Lauren Finch Serrano, 36
BA international area studies ’09
Major, U.S. Marine Corps; Intelligence; weapons and tactics instructor, Pentagon (Washington, D.C.)
How Drexel Helped Me: Without a doubt, Drexel set in motion the career path I am on today. Drexel provided limitless opportunities to harness and build upon my natural ambition and curiosity. As an International Area Studies major with a concentration in justice and human rights, Drexel encouraged me to explore uncharted opportunities for my co-op. I ended up doing a self-designed co-op in Cairo, Egypt. When I came back to Drexel, I tested out of the highest level of Arabic, so Drexel created a one-on-one class just for me! As if that wasn’t enough, I went into study abroad for a full year in Jordan with CIEE, a program Drexel facilitates. My co-op and study abroad experiences changed my life and have heavily influenced my military career. When I deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, during the war, I leaned heavily on my education at Drexel to write intelligence reports and aid the commander’s decision making. Additionally, I cannot overstate how military-friendly Drexel is. Drexel’s military student support programs and benefits literally changed my life and enabled me to be financially stable and focus on education. The ROTC program and Veterans Office at Drexel is phenomenal.
My Greatest Source of Motivation: Knowing that opportunities in America are endless. With enough hard work, intellect and strategy any American citizen can make anything happen. America truly is a land of opportunity.
Where I Hope to Be in Five Years: I hope to be in command of an Intelligence Battalion, hopefully the unit in Japan, which is the most operationally relevant unit in the Marine Corps. The unit is composed of some 1,000 Marine intelligence professionals who operate throughout Asia, focused on collecting intelligence against our adversaries.
If My Life Were a Music Video, the Song Would Be: “American Heart” by Faith Hill