Not Starting Over. Building on Experience.
After years of military service and a career in business, veteran Justin Williams is connecting his experience with new opportunities through an accounting education at UHCL.
Justin Williams has spent much of his adult life doing the kind of work he now studies in college. He's managed people, overseen complex operations and made financial decisions with significant consequences. Yet despite years of military service and a career in the corporate sector, one thing continued to stand between him and his professional ambitions: a college degree.
Justin first began pursuing higher education in 2007, the same year he joined the U.S. Air Force. Military assignments, deployments and professional responsibilities repeatedly interrupted those plans. Nearly 20 years later, he's studying accounting at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, bringing a perspective shaped by experiences that don't always fit neatly into a traditional college transcript.
"I have 20 years of experience doing these things, and I don't have a degree that says I do these things," Justin said.
For Justin, returning to college isn't about leaving those experiences behind. It's about building on them.
When he joined the Air Force shortly after high school, Justin wasn't sure he was ready for college. Military service offered an opportunity to develop the discipline and direction he was still discovering. His work in munitions operations eventually took him across the United States and overseas, where he learned to manage resources, solve problems and lead people in demanding environments.
As his responsibilities grew, Justin found that some of his most meaningful work involved helping others recognize their own potential. He mentored fellow service members, encouraged them to pursue their education and helped them prepare for new responsibilities. He also spent a year teaching military personnel, an experience that deepened his appreciation for the relationship between education and professional development.
"When leading people, managing people, you have to understand what motivates them, how they can become their best selves, and whether or not you're putting them in situations that allow that to occur," he said.
That understanding stayed with Justin after he left military service and entered the corporate sector. At Dow Chemical, he applied his operational and leadership experience to business challenges, eventually working with pricing strategies, financial management and organizational decision-making. The work helped him discover an interest in the analytical side of business, particularly how financial information can guide decisions and improve operations.
But experience didn't always translate into opportunity. When an industry downturn led to a job loss, Justin began considering what might help him move into more specialized roles. He had spent years developing the knowledge and skills those positions required, but he lacked the academic credentials that employers often expected.
The realization brought him back to a goal he had pursued intermittently for years. This time, he knew what he wanted from his education and how it could help him move forward.
At UHCL, Justin found an opportunity to pursue an integrated bachelor's and master's pathway in professional accounting. The program offered a way to strengthen his understanding of accounting and auditing while building on the financial and management experience he already possessed.
"For me, choosing UHCL was about finding a university where I could connect what I had already accomplished professionally with what I wanted to achieve next," he said.
That connection has shaped his experience as a student. Justin approaches coursework with years of practical experience to draw upon, while faculty help him develop the technical knowledge and academic foundation needed for his next professional chapter. Rather than viewing his previous career and current education as separate pursuits, he sees how each can strengthen the other.
His military education has also become part of that progression. Through UHCL's College Credit for Heroes initiative, Justin received 12 credit hours toward his degree based on coursework completed during his service. The recognition allowed him to move forward with academic requirements while acknowledging learning he had already demonstrated.
For Justin, the ability to build on previous accomplishments is especially important at this stage of life. He's pursuing his education while raising a family, with an oldest child beginning college, a youngest child entering pre-kindergarten, and a wife pursuing her own education. Time spent in the classroom must be balanced with responsibilities at home and the professional future he's working to create.
He credits UHCL's faculty and student support services with helping him navigate that balance. His experience with the Capt. Wendell M. Wilson Veteran & Military Resource Center and other campus resources has reinforced the importance of having people who understand that students arrive with different backgrounds, responsibilities and needs.
Justin hopes to complete his bachelor's and master's degrees, become a certified public accountant and pursue work in financial auditing. He's particularly interested in helping organizations understand their finances, strengthen accountability, and make better decisions- work that connects naturally with the responsibilities he's held throughout his career.
"I don't see this as starting over," Justin said. "I see it as building on an established professional foundation and positioning myself for the next stage of my career."
For students like Justin, the value of higher education isn't limited to what happens after enrollment. It also lies in the opportunity to connect years of learning, work and life experience with new knowledge and possibilities. At UHCL, Justin is finding a way to bring those experiences together, turning a goal that once seemed difficult to finish into a foundation for what comes next.
