Oral history interview with Robert Felts, 2017

Scott Hinshaw: Today's Thursday, April 20, 2017. My name is Scott Hinshaw. I am in the Alumni House with current senior, and veteran student, Robert Felts to conduct an oral history interview for the UNCG institutional memory collection. Good afternoon.

Robert Felts: Good afternoon.

Scott Hinshaw: I'd like to start the interview by asking you about your background. Can you tell me when and where you were born?

Robert Felts: I was born in Burlington, North Carolina in 1979.

Scott Hinshaw: Okay, and can you tell me about your parents and your home life? Do you have brothers and sisters?

Robert Felts: Sure. My parents are still together. Dad worked in manufacturing. Mom was a nurse for quite a while. I've got one younger brother, who is actually currently serving in the Air Force.

Scott Hinshaw: So how much younger is he?

Robert Felts: About seven years younger.

Scott Hinshaw: And can you tell me what schools you attended? High schools we are talking about.

Robert Felts: I went to Walter Williams High School in Burlington, up into my junior year when I decided that I was too cool for that school, and I left. I was working full time. And so I decided I didn't need it. So I just took off, later went back to Alamance Community College, and finished up there with a GED.

Scott Hinshaw: Okay, and tell me about what kind of jobs you were doing while you're in school.

Robert Felts: So when I was 15, or 16, I actually moved in with a Vietnamese immigrant family. My best friend in middle school was, his parents owned a nail salon in the local mall. So when I moved in with his family, they let me come in and do some sweeping up and answering phones, and stuff like that. You know, for basically allowance. It was $15, $20 a week maybe. But then, I worked in a Chinese restaurant, at that same mall for a while, part-time. And then I ended up working full time while I was in high school as well, in a local arcade. And I got promoted to a management position there. And I was making decent money, I guess, for somebody my age, so that played into a factor, not a well thought out decision on my part, I thought it was a good decision at my time, and shortly after that, I did get promoted, and I moved to Asheboro for a very brief period. So that was my work during school.

Scott Hinshaw: Alright. And so when did you start to think about entering the military? When did that become a possibility?

Robert Felts: Well, I worked for 10 or 15 years on and off in retail management. And it was a job that I've grown to have great disdain for. I worked a couple of other jobs here and there, but around the time the economy sort of crashed in 2008, 2009, I started to think outside the box a little bit. Around that same time my brother going into the Air Force, and he was having, it was working out fairly well for him. So after my last retail job, lasted about a year, ended in late 2009, early 2010, I decided that I was just going to jump in the water, and I went to the recruiter's office told them hey, this is my situation. And it was kind of all downhill from there. We just signed paperwork and it was showing up when they told me to, and eventually got on the bus, and made my way south to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training.

Scott Hinshaw: So your younger brother actually was in the forces before you, in the Air Force?

Robert Felts: Yeah, he was.

Scott Hinshaw: So you got a feeling for what it was like after you talked to him?

Robert Felts: Yeah, I was sort of envious of his schedule, and his ... the sort of regularity of what he was doing, working in a retail job full time, very rarely get any sort of holidays off or any weekends off. It's such an oddball schedule. And they want you to do everything with nothing. So he was telling me all about what he was doing, and everything, and years ago before, I had toyed with the idea of going into the, I had gone in and spoken to recruiters and things like that, but it was always just such a big leap. But after seeing him go, the mindset was, if he can make it through basic training, I can make it through basic training. So, we've always had a pretty good relationship. So, seeing what he was going through, and listening to him, knowing that the Army and the Air Force or two different animals. I just decided to do it, and it was either Army or Marines because of my age. And I was like, "I'll go army. That sounds a little better."

Scott Hinshaw: Tell me about this age requirement thing.

Robert Felts: So at the time, the Army I think was cutting off their recruits at 37 years old. I think I was 29. I turned 30 years old in basic training, I believe. I was still considerably older than a lot of the people that were in my platoons, and things like that. But the Air Force cuts off, Air Force has stricter standards, they cut off at an earlier age 26 maybe, the Marines and the Navy it's a little bit older. I think the Navy was around 36, 37 as well. And Marines was like 42 years old, you could go in. But a lot of those standards changed after September 11th. And the more sort of drawn out of these conflicts became, the more they needed more people. They relaxed their standards a little bit. Since then, since pulling out of Iraq originally, in 2011. They sort of tightened up the standards and stuff. I think now the cutoff for the army is 35, 34 or something like that.

Scott Hinshaw: So you served in the army, and can you tell me how long he served in the army?

Robert Felts: I did a four-year enlistment in the army.

Scott Hinshaw: And can you tell me what your job was in the army?

Robert Felts: I was, what they call a health care specialist, which is really a fancy term for a medic. I went to basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and after that, that was at 10 weeks, went to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, which is a joint. A lot of the medical training goes on for all the branches at Fort Sam. So I was there for another four months, I believe it was, and then you get all your medical training there, then sent to your duty station, which in my case was Fort Hood, Texas.

Scott Hinshaw: Okay. And can you tell me, so how did that job come about? Are there some tests and things like that? Aptitude test? Did you have a natural inclination toward it or?

Robert Felts: No. Honestly, when I joined the army, I was solely looking to get myself in a better position in life. Everybody around me, they had graduated college already, or they had established careers, and I was sort of just in limbo. I decided to do something that maybe would have a future, and would make sense financially. So you go in at a certain pay grade, but as you enlist, certain jobs are in more demand, so they will offer bonuses. Infantry guys, a lot of the times they'll get cash bonuses upfront. My job, the 68 whiskey is the code for it, I think it was a $27,000 education bonus. So in addition to the normal GI Bill stuff, I would get this payment on top of that. And that made good sense to me, it was if the army didn't work out, if I hated it, or just couldn't continue with it, I figured I would go out, and just use it for college.

Scott Hinshaw: And this is money you would get once you exited the army?

Robert Felts: Exactly. So I get out, I fill out all the paperwork, considerable paperwork. And yeah, I mean, this is the whole reason I've been able to attend you UNCG and finish out my degree.

Scott Hinshaw: So you didn't say you had a natural inclination for anything, it was a job that had good prospects?

Robert Felts: It had good prospects. I liked the idea of it. I did my research online. There's a lot of, it's broad, I guess there, a medic can be, you can work at a clinic, you can do things like take blood pressure, and do physical therapy, and all sorts of other stuff or you can be attached to, if you're deployed, you can be attached to infantry units, and engineer units and things like that. So, there's a lot of different aspects to it. That was appealing. And I figured I was like, the medic will be treated fairly well. I feel like if I get stuck with a big group of infantry guys, I feel like the medic would carry a little bit of weight since there's generally only one medic, among like 50 infantry guys, or something like that.

Scott Hinshaw: So, where did you end up being stationed overseas? And tell me about what job was like when you were there?

Robert Felts: We were stationed, so I got to Fort Hood, Texas. We were there for about two weeks, and then we went to Iraq. So we hit Kuwait for a few days. And then we fly into Iraq. And I was on, what the army called [inaudible 00:10:10] which was a central operating base. And it was also an Air Force Base. They had their own name for it. And the closest city was Ana Zoria. And we were a few miles away from the actual like, city. We were kind of out in the middle of no man's land, I guess. But it was a pretty large base for the most part and had a big airstrip and things like that. There, I worked in a clinic for a little bit when we first got there, and got adjusted, and then shortly after that, I got attached to an engineering Battalion. And we did, I got attached to a platoon within that Battalion, and then we did, basically [inaudible 00:10:56] clearance. The rest of our time there which I sat in the back of a truck. And we rode up and down the road, five miles an hour, poking things of trash to make sure they weren't bombs and things like that. So that was sort of road all over up in Iraq, sometimes we'd stay in smaller bases, and things like that overnight. But it was an interesting experience to be sure.

Scott Hinshaw: So can you talk about some of the differences between your stateside service which is, I guess more when you had your training, and then overseas.

Robert Felts: Overseas, there's always something going on, like there's no days off necessarily. You might get a rest day, you might get a day where it's not so bad, but at any given time, they can say, "Hey, we need you to do this, that", or you would have a day where you thought you were going to have a little time off and then mortar start flying in, or something crazy like that, which is unexpected. And then you just have to sort of react, and there's a certain comfort in that, like knowing that regardless of what happens, like you're on duty, there's no time off and I know it sounds sort of strange but it's, I know that I am focused, like I'm on the job all the time. So I don't have to worry about all this stuff. I don't have to worry about social gatherings with friends. I don't have to worry about, necessarily what's going on at home as much. I was single, so I didn't have to worry about what a wife and kids might have been up to. I was focused on one thing, and that was my job.

Robert Felts: When you come back, when we flew back into Fort Hood, we got back on Christmas Eve. It was an interesting experience. We were supposedly the last people out of Iraq, like we closed up, and we know now that didn't work out as well as we'd like, but we got back during the holiday and we moved into a brand new set of barracks, and this was my first experience with what they called, Garrison life, just a normal on-base life, and quickly realized it was not as, there's a lot of standing around, and a lot of waiting on other people, the saying, hurry up and wait, is extremely accurate in that respect.

Robert Felts: You would have a wide variety of things that you would be doing, but sometimes you might wait around six hours to get the okay to go do it, and it's stagnant, is one of the best words I can use to describe sort of like that every day on base life. And Fort Hood is a whole another thing too. You see Fort Hood pop up in the news headlines, from time to time and it's a very, it's a large base. It's everybody's kind of on top of each other. And tensions always seem a little high. I was always told that that was just a bad place to be stationed. It was better everywhere else. But after four years, I was just like, think I'm going to try my shot at college and see how it works.

Scott Hinshaw: So it wasn't a really one thing [inaudible 00:14:28] in college.

Robert Felts: Not particularly. I mean, looking back on it, there are things that really, I loved about the army. I love the variety of jobs that I did, even just in the garrison life, I worked at a physical therapy clinic. My last summer there, they assigned me as a lifeguard for the recreation area, I was responsible for all of that. I got to go to promotion boards, and just also like a lot of very interesting training exercises, and things like that. But at the same time, the main thing that made me leave I think was the fact that the way the promotion system works in the army, it's sort of convoluted, and it's kind of ultimately based on points. And the points go up and down for your thing. So the max set of points is 700 and something, that's Max. That's the government saying, "we're not hiring or promoting anymore of this particular job type." And when they'll drop them down to like three or 400 points. That means, all the people in line start getting promoted.

Robert Felts: My particular job was not one that they promoted a whole lot of at the time. So you know, I started to get passed up people that were in less time than me, had less experience than me, and you're bound by the system, and it was all timing. I went to promotion boards, and all that stuff. I wanted advancement really bad but it just wasn't in the cards, and I could have stayed in for another four years, and hope that it would have improved, and I could have started making more headway, or I could get out and try to go another direction, and that's ultimately the decision I went with.

Scott Hinshaw: Is there an option to change, I guess, career job?

Robert Felts: You can.

Scott Hinshaw: Without you starting over.

Robert Felts: Yeah, you can re-class and do another job but there it gets a little tricky with, do you keep your current rank? I was the grade of E-4. So you go [inaudible 00:16:36] private, PV2 private, Private First Class and then a specialist. And I went to the Promotion Board, so I was promoted to sergeant. If the points ever came down, and they started promoting more medics into a surgeon position, and I think from the time I became promotable to the end of my military career it was, I mean, they were promoting maybe two medics in the entire army a month. It was a crowded field to be in, and I didn't want to try my luck in re classing and do something else. And some of the frustrations just gets into, "I'm ready for a breath of fresh air."

Scott Hinshaw: I can understand that. When you see younger people coming in, and getting.

Robert Felts: Yeah. That was something that was frustrating, and I never quite worked out whether it was my own, whether there was something in my ego that was like getting crushed every time it happened. But yeah, it was just I was ready to just change direction, and the army had put me in a great position for that with the GI Bill money, and the bonus money that I had signed up for. And I was able to pay off a lot of debt, so I was able to pay off my car and get my credit situation squared away, and do a lot of that stuff. Coming out of the army, I was in a really good position to set myself up for success.

Scott Hinshaw: So how long after you left the army did you start to think about going back to school?

Robert Felts: Right in. While I was still at Fort Hood, I was doing my out-processing stuff, when I was speaking of people at UNCG on the phone. I had to do an interview over the phone because of the fact that I had never taken any sort of SATs before, I had that, not GI Bill, the GED, and sort of, I had checkered past with education. I guess they wanted to get to know a little bit more about me and see how I would fit in, and that went really well. And yeah, I got approved and started getting the paperwork filled out there.

Scott Hinshaw: Okay, so let's back up just a second. How did you come to decide on UNCG, were you looking at other schools?

Robert Felts: Close by.

Scott Hinshaw: After you left Fort Hood or even before you left Hood, you were already thinking you're coming back close to home?

Robert Felts: I wanted to be back in North Carolina. I wanted to be a little bit closer to my parents. They still take care of themselves fine, but with my brother being, he's stationed in Hawaii right now. He's been there for a few years. So with him being you never know where he was going to be, I figured that I would be closer to home that I can like hang out with them. See them a few times a month. If they needed anything I could be there to help, and it just made good sense at the time.

Scott Hinshaw: Okay, so was there anywhere else we were looking at to apply to or is UNCG pretty much it.

Robert Felts: UNCG was pretty much, I had multiple friends that had gone here, and who are still going here for Master's degrees and things like that nature. So everybody had really good things to say. I had been on campus a few times before when I was younger. So I sort of like, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to or where I wanted to be. Not necessarily what I wanted to do.

Scott Hinshaw: Right. So I missed it. You were here when you were younger for school trips or for other things?

Robert Felts: Less reputable things probably. Yeah.

Scott Hinshaw: Okay. I asked that 'cause we do a lot of programs for, and I didn't know how far back we did that, [crosstalk 00:20:29] or even younger.

Robert Felts: It was never anything sort of education-related. I always had friends in the Greensboro area. And, you know, a sort of college campus is always kind of, in the surrounding area tends to be a sort of happening place to be so, we just found ourselves around campus a few times. And it's always been a really nice, like campus. So even if you're just, coming to visit like, yum yum or something like that. It's always a nice place to walk around.

Scott Hinshaw: Yes, yeah. Much nicer than it used to be. Okay, so the transition from military life to civilian life, and life at the university. How was that? Was that too hard for you? How was that?

Robert Felts: I never found it overly difficult. The military thing like I said, I was older when I went in. So I was used to being around younger people, lots of recruits that are coming in at 18, 19. So I was pretty used to being around that. I came back to Burlington, and I stayed with my parents for a few months over the summer. I briefly worked, a friend of mine owned a tire company in sort of [inaudible 00:21:41] Burlington carrier, and I worked for him briefly just to earn a little bit extra money. As I was filling out the rest of my paperwork. It wasn't a big deal. I started getting in my class and I guess it was a little, it was a bit jarring to see.

Robert Felts: I remember noticing Little things like how attached some of the students were to their like phones and things like that. I was expecting, I guess a very proper, professional. And I don't mean to, like talk bad, but I was expecting, and then I came in and I remember like sitting there, and I remember seeing people show up to class in their pajamas, and seeing people come in with, like, full Chinese, like they go get Chinese takeout before they like coming in the class and stuff. And people that were just, would be on the phone during class and things like that. And I was just, in the army, I would have not hesitated to like raise my voice, seeing some of that sort of stuff that I saw. So there was a little bit of adjustment there. I had to like pull back, and just sort of realize it was a different environment. And you know, I'm older, it's a different thing. And was never a major issue or cause of headache or anything. It was just like, wow.

Scott Hinshaw: I think you can attribute some of that to added freedom at the university level. And also just immaturity of since you were a little bit older than them.

Robert Felts: Oh, sure. I mean, I remember doing crazy stuff when I was younger too, but it is, when I was younger, I always told myself that I'll never be out of touch with technology like I'm never going to, my parents can't turn on a computer. I'll never be like that. And now I find myself. Every time I get a new phone, it takes me months to figure it out. I'm just becoming a cranky old man. That's fine.

Scott Hinshaw: Nothing wrong with that. So is there anything you learned while you were in service that helps you in your college career?

Robert Felts: It definitely helped instill more focus and discipline, I guess. Part of the reason I left school in the beginning, and always had such a problem with that, I'm just not, I struggle like, focusing on the important stuff. And I always struggled, like getting stuff done, and even now I procrastinate more than I should. While I was in the military, it just sort of happened, basic training you don't have a choice, it's just go, go, go, go, go, go. And you got to be where you have to be, and there's not really a whole lot of calling in sick or I don't feel well or I want to go do this, it isn't there. You have to do it. I think that sort of instilled a little bit of urgency, and focus when it comes to school work, and things of that nature. I think it was, without that I don't, that was just as important as the money that I got from the benefits, and things like that, as far as I'm concerned.

Scott Hinshaw: So, USCG recently, particularly has been recognized as a military and veteran-friendly school. So would you agree with that in your experience?

Robert Felts: Yeah, it is. I've never run into any sort of issues that are related, that I find difficult. I have definitely found that people will seem to take that little extra step or pay a little bit more of attention. If I say, "Hey, look, I'm a veteran, I'm using this GI Bill like, I need a little help on this, getting this paper". I feel like it was a fairly smooth process, as smooth as it can be when you're dealing with that sort of stuff. And the Veteran Resource Center we have over here is a really nice facility. It's completely open to like veterans, I'm getting more into what we've started doing with the Veterans Association. The university seems to really have our backs as far as setting a lot of this stuff up and making sure that we have resources and things like that. And just add the little things like, when I graduate in May, I've got a special cord to wear. It's a red, white and blue light cord to signify that I was in the military, and now I'm moving on to this sort of next stage. I don't have a lot to compare to, I guess. It's been a really good experience as far as that goes.

Scott Hinshaw: Did you know about that before you applied, or during your application process? I know, it's somewhat new for us like I don't, I think maybe it started about 2008 or so.

Robert Felts: It's been a few years like they've been sort of getting that friendly military rankings. I'd seen it on, when I first started looking into it, I had seen it pop up a few times in my research and things like that. And when I got here, I got fully enrolled, and everything I was expecting a little bit more. I mentioned the Veteran Resource Center over here, but I didn't know that it was really even a thing. I got a few emails from people. But it didn't seem to be active or anything very much.

Scott Hinshaw: That's why I was wondering, I didn't know if we had the center of actually, as a department at that time.

Robert Felts: I didn't really even know. And I even went in there to ask, I was looking, my entire time here, I was actively looking for veterans-related groups or something like that, something that was doing something on campus, in the community, and stuff like that. And it was, I didn't never really found anything. And then I was in a statistics class, and the guy that sat in front of me said that he was part of a group, this s group or whatever. I was intrigued. I was like, "what do you guys do?" We got out of Jake's and we drink beer on Thursday night, and they give us free wings or something". That's cool. What else we got going on? And even going over to the Resource Center. It was under different people then but it just wasn't much going on. And there wasn't a whole lot of information that was kind of available. And I didn't really feel like it was overly, it sounds really harsh if I say it wasn't welcoming, but it was just there wasn't a whole lot going on, I guess. All the resources were still there, but it just wasn't. It didn't feel, it's not anywhere I ever like hung out with until later on, and we sort of started getting the word that they were going to try to establish a new round of officers, and stuff like that after kind of an absence and that sort of thing.

Scott Hinshaw: Okay. Well, let's go ahead and talk about that. What's your position in the Student Association, let's talk about what they do.

Robert Felts: I am the current vice president of the Student Veterans Association. Our main goal coming into this, I had mentioned that there were members before and there were officers before, and as I understand it, they didn't take the group seriously. And there wasn't, they didn't really sort of meet up this. They didn't meet the standards of what the university and really everybody else thinks a group should be especially something veteran related. So they sort of disbanded a while back ago, and it went multiple semesters with nothing. So we got word, I guess a few of us got word that they were doing elections again. We put our names in, short bio, elections went on, and then we got the results. Our main goal was to like, stand this organization back up, and be an organization that was not only active in the, on campus, but really active out in the community, and provided resources, and partnerships that helped with the resume writing and all that stuff that not everybody goes through the professional development office here and things.

Robert Felts: And then focus on things too, like the paperwork for GI Bills and stuff like that, that a veteran needs. We've been able to partner with our president, his name is Tyler Freeman. And he is a go-getter. And he came in with a lot of really good connections with the Greensboro Bar Association, and some other things like that. So we've partnered with them, and done some, been working on a Habitat for Humanity build over the past month or so, we've done some volunteer work out at Peacehaven Farms, which is a really neat little place out towards Burlington [inaudible 00:31:23] And they do, it's a living community for people with like disabilities or something like that. And then we've done some stuff here, done some social gatherings and things like that. Veterans Day celebrations, which is kind of one of our, sort of first things and really just sort of trying to build a foundation for something that hopefully a next round of officers will be able to come into, in maybe they can get some more of the fun stuff added in, and stuff like that because we'll be leaving them with money this time as opposed to, we just came here with nothing.

Scott Hinshaw: You have an idea about how many members are in the association?

Robert Felts: Currently, if active members, I want to say between anywhere, 40 to 60. And when I say active, I mean they participate in the Facebook page, and stuff like that. I guess part of our issue, when we stood it back up was we realized that all the data that we had was outdated. So all the contact information and stuff like of these people were long gone. So we've been trying to redo that, we've had kind of a difficult time, sort of purging that old data, and trying to get the word out to newer people. And also, it's sort of strange the way things are set up, you think that we would have a record every single like veteran that comes in, there is a record but it's not something we normally have access to. So you know, getting and there's issues there with student information, confidentiality.

Robert Felts: So, it's not been as smooth as we would like to get the sort of like the word out, and get people in. Although we've been really happy with people actively wanting to do the Habitat for Humanity build. We had a really good turnout for our first full week of build on a Saturday, in college people never want to give up their Saturdays but we had a really good turnout. Same thing with the Peacehaven Farm, all the volunteer stuff has been really has been really good, and our meetings have been getting better. So there's hope.

Scott Hinshaw: Yeah, that sounds great. Does this Association also reach out to alumni of the University as well or is that another?

Robert Felts: There are some alumni especially when it comes to fundraising, and stuff like that, but one of the greatest things I've noticed, and I'm sure it happens elsewhere, but I like to think it's specific to the veteran community is the fact that we generally don't have to twist a lot of arms or reach out, a lot of the times the alumni. When it comes to fundraising or special events, they show up. We don't have to do a lot of calling, and hassling I guess. And they'll they'll show up on our doorstep and say, "Hey, what do you need us to do? What do you want us to do?" like I said, we have our [inaudible 00:34:38] on May 1. And we had alumni say, "hey will be there, we're going to make things happen." So we're blessed in that respect.

Scott Hinshaw: I have realized we've left out questions about you as a student.

Robert Felts: We can go back.

Scott Hinshaw: Can we talk about what your major is?

Robert Felts: I'm a human development and family studies major. That is something I sort of ended up in. Originally, I came from nursing. And this is when we talk about our grand experience at college. My biggest sort of speed bump has been the early on communication, and advisors and things like that. That was not something I was overly ... I came in not knowing anything about college or how it worked or anything.

Scott Hinshaw: Not unusual.

Robert Felts: It was overwhelming, and I had no idea what's going on. My first couple of advisors, I don't think they knew what's going on. It was really difficult to get direction. It was really hard to get, understand what was going on with how the online system worked, and registering for classes, and it was kind of a frustrating experience. And I wanted to go into nursing. And the advisor at the time, sort of discouraged me from it. I took her word, I'm just like, hey, if that's the case, then maybe I should look into something else. I looked into public health, and I wanted to do public health. I went into an advising session, and they were like, "Oh, well, it's going to be a longer journey for you if you do public health, it's going to be like this." I was kind of on a timetable. I sort of had wanted to get out by a certain time, and sort of set a plan out. And they were like, "well, we've had this human development family studies major." And my whole goal was, didn't necessarily care about the major as long as it was something that was aimed at helping people on a more personal level.

Robert Felts: The nursing stuff, I could stick needles, and people and things like that. I was sort of used to that already. And I kind of wanted to take it to the next step. But also, I had built up some good administration experience, and sort of project management experience, and things like that, that I thought would work really well in public health. And the Human Development and Family Studies, one of the biggest things I saw when I was in the military, I mentioned 18, 19 year old, young people coming in. Something easy to avoid living in the barracks is just to get married right away. So I saw lots of 19, 20-year-olds getting married. Right off the bat and not going well. Lots of alcohol abuse and things like that. When you're that young, in the military, I would say it's easy to get caught up in that sort of life, it's very prevalent. I tried my best tonight and say, "Hey, I've been there. I've made those mistakes, like, try this." It was hard, but I saw relationships suffer. I saw people I was close to having a really hard time, and I saw children like get stuck in between.

Robert Felts: And that was always in my mind. When the Human Development and Family Studies came up, it seemed like a very good mix of, a little bit of study of biology, psychology, sociology, over a lifespan, and with some focus on relationships and things of that nature. I thought it was a very good way to go that would be easily applicable to many other things combined with military experience, and my previous management experience, I thought it would be a good fit. I ended up in it, and I've enjoyed it so far and my advisors, I noticed almost immediately as soon as that turned over, the whole sort of chain of command in the HDFS department was a breath of fresh air. I had people telling me exactly what I needed to do, where I needed to go, explaining things in detail. And that was just as important to me as the actual, like, what I was studying. I've been pretty happy with it so far.

Scott Hinshaw: Are there any particular professors or classes that you've taken that you really stand out in your mind, that you really liked?

Robert Felts: I had some professors that I would have liked to have more, Dr. Supple, he taught one of the earlier level. It was a child development class. It was really unfortunate because it's one of those classes where there are 150 people I there. So he's up there but though the way he spoke the way he gave his presentations, and the way he used first-hand accounts of his own kid was really good. I liked it a lot. He was very compelling. Dr. Bowls has been superb. She was my advisor for a little while, she's in my last professional development class now. She's sort of in charge of it. She's incredibly knowledgeable. She has her hand in everything, human development, sort of departments, so she's been really helpful as well. Within the human development, I think everybody has been like a pretty good professor. I guess you're always going to run across professors that you don't get along with. But I've had a few of those, but they've all been outside of my particular field in very few, and far between. Most of the professors had been really good. A little overwhelmed, maybe but they've all like, done admirable jobs, for sure.

Scott Hinshaw: Okay. That sounds like she had a good experience in that department.

Robert Felts: Yeah, absolutely.

Scott Hinshaw: So, what are your plans after graduation? Do you have a concrete?

Robert Felts: That's an amazing question. My original plan was to try to go with the VA. I wanted to work with Veteran Affairs. Any way that I could to make things smoother. That is not the easiest process in the world, and with the way things have become and the sort of current political climate, and the change that's going on there. It is not conducive to the expansion of what the Veteran Affairs was. There was a hiring freeze put in place for a little while, which was unfortunate in my opinion. The Veteran Affairs is getting a sort of increase as far as budget goes now.

Robert Felts: However, the demand is more for surgeons, and then doctors, and full-fledged, that sort of thing. So, the situation that I'm in, even though I am confident that I can do a lot to like sort of heal pretty much anywhere that I've been put, it's not really in demand with the Veteran Affairs right now. I've been doing an internship with the city of Greensboro, in the Parks and Recreation Department. I've sort of developed this fondness for local government. And I've started to investigate, like a Master's of Public Administration or something like that. I've been in contact with somebody from UNC-Chapel Hill, and even here and you know a few other things and exploring that. I got to find a job first. And I got a marriage coming up in October so like, I gotta get my life together before I come to school again.

Scott Hinshaw: Congratulations. That's good. So did you get this job with the city's internship you say?

Robert Felts: It is an internship.

Scott Hinshaw: Did you get that through UNCG or on your own?

Robert Felts: It was actually a good friend of mine. We had to do an internship to graduate for this last class. And I tried really. I wanted with Habitat for Humanity. Salvation Army places like these, I was really trying, and I was just not having any luck, and sort of the deadlines coming up. And a good friend of mine, he's also going to be one of my groomsmen in October. I told him my situation he was like, "I think I can help you out, I think I can get you in I know you work hard, you've got experience, you don't need a lot of supervision. I think I can get you in here and help you out and sort of still touch base on what your major is all about as well." So we set that up, and it's just been rolling ever since January.

Scott Hinshaw: Can you tell me a little bit about what you did?

Robert Felts: His name is Josh Sherrick, and he got his Master's here and got married here in the same building. And he is the arts and events superintendent for the city of Greensboro. He used to work with a special events office, all this national Folk Festival stuff that comes into town, that was him - like it was all him. You have him to thank for getting that in town. So now he's a little bit more, he has his hands and sort of everything. We're based out of the Greensboro Cultural Center. Next to [inaudible 00:45:04] park. And it was a time of transition for him. So he had come in, and then I came in right after him. And we've been doing a lot of improvements for that building, which is been around forever, it seems like and not really have a lot of updates. So we've been trying to sort of bring it up to standards, I guess.

Robert Felts: But we've also, he's done a great deal to help me be hands-on with sort of something that's more relatable to the human development stuff. So, I've observed classes that this Creative Aging network has done for older folks with the dimensions that they do art projects, and stuff like that, that's been shown to really help with sort of cognitive function, and memory things. Just last week we did the Senior Games. So we officiated, the senior guy got to officiate, and learn everything about croquet. That was a pretty entertaining experience, it gives me something to sort of bring back. But also, just everything that happens in local government that, especially in the arts and events department, and parks and recreation, the stuff that they do for the community, the resources that they try their very best to make available to the community, from arts programs to drama, to all sorts of things like that.

Robert Felts: And it's that sort of access that can make a young person that can, those sort of resources can make a big difference in a young person's development as they all through, whether they're a toddler or getting up into high school and college, and things like that, and that's what this department sort of is all about. And trying to bring as well as large events as festivals, and things like that. It's also, how can we make this sort of thing available. And that holds a particular interest. It's a little more macro than being the hands-on maybe in elementary school or something like that. And that holds a certain appeal to me. So it's been a pretty valuable experience.

Scott Hinshaw: Yeah, sounds great. Alright, so we'll do like a conclusion part here. Just three or two questions about that. So, can you tell me how UNCG has affected your life, and what it means to you?

Robert Felts: UNCG has allowed me to, I mentioned earlier that the military helped me sort of like reset things. UNCG has helped me add direction from that. It's also helped me realize that I have very high standards for myself and those around me. And it's really sort of given me a confidence booster. I thought I was going to get smoked by these young people, like in school, I thought like, everybody was going to be so far ahead of me, and things like that. And it turns out that my age and experience like on my end, has proven to be a really valuable tool. That's helped me stand out, and it's been a huge confidence booster. When I log on to Canvas and I look at the spread the statistics of you know, where my score lies in the whole class and is way high. That sort of thing makes me feel good, okay, I'm not wasting my time. Like I know what I'm doing like I hadn't I have something to offer. It's definitely built me back up. When I graduate in May, I graduate with honors, and that's not something, I never saw myself graduate in college period, much less with honors. I'm pretty happy about all that.

Scott Hinshaw: Yeah, that's awesome. Well, we're doing these interviews as part of the 125th anniversary of the university, which is an excellent opportunity for reflection but also helps us to think about where we're headed in the future. So, I'd like for you to tell me what's the future for UNCG? Where do you see UNCG going as institution in the next 20, 30 years?

Robert Felts: I feel that they're only going to get stronger as time goes on. There are a few things that I hope they can sort of reconsider as when you get bigger, the demand for more fundraising, and stuff like that comes into play, and it's completely understandable. However, sometimes I worry that they're losing focus, and it's becoming more about, "Hey, buy this, like help us out." My parents have gotten multiple letters in the mail. One, requesting that my parents buy $200 or $300 like diploma frame from the library. That seems a little excessive. But in the grand scheme of things, that is a minor, like that's a minor detail, I'll make it sound worse than it really is. UNCG has got the best population. It is such a diverse campus. And it is an open campus, and the staff and administration, and faculty, everybody seems to be like very inclusive, and very supportive of multiple ways of looking at things, and everybody's background, and things like that. It seems like a very safe place. It warms my heart to see, sort of the current view of like immigrants, especially from Middle Eastern immigrants, and stuff like that.

Robert Felts: We can have a conversation like on campus, and everybody can walk around on campus, no matter of what you're wearing, what your religious views are, if you're wearing your hijab or whatever it is. And it doesn't seem like anybody bats an eye, which is the way we all wish the world really was. So, that is one of the biggest strengths I think UNCG, I think as it goes on, it's going to be a really sort of an invaluable thing. And they are coming even more of a pillar of Greensboro. I mean, it's between UNCG, and AMT. They sort of improve everything they touch. I just hope that it continues to be student-focused, and definitely the student's best interest at heart. Because I understand that the larger you get, the more is going on. And it's sometimes, even the best people lose focus. Whether it's business school or military life, it happens to happen to everybody. It's a natural process. And just, sometimes you just have to step back and say, "Hey, are we doing the right thing?" And I think UNCG is.

Scott Hinshaw: Great. Well, that's all the formal questions I have for you. But if there's anything else you will talk about from anything.

Robert Felts: No. I was really glad to have this opportunity. I saw the email come through. And I replied immediately, and I think it's a good thing. I think it's very valuable to have a good understanding of history. And it'll be good whenever somebody comes back, and looks at some of these interviews that you're doing, it'll be a really good reminder of, hopefully how far we've gone from where we're at. And it's always good to sort of look back and reflect on things and I think it's a good thing what you're doing.

Scott Hinshaw: Yeah. Well, thanks so much for doing it.

Robert Felts: Absolutely.

Scott Hinshaw: Good to have you here.

Robert Felts: Absolutely. Thank you.

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