Navy veteran Diana Kirkland is a proud mother of six and grandmother of five who used her Peirce College experience and her extraordinary life experiences to help veterans through the VA’s Regional office in Philadelphia.
She has overcome addiction and abuse and found Peirce College through a visit to the college sponsored by the Veterans Upward Bound program at the University of Pennsylvania.
“I was just really impressed with how the staff interacted at Peirce with the students. You could feel that they were genuine in wanting the students to succeed,” said Kirkland. “They all said that they had open door policies and that they would bend over backwards to help us with whatever we needed. I decided that this was the college for me. To me, it’s more like a family.”
Kirkland enrolled in the College’s associate degree in Paralegal Studies and completed the degree in 2014. She decided to continue her education and completed her BS in Paralegal Studies in 2016 – and served as that year’s Commencement Speaker.
“I enjoy learning about the law and how it applies to people in our country,” she said. “I’ve always been excited about that. As for my program, I enjoy the faculty and staff because they reach out and they are very supportive. It’s not an easy program and I didn’t expect it to be, but they make it so I can understand it and I can relate it to life.”
Diana also felt especially encouraged as a veteran student at Peirce.
“Sometimes it’s hard for a person to be in the military and then come out and transition back into civilian life,” Diana said. “It’s really hard for military members to do that. But don’t forget that there are a lot of programs and incentives out there for military members to go back to school and to achieve something new. Peirce has lots of information available on its website about the types of support military members can find.”