world. <\/strong>He\u2019s a Marine Corps veteran, a first-generation college graduate, one of four children and part of the first cohort to earn degrees in Furman University\u2019s Advocacy and Social Policy master\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

Parks grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, the oldest son to a single mother. He wanted to contribute to the household immediately after graduating from high school and found a place in the military.<\/p>\n

That career took off, literally. He served as a crew chief in aviation, quickly rising through the ranks to become a quality assurance inspector and, eventually, a member of the elite HMX-1 Presidential Helicopter Squadron. From 2009 to 2014, Parks traveled the globe alongside President Barack Obama, maintaining and clearing aircraft for presidential transport.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t realize it at the time, but you\u2019re witnessing history,\u201d he says. \u201cFlying over Joplin, Missouri, after the tornadoes, or rushing back to Colorado right after the Aurora theater shooting \u2014 you see the scope of how people are affected. That was when advocacy started to really matter to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After nine years, Parks was forced to leave the military in 2014 due to a serious leg injury sustained during a hard landing. He admits that the experience of going from high-impact, sometimes high-intensity situations, to civilian life was jarring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a structure in the military \u2013 where to be, what to wear, when you get paid \u2013 that disappears overnight,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI remember sitting on the bed asking, \u2018Who am I now?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He tried the corporate route, working at Tesla\u2019s factory in Fremont, California, helping to install the robotics that assemble vehicles. But despite the pay and prestige, Parks felt unfulfilled. A vacation to New York, including a tour of Columbia University, reignited his interest in learning. He walked away from Tesla and stepped into academia, earning a dual bachelor\u2019s in sociology and Africana studies from San Francisco State University before finding Furman and its new Advocacy and Social Policy master\u2019s program almost by accident.<\/p>\n

\"Three

The first cohort of the new Advocacy and Social Policy master’s program graduated in 2025 and included Brandon Parks M\u201925 (second from right).<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI literally just typed \u2018advocacy program\u2019 into Google, and Furman popped up,\u201d Parks says, still amused by the serendipity. \u201cNever in my life did I think I\u2019d actually go to Furman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once there, Parks found more than coursework, he found clarity. One class, Dialogue for Social Change, stood out. It showed him how to talk across differences and the most critical skill of listening and trying to make effective and actual change.<\/p>\n

And in true Furman fashion, he didn\u2019t simply study advocacy, he lived it. Through an internship with Upstate Forever\u2019s Citizens Planning Academy, Parks helped local residents learn how to communicate with elected officials and craft impactful public comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking what I learned in class and putting it directly into the community, that\u2019s the magic of this program and the impact of Furman,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Now, Parks is headed to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill\u00a0 to pursue a doctorate in organizational and educational change. His goal: tackle veteran homelessness and improve the often-treacherous transition from military to civilian life that he experienced firsthand.<\/p>\n

He credits Furman, and faculty like Shaniece Criss, associate professor of health sciences and director of this master\u2019s program, for giving him both the academic challenges and personal encouragement to aim higher.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s from Greenville, like me. To see someone from my community with a doctorate \u2013 it made me believe I could do it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parks admits the road ahead isn\u2019t easy, but he\u2019s walked difficult roads before. He remembers getting through boot camp, recovering from his injury, starting his bachelor\u2019s degree nine years after high school, moving across the country to his hometown and being among the first to earn this particular master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I made it,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery challenge since then, I just remind myself, I did that. I can do this, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brandon Parks M\u201925 brings his Marine Corps mentality to his passion for veteran advocacy and social change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":39775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,60,3493,3484,1963],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-alumni-profiles","category-around-the-lake-fall-2025","category-fall-2025","category-furman-magazine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39968"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40242,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39968\/revisions\/40242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}