Veterans at Kellogg: Beyond the Uniform

By: Vidhur Potluri

If you tried to guess which of your classmates once led platoons, flew Cessna aircraft, or deployed overseas, you’d probably get it wrong. At Kellogg, veterans blend right into everyday life—the person you sit next to in accounting class, the friend you grab a beer with at TG, and the co-editor-in-chief of The Kelloggian helping you finalize your next feature. You meet them as classmates first, long before you ever learn about the different paths that brought them here. and with Veteran’s Week at Kellogg, it felt like the right moment to sit with a few of them and learn how those experiences influence the way they show up and lead today—along with all the parts of their lives that extend far beyond service.

Crysta Gonzalez (2Y '26)

Crysta Gonzalez (left)

Crysta González didn’t follow a straight line into the U.S. Navy. “I applied to the Air Force Academy out of high school and got rejected,” she told me, laughing at how blunt the memory still feels. Instead, she went to NYU for a year, then to Stockton University to strengthen her grades before reapplying—this time earning admission to both the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy, where she chose to begin her military career.

She initially planned to become a pilot, spending months in Pensacola waiting to start flight training and soloing twice in a Cessna. But once she was in the air, she realized flying wasn’t the right fit. She switched into intelligence and spent six years as a Navy intelligence officer, stationed in Washington, D.C., and later deploying from San Diego on an aircraft carrier while working with partner nations across the Pacific.

One leadership moment stands out. Before deployment, tension was high among her eight junior sailors. Crysta brought them together, acknowledged the ways she was adding pressure, and invited them to speak honestly too. The shift was immediate—the team grew closer, shared meals, met each other’s families, and built the trust they needed during deployment.

When asked what might surprise classmates about her, she pointed to a different part of her Naval Academy life: she served as President of the Winter Musical, keeping creativity alive alongside military training. Crysta also met her wife, Gabby Fong, during her Navy career; today, both are at Kellogg and serve in the Navy Reserves. After years of being “one of one,” she chose Kellogg for its genuine emphasis on inclusion. Post-Kellogg, she hopes to work in strategy or marketing in the sports industry, with a long-term goal of helping lead a women’s team.

Andrew Dutch (2Y '27)

Andrew decided on the military earlier than most. “I went to West Point and I graduated in 2017,” he said, explaining that he had known since high school that he “wanted to go the military route” and commission as an Army officer. After four years at the Academy, he branched infantry and completed the demanding pipeline of airborne and Ranger School before heading to his first assignment in Alaska.

Andrew Dutch with his family

There, he spent two years as a platoon leader “in charge of 40 infantry soldiers,” serving in an airborne unit. Much of it looked like what many picture when they imagine the Army: “You’re running around the woods with guns… it’s your classic thing that you think of when you think of the Army.” And because he served in airborne formations, “we would get to that spot by jumping out of an airplane.”

He later joined the 75th Ranger Regiment and eventually moved to the 82nd Airborne Division, where he “commanded… about 140 people.” One leadership moment that stayed with him came during the hurricane response in western North Carolina. His company had just returned from a month of training when the call came, but “we all volunteered.” The mission evolved quickly, and the experience taught him to “take a step back and think more strategic,” a shift that continues to guide him.

Outside the military, Andrew laughs that people wouldn’t expect him to be into Warhammer 40K—“a super nerd game where you paint and build models,” something he admits is “counter to the infantry macho image.” Andrew is at Kellogg on active-duty sponsorship and will return to West Point to teach economics after graduation. He chose Kellogg because it felt “better for family life… for my wife and my son,” and watching Wesley run around at TG each week has only reinforced that decision.

JaeYong Ju (MMM '27)

JaeYoung Ju

For JaeYong, military service wasn’t a deliberate career choice. It was simply part of growing up. Born in South Korea and raised in Singapore from age six, he reached conscription age eligible to serve in both countries. After talking with his family, he chose Singapore. “I spent most of my life there,” he said, “so it just made more sense.” He went on to serve two years in the Singapore Armed Forces as a Third Sergeant and platoon sergeant at the Basic Military Training Centre, where he trained newly enlisted recruits.

One of the moments that shaped how he leads today happened during a three-day navigation exercise. The goal was to hit all checkpoints using only a map and compass—with the incentive of a small award for the first team to finish. As morale dipped and his section wanted to pause to admire a scenic hilltop view, he pushed to keep moving. They ultimately finished second, but what stayed with him was the trust he earned. His section began seeing him as the person who would “take on the navigation role while others were too tired,” reinforcing the value of leading by example.

For JaeYong, the MMM program has become his anchor at Kellogg. He talks about how naturally the community comes together. At one fall bonfire, the program director “personally put this… scarf on me and was like, hey… keep yourself warm,” he recalled. There was “a whole open charcuterie”—hot apple cider, and s’mores—“people were roasting marshmallows over the fire.” Together, the students, faculty, and rituals of the program have created a community that feels unusually tight-knit and accessible.

Shade Bullock (2Y '26)

Shade Bullock with her husband

At Kellogg, Shade serves as a Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Kelloggian, but before she was shaping stories on campus, she was an active-duty U.S. Army officer. “I was actually attending the University of Missouri, majoring in broadcast journalism, and I thought I was going to be a reporter and anchor,” she said. She worked for NBC through Mizzou’s campus station until a sorority sister made a suggestion: “She was like, hey, do you like to run and you like to work out… you should try Army ROTC with me, they’ll pay for your school.” Shade went to a few PT sessions and, as she put it, “literally got too scared to quit.” Before long, she was battalion commander for her ROTC unit and commissioning as a second lieutenant.

She branched chemical—“not exactly the plan”—and asked for South Korea, serving near the DMZ with a field artillery brigade. From there she earned a slot with 5th Special Forces Group near Nashville, deployed to Iraq as a battle captain “tracking and communicating with like five companies across five different countries,” then returned as an executive officer—the first woman in that role in her battalion—before moving to a second, more “diplomatic” unit.

After back-to-back deployments where she and her husband spent “a year apart on different time zones,” she started rethinking the future. She wanted to combine her love of storytelling—“trying to change the world through stories”—with the general management skills the Army had given her. From Iraq, she Googled “best MBA for marketing,” saw Kellogg at the top, and “started studying for the GRE in the middle of Iraq.”

Here, most classmates never guess that the veteran leading a section of The Kelloggian once anchored weekend news for NBC and competed in the Miss America scholarship organization, where ROTC friends jokingly called her “Miss America.”

Veterans Week is a reminder that the people sitting beside us come from histories we rarely see at first glance. Crysta, Andrew, JaeYong, and Shade each arrived at Kellogg through very different routes, from aircraft carriers to infantry units, from Singapore’s training fields to Special Forces operations. But what stands out most isn’t the scale of their responsibilities or the places they’ve served. It’s the way they’ve carried those experiences forward: into how they lead teams, build friendships, approach challenges, and contribute to the community here. Their stories aren’t meant to frame veterans as a separate group, but to show how seamlessly their perspectives and lived experiences enrich everyday life at Kellogg. You meet them as classmates first, then discover the depth behind their journeys, and that combination is exactly what makes this community what it is. Read More by Vidhur Potluri: Passport to Evanston: Meet Kellogg's Exchange Students