As a military spouse of 16 years, Bana Miller ’04 knows a thing or two about moving due to assignments. She recently made her fifth move in seven years—this time to Seattle, where her husband, Lt. Col. Matt Miller, is now stationed. She’s not worried though. She’s found the military community to be welcoming in each new city, offering a sense of comradery.
“I love that every time we move I find my people and I’m pushed outside of my comfort zone,” Miller says. “We got to travel all over Europe, then we met the most incredible humans and built a really amazing community. I count myself very lucky to be a military family member, even with all the challenges it brings.”
Chief among those challenges, Miller says, is military spouse unemployment and underemployment. “It’s incredibly challenging for military spouses to thrive and flourish in their careers,” explains Miller, who majored in public relations at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and marketing at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. “I credit my education at Syracuse University for giving me a really solid foundation and putting me in the best position possible for thriving in my career when I did become a military spouse.”
Although she did not ultimately enroll in the program, Miller considered joining Onward to Opportunity, a career skills program offered by the University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) that provides civilian career training, professional certifications and employment services support to transitioning service members, members of the Reserves or National Guard, veterans and military spouses. This is one of the many services Syracuse University offers to veterans and their families.