Following seventeen years of service in the Army, Jay Saar, a senior at Lipscomb, has come back to school to further his passions.
Saar, a member of Lipscomb’s Yellow Ribbon program, works in the Veterans’ Services office on campus while he finishes his degree. The Yellow Ribbon program, part of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, enables veterans who served on active duty after Sept. 11, 2001, to obtain an undergraduate degree with discounted or free tuition.
Saar can normally be found at the front desk of the Veterans Services office, which is located on the lower level of the student center.
“I am a VA work study in the Veterans’ Services office,” he said. “I do administrative and support functions to ensure veteran students receive their benefits.”
Originally from Bemus Point, New York, Saar now lives in Bellevue after spending the last ten years of his service overseas. Saar spent that time in Kuwait, Turkey and Iraq.
“It’s different, but you get used to it,” he said about his time in the service.
Saar has been married for almost eleven years and has two children, a 7 year-old son and a 5 year-old daughter. “They are so fun at that age and are just fun to watch,” Saar said.
After having a seventeen-year military career and a family, Saar decided Lipscomb was a good fit for him to get his degree because “it had the program I was interested in, was high up on the list of things I wanted to study, it was convenient and here.”
Saar has a heart for “the green stuff,” which is how he playfully refers to his major. He is studying sustainable practice, which deals with bettering the environment and using logistics to find more efficient ways of mobility such as better methods for transporting materials.
“I want to get back into logistics and implement sustainable solutions with the least amount of energy expended,” Saar explained.
Saar said he uses his military mentality to help in all aspects of life. “No matter what you’re dealt, there’s ways to overcome that,” he said.
Saar said he applies that idea to every part of his life. For example, he is waiting to have double knee replacement surgery and said he uses situations like that to teach his kids one lesson he learned in the military—to never give up.
“I try not to let it get me down,” he said. “I try not to quit.”