The Air Force took Michael Lennon to England, Turkey, South Korea, Germany and to college.

Now, three years after landing at Northeastern University, Lennon is helping other veterans navigate the college adjustment process as president of the Student Veterans Organization.

“My goal is just to help people,” Lennon says. “I want to help people network, I want to have a safe space where people can hang out.”

Lennon, 27, will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and political science. He will also be the master of ceremonies at the university’s Veterans Day ceremony Friday on the Boston campus. 

Lennon will talk about the importance of the holiday and his experience in the Air Force. Jon Santiago, Massachusetts’ secretary of Veterans’ Services, will deliver the keynote address. The event begins at 2 p.m. on the Neal F. Finnegan Plaza.

Lennon has an interesting story to tell.

Originally from Wrentham, Massachusetts, Lennon enlisted in the Air Force out of high school in 2014, seeing the military as a way to gain maturity, to travel and to pay for college.

“Academically, I always did OK, I just didn’t strive to achieve my highest potential,” Lennon says of his high school years. “I wanted to see the world, and was overseas for 5½ years, so I got kind of spoiled with my Air Force career.”

As a security forces specialist with the Air Force — Lennon described the assignment as the “Air Force version of the Military Police” — Lennon was based in England for two years, during which time he deployed for six months to Turkey. He then served in South Korea for a year — an experience Lennon valued especially because his grandfather had been in the country at the end of the Korean War, and reported that the country was “completely destroyed,” as Lennon recalls.

“When I got there it was so modernized it was unbelievable compared” to what he described, Lennon says.

His final assignment while on active duty was 2½ years in Germany. Then, in 2020, Lennon joined the Massachusetts Air National Guard as a part-time security force specialist. 

He also started college at UMass Boston. 

“I didn’t do school for six years and I wasn’t sure how the transition would be,” Lennon says. 

COVID added a further wrinkle, as UMass Boston was fully remote. 

The next year, Lennon transferred to Northeastern seeking to further his education.

“I wanted to push myself,” Lennon says. “All of the students are so smart, you sort of feed off of that.”

It wasn’t necessarily an easy transition.

“Getting into a groove of being in-person was a little rocky,” Lennon says, smiling. “It’s hard to start doing school again.”

But the Student Veterans Organization helped.

The club is open to all veterans and offers support for transitioning from the military into an academic environment through events, networking and support. 

“The SVO has been at the foundation of our success with student veterans since its inception in 2009,” says Andy McCarty, director of the Dolce Center for the Advancement of Veterans and Servicemembers. CAVS works closely with the SVO.

“Originally, we worked with the leaders of the SVO to help us improve the environment for veterans on campus,” McCarty continues. “They informed how we operated and which programs we offered. Their work made us better as a university, and they continue to do so. The voice of the SVO is essential if we want to remain the leaders in veteran education that we are today.”

Taking a leadership role in the SVO, however, wasn’t necessarily part of Lennon’s plan. 

“I wanted to get involved, I didn’t want to be president,” Lennon admits. But the club had to be reinvigorated after the pandemic, so Lennon and former club president Christian Etherton got to work. 

“Coming out of the pandemic, the SVO was being held together by bubblegum and scotch tape,” McCarty says. “Michael and (Etherton) are responsible for breathing life back into the organization. They knew how important the SVO had been, and they were determined to bring it back to full strength.”

Lennon says the club’s events have been well attended. These events have included a networking event with KPMG consulting group, a visit from the Veterans Administration, attendance at the Student Veterans of America conference, and trips to Gillette Stadium and other sporting venues, an annual camping trip, participation in the Run to Home Base and the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. 

The club allows him to remain involved with servicemembers and veterans issues, having separated from the Massachusetts Air National Guard in September.

“The younger generation of veterans really wants to give back and help people,” Lennon says. “I’ve had so many cool opportunities come to me. I’ve met veterans from all over the city, veterans from different schools and people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.”

McCarty praises Lennon for his “leadership, creativity and endurance.”

“Michael has been a superb partner and exactly the leader the SVO needed at this time,” McCarty says.

Cyrus Moulton is a Northeastern Global News reporter. Email him at c.moulton@northeastern.edu. Follow him on X/Twitter @MoultonCyrus.