Clara Mansour is a 19-year-old alumnus who graduated from Sahuaro in 2015 and is currently in the Reserves Program; she is a counselor for soldiers who have PTSD, or suicidal thoughts and also family problems. She is a freshman in college and attends the University of Arizona.

The Reserves program is where you sign a contract that says you’re in the Reserves, and you only work one weekend a month and also two weeks out of the summer. Doing this program helps pay for college and makes it a whole lot easier. By doing this, you get a GI Bill that is $13,000, and you also get TA, tuition assistance, which is $4,000 per semester. She joined the Reserves program to help pay for college tuition.

What caught her eye in the job she was interested in was working with people and getting to interact with them. Even if she gets deployed somewhere else, she still gets to work with the civilians. She also likes working security because she always has a weapon on her. When I asked how she likes her job she said, “It’s really fun! Only the training was hard. Getting to this point was probably the hardest part.” Depending on your job, you can go from four months of training which is what she did, compared to being away from home for a year and a half. Clara is studying to be in a plastic surgery program so she probably won’t stay in the Army her entire life, but she is trying to commission as an officer.

Her advice to kids finding another way to pay for college is search all your options before you sign a contract with the Army, because once you sign, that’s it, you belong to them. It’s really hard to get out so make sure that you’re serious about this. Apply for scholarships and see if your family can help you pay for college and if not, and you still want to go to college, sign up for the Reserves program. You don’t work that much. All you have to do is be physically fit and it looks good on your college resume because you can list that you’re a veteran. Another perk about this is that if you’re in the military and apply to college, you’re automatically accepted. She is very happy with her decision. It was probably the best decision she’s ever made because working and paying for college would’ve probably been impossible for her since college is so expensive.

When I asked about her experiences here at Sahuaro she said she was more of a fine arts child and that it was a pretty big school on parties. Clara also attempted to play tennis here at Sahuaro but sprained her ankle four times during the tryouts every year. Her favorite memory here at Sahuaro was her first orchestra concert. I asked how she felt during her concert and she said, “I was really nervous and it sounded like crap, but it was really nice.”