Education
Generational progress: How an FSU student veteran created a better life for her family
Key Points
- Nayla McCarty, an Air Force Veteran, mother and wife, is a Juris Master’s student pursuing a degree in the FSU College of Law’s Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Technology Risk Management.
- McCarty is an FSU student veteran and first-generation student whose military service was also the lifeline to her education.
For Florida State University Juris Master student Nayla McCarty, joining the Air Force was a way to serve her country and build a future her parents could not afford to give her.
Now a first-generation college student pursuing FSU College of Law’s Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Technology Risk Management program, McCarty is building that future alongside her family. Her daughter, Alicia, is an FSU senior; her son, Isaiah, is finishing high school; and her husband, Phillip, is a recent FSU graduate and fellow veteran. She is driven to advance her career, but more importantly, create the life she wants for herself and her family.
“For my parents, there’s just no way that they could have afforded to send me to school,” McCarty said. “When I joined the military, I joined because I wanted to, because I wanted to serve my country. But also, I wanted to build a career, and part of that was eventually going to school.”
Raised in both San Juan and Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, McCarty grew up watching her father serve in the Puerto Rico National Guard. He also worked as an electric company lineman, while her mother was a secretary in a doctor’s office. Neither attended college.
McCarty was inspired by her father’s service and that of other family members. Living near an airport, she was fascinated by the planes flying overhead, built forts with his military equipment and came to appreciate his service and sacrifice.
“The military was just always something that really attracted me,” McCarty said. “I enjoyed seeing my dad doing his thing, and he was very proud of the work that he did, so that just encouraged me to do the same.”
McCarty joined the Air Force at 18 and served from 2000 to 2004 in aircrew support and management, helping crews meet safety standards and flying-hour limits. She spent two years in Japan with the 36th Airlift Squadron at Yokota Air Base before moving to Travis Air Force Base in California in 2002.
The Air Force instilled discipline, camaraderie and a drive to keep learning.
“Everything that I am as a professional now really started there,” McCarty said of the Air Force. “It’s my integrity, the work ethics, just always wanting to learn something new.”
In 2003, nearing the end of her enlistment, McCarty began taking college classes on the West Coast at night while still serving. She also worked at Blockbuster to help make ends meet.
She and her husband, a Marine Corps veteran, were ready to build a family.
“I did my four years and got out, just because I wanted to prioritize building a family and going to school,” McCarty added.
After their daughter was born in 2005, the couple stayed in California and juggled parenting around work because childcare was too expensive. McCarty worked shifts from 4 p.m. to midnight at the Contra Costa Crisis Center, assisting with mental health counseling, while her husband worked days. She transitioned to working in database management at the company, sparking her current interest in information systems.
“We just did it. We just juggled it. We wanted to get it done,” she said.
FSU has played an important role in McCarty’s next chapter. Her husband’s recent Juris Master degree as a disabled veteran at FSU, coupled with her daughter’s involvement with FSU’s Transfer Leadership Institute as part of the ASPIRE-TSC2FSU program, motivated her to go back to college one more time.
“I felt so good for my family, and it’s like, I want to have that feeling, too,” McCarty said.
Now a senior operations leader at cloud enterprise company SearchStax, McCarty is using her military education benefits at FSU. In her first semester as a virtual student, she serves as an officer in FSU’s Veterans Student Union, connects with fellow veterans and seeks more first-generation and veteran events.
As she reflects on how her military journey has crossed paths with her educational pursuits, McCarty is thankful for her opportunities.
“I think what makes this journey especially meaningful to me is that neither of my parents had the opportunity to attend college,” she said. “But their hard work, sacrifices and encouragement helped me become a first-gen student. Now I’m watching the next generation pursue opportunities that once felt out of reach.”
