![\"Beasley\"](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/beasley-by-dan2.jpg\" "\\"beasley-by-dan2\\"")
<\/a>Beasley<\/p><\/div>\n
Beasley started his new post July 16. He took over for Lt. Col. Brandee Lockard.<\/p>\n
\u201cLt. Col. Lockard went to Fort Meade, Maryland, and she\u2019ll be taking command of a Military Intelligence Battalion, which is an excellent opportunity and career step,\u201d Beasley said. \u201cLt. Col. Lockard left a great program that commissioned 15 officers this year and is on track to commission 21 next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are more than 130 students in the department, according to Beasley, who will teach officership to senior cadets. He plans to teach military history next fall as well.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t that long ago Beasley was a student and cadet at the University.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a lot of money in the family, so I enlisted in the Ohio Army National Guard to get the GI Bill to go to college,\u201d he said. \u201cI served with the 323rd Military Police Company right here in Toledo. In 1990, we were one of the first Guard units called up during the Gulf War. We were sent to Germany so units on active duty there could go to the Gulf.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1994, he graduated from University College with a bachelor of science degree in individualized studies focusing on geography, political science and history. And he was commissioned a second lieutenant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Army made me grow up, that\u2019s probably the best thing. It taught me to be responsible for myself. It allowed me to do college on my own. The confidence and the friendships, and I\u2019ve had the opportunity to travel to amazing places \u2014 I just wouldn\u2019t have imagined a boy from Lambertville, Michigan, who wasn\u2019t supposed to amount to anything being where I am today, and it\u2019s all because of the military.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe American dream still exists in the military because as hard as you work, that\u2019s as far as you\u2019ll go in the military,\u201d Beasley said.<\/p>\n
While stationed at Fort Polk, La., he took classes at Louisiana State University, graduating in 2005 with a master of arts degree in history. His ultimate goal: teaching.<\/p>\n
Armed with the master\u2019s degree, a recent combat tour and enough years of service, Beasley applied for an academic position in military science and received his first choice: UT.<\/p>\n
He has some plans for the cadets.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to raise the GPA of the overall battalion, focus on the academics a little bit more,\u201d Beasley said. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize how many things I had to put my GPA on throughout my career. Many of the cadets will compete for master\u2019s programs later on in life, and their GPA will be a factor in helping them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The major also wants the students to be more visible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely want to get more involved with the campus and the local community. When I was here, it was ROTC, ROTC, ROTC. We really didn\u2019t do a whole lot with the campus or community,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to show our support at the football games, try to get involved with the Veterans Day parade, even support the local Habitat for Humanity.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of these cadets, even the ones who decide not to stay in ROTC all four years, participate not to just have fun but to fulfill a sense of service and citizenship. The pace of the Army today is such that the cadets may not have that opportunity for several years once they graduate. For many, it will be a few years before they are able to volunteer and support their local community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beasley also is a believer of instilling the basics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe teach leadership and confidence as well as citizenship and pride,\u201d he said. \u201cMy goal is even if a cadet only does one semester or one year or doesn\u2019t see the Army as a career, he or she walks away with a sense of pride, a sense of accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Meet Maj. Jonathan Beasley, UT’s new professor and chair of the Military Science Department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}