Serving Those Who Served Their Country
Alexandra Trobe (’21), a US Air Force veteran, is a recipient of the Rick McCombs Veterans Assistance Fund.
Photo by Janice Checchio for Boston University
Serving Those Who Served Their Country
Alexandra Trobe (’21), a US Air Force veteran, is a recipient of the Rick McCombs Veterans Assistance Fund.
Military veterans come to BU Law with a solid work ethic, disciplined habits that serve them well as students, and a proven dedication to serving the public good. But they also often come with few financial resources, especially if they have already used their GI benefits for undergraduate education. What’s more, readjusting to civilian life can take time—and support.
Rick McCombs (’73) knows that firsthand. “Making the transition in August 1970 after 14½ months in the border areas of Vietnam’s Central Highlands to the complexities of civilian life and the rigors of my first-year law courses was for me a difficult challenge,” McCombs says.
That’s why he established BU Law’s first fund specifically intended to support student veterans. In addition to scholarship support, the Rick McCombs Veterans Assistance Fund provides financial assistance for such needs as travel expenses for those pursuing judicial clerkships, the cost of interview attire, and stipends to support students who could not otherwise take unpaid internships.
Other generous donors have joined McCombs in supporting veteran students. After he issued a matching challenge for Giving Day this year, 37 donors pitched in to add a total of $41,600 to the fund.
Meanwhile, Sean Solis (’03) established an endowed fund specifically intended to provide annual scholarship awards to students who are veterans or actively serving in any branch of the United States armed forces.
As a proud grandson of an Army veteran, I am hopeful that the scholarship program I have established can help students who served their country and have risked their lives to support the principles of the United States.
“As a proud grandson of an Army veteran, I am hopeful that the scholarship program I have established can help students who served their country and have risked their lives to support the principles of the United States,” Solis says. “In many ways the pursuit of a legal education and the garnering of the legal skills that will accrue from that education will allow them the opportunity to possess the tools to continue that fight and to further advocate and perpetuate such principles as legal practitioners.”
The Sean M. Solis Military Scholarship will support veterans in perpetuity, complementing the impact of the McCombs Veterans Assistance Fund. And Alexandra Trobe (’21) is already among the grateful recipients.
Trobe came to BU Law after serving in the US Air Force. She obtained a judicial internship with the District Court of Massachusetts in the summer following her first year, and after graduating she accepted a clerkship with the Court of International Trade. The McCombs Fund put both of those positions within her reach.
“These are opportunities I would not have been able to consider without this financial support,” Trobe says. “I’m so grateful to have been selected.”
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