Jeremiah Glassford
As a third-generation member of the U.S. Army, I've known since childhood that I wanted to serve my country in some respect. Seeing my father leave for work in his camouflage uniform everyday and knowing that his job was to protect our nation, I felt it was my duty to join the military. While I was aware of my interest in the Army from a young age, it wasn't until I took a high school economics course that I discovered a passion for industry and business management, and then later, an attraction to the legal parameters in which business is conducted.
After high school, I joined the U.S. Army Reserve to fulfill my desire to serve as well as finance college. Since then, I have deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq, and I am currently on my third combat tour, stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. In between deployments, I have attended as many classes at the University of Alabama at Birmingham as possible during the evenings while working full-time as an active duty soldier. The decision to remain in the Army during college was based upon the fact that my wife would be unable to work while she completed the Registered Nurse program at Jefferson State Community College, followed by work on her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Jacksonville State. Until my commitment to the Army is satisfied, I will continue to attend UAB to receive my undergraduate degree in business management. My goal is to attend the University of Alabama School of Law to obtain a joint Juris Doctor/MBA upon the completion of my bachelor degree and release from the Army.
I've been interested in business and management for a while. The complete process of business, from development and manufacturing to marketing and distribution, has intrigued me since my high school business economics courses. Management, the ability to manage both internal and external forces to accomplish organizational objectives, presents the type of challenges and goals I hope to accomplish as a business professional. As a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, I have first-hand experience and knowledge in the other critical facet of management-- leadership. In the military, leadership is often learned on the job, sometimes in the most unforgiving circumstances, rather than strictly theorized in a classroom. I have managed Soldiers scattered throughout hostile war zones. A typical management position in the civilian sector requires a manager to be responsible only for subordinates' work for eight hours a day, five days a week. Being a leader during a combat deployment is a twenty-four-hour-a-day-job with no weekends to relax, escape, or decompress from the managerial role. Leaders are responsible for and involved in nearly every facet of their subordinates' lives, to include their welfare, performance, discipline, safety, and many other respects. I have played manager, counselor, teacher, confidant, disciplinarian, parent, friend, bodyguard, nurse, sympathizer, taskmaster, and a host of other roles to my subordinates, peers, and superiors. As an acting First Sergeant, the position as the senior non-commissioned officer, I was essentially responsible for all enlisted Soldiers in my unit. I have experienced situations involving severely suicidal personnel; a soldier sexually assaulted by an Iraqi national; several soldiers whose significant others committed adultery, placed their children in unsafe situations, and completely emptied bank accounts; soldiers whose family members, to include parents, died during deployment; soldiers experiencing post-traumatic stress syndrome from the violent death and destruction they witnessed; soldiers whose families were crumbling due to divorce or other issues; and many, many other demanding, stressful, and mind-boggling leadership challenges- all before the age of thirty.
Throughout my years spent in war zones, witnessing countries being painfully and violently rebuilt from the ground up, I've seen the creation of entire governments along with the legal systems providing the framework in which those countries are governed and business is conducted. These unique experiences led me to simultaneously expand and refine my interests to include business and law. The military's dependence on rules, regulations, and its own set of laws, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, has, in my opinion, adequately prepared me for law school and the corporate legal profession. The military uses these guiding mechanisms to conduct virtually every aspect of its business. Being a non-commissioned officer, I applied these guidelines to various types of situations, ranging from mundane administrative duties to severe disciplinary actions, on a daily basis. I believe that my experience as a mid-level supervisor operating within the boundaries of military rules and law will be remarkably similar to the situations I might face in law school and beyond. My education at UAB has also served as catalyst for my interest in corporate law. Beginning with required courses exploring business law through my current business classes, the legal parameters in which business is conducted is of great concern to me. I am particularly interested in the areas of corporate law that pertain to international business, public policy, and labor and employment.
As I stated earlier, my intent is to combine both my business and legal interests to obtain a joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration degree. I believe that my unique experiences in the U.S. Army have adequately prepared me for a professional corporate legal career in the civilian world. My ultimate career goal is to become general counsel or chief legal officer for a medium to large-sized company. I believe that my attention to detail, proven adaptability, and unlimited self-motivation, combined with my unique leadership experience and defined educational and professional aspirations, will prepare me to eventually lead a successful corporate legal team of any size and stature. As this quantity of current and future education requires an abundant amount of funding, any additional scholarships or financial aid will be extremely beneficial to the pursuit of my goals.
