If you had told Alex Galicia when he graduated from UCLA in 1992 with a B.A. in linguistics that he would end up running the small plumbing business that his family has owned for three generations, he would have said, “No way!”
After Alex Galicia completed a program at the Anderson School that helps veterans start businesses or careers, he expanded his family's small plumbing business into a company with gross revenues of $1.9 million. And he's hired five other veterans.
“I was very nervous about succeeding. … My uncles and brothers who were in the plumbing industry were very technically savvy, but not very business-educated. I knew I needed some help,” Galicia said.
Fortunately, Galicia became one of nearly 100 veterans with disabilities who, over the past five years, have been taken under the wing of UCLA Anderson School of Management faculty and staff, M.B.A. students and successful entrepreneurial alumni through a highly focused program that helps post-9/11 veterans who have service-related injuries or disabilities develop the basic skills they need to start a new career or business.
It paid off big-time for Galicia, who created a business plan while at Anderson that helped him grow his company’s gross earnings from $200,000 to $1.9 million in six years and enabled him to hire and train other veterans.
Anderson’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, the only program of its kind in the West, is one of more than 13 wide-ranging programs organized and run by UCLA for veterans around the nation as well as on campus.
UCLA has more than 13 wide-ranging programs that touch the lives of hundreds of thousands of returning veterans and current military service members and their families.
To increase our understanding and appreciation of the veteran experience, Chancellor Gene Block recently launched the UCLA Veterans Initiative, a yearlong effort to raise awareness about the many programs, services, research projects and resources on campus that help veterans.
“We can never repay our veterans for the sacrifices they have made for our country,” wrote Chancellor Block in his announcement of the initiative, “but we can come together as a community to better understand both the challenges and the great opportunities encountered by the growing population of veterans across the nation.”
The Anderson School's boot camp program, which is part of a nationwide initiative, clearly demonstrates a commitment to doing that. The school raises donations to cover the boot camp program, which is offered at no charge to 20-25 participants a year. They complete online study sessions moderated by faculty; attend an intensive nine-day summer boot camp on campus where they develop strategies to raise capital, attract customers and write a business plan; and benefit from a yearlong mentorship under faculty and alumni volunteers.
Success stories from boot camp graduates abound, said Elaine Hagan, executive director of the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (where the boot camp program resides) and Jacqueline Leiva, program manager.
"Veterans possess discipline, integrity and leadership skills," said Hagan. "They have managed large groups of people, assets and equipment, as well as in resource-deficient environments. They know how to make important decisions quickly … and they have been battle-tested literally and figuratively. Those are the very same traits you’ll find in an entrepreneurial leader."
Results bear that out. Galicia’s business, BPI Plumbing of San Diego, has just been named Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration of San Diego and Imperial counties. “I was able to form a very solid foundation under the auspices of the UCLA Anderson faculty and business community volunteers,” said Galicia, now a leader in the veterans’ business community and a supporter of a program to train disabled veterans to become construction safety officers.
Results bear that out. Galicia’s business, BPI Plumbing of San Diego, has just been named Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration of San Diego and Imperial counties. “I was able to form a very solid foundation under the auspices of the UCLA Anderson faculty and business community volunteers,” said Galicia, now a leader in the veterans’ business community and a supporter of a program to train disabled veterans to become construction safety officers.
Four months ago, veteran Miguel Uc opened a store in Oxnard, Calif., to sell artwork he purchases in his travels to Asia. He said he gained the confidence to launch his business after being in Anderson's program for vets.
Disabled veteran Daniel Suklja has opened two Postal Annex franchises in Menifee, Calif., as well as a Circle K in nearby Lake Elsinore, thanks, he said, to the classes and networking made possible by the boot camp program.
Touching the lives of service members, veterans and their families on a broader scale, UCLA’s Families OverComing Under Stress (FOCUS) offers resiliency training to service members and their families as well as wounded veterans participating in UCLA’s Operation Mend. More than 300,000 people nationwide have benefited from the organization started by Dr. Patricia Lester, the Jane and Marc Nathanson Family Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.
Project FOCUS helps husbands, wives and children, including those working and living at two dozen Navy, Marine, Army and Air Force installations around the country and in Okinawa, Japan, manage the stress of military deployment and combat.
Closer to Westwood, the Bruin Resource Center's Veterans Resource Office (VRO) provides one-on-one support to student veterans as they transition from military service to civilian and college life, not an easy crossover to make. “The student-veteran, particularly a combat veteran, feels a disconnect with other students because of their life experiences,” said Wendell Guillermo, a third-year history major who enrolled at UCLA after two deployments in Iraq as an infantryman with the 82nd Airborne Division.
Guillermo, a coordinator at the VRO who made that transition, helps student-veterans integrate into the campus community and directs them to resources, such as Boots-to-Bruins, a seminar that helps them navigate the campus and create a network of friends and acquaintances. “Veterans, in general, are quicker to build relationships with other veterans,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, will deliver the keynote address at a forum on veterans April 27 at UCLA. After serving in Iraq, she became one of two female veterans who are now in Congress.
The campus will have its own opportunity to hear from Gabbard at a half-day forum, "How Are Veterans Changing America?," co-sponsored by UCLA and Zócalo Public Square, on Saturday, April 27, at 1 p.m. at DeNeve Auditorium in DeNeve Plaza. Gabbard, who will deliver the event's keynote remarks, is one of two female combat veterans to serve in Congress and a captain in the Hawaii National Guard.
Experts from the campus, nonprofit organizations and the government will gather at the forum for a series of panels moderated by seasoned journalists to address a variety of veteran-related topics, including veterans and the U.S. job market, how wars are changing medicine, and how deployment and combat affect military families.
"Service is one of UCLA's top priorities," Block said in a press release on the event. "And I believe deeply that we have a responsibility to not only assist the men and women who give so much serving our nation in uniform, but to increase awareness of the unique challenges they face and the tremendous skills they have to offer.”
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Find out more about veteran-related resources, research, programs, events and volunteer opportunities at UCLA by going to www.veterans.ucla.edu, a website that was recently relaunched and redesigned to appeal to a broad audience. It provides information and links to UCLA resouces, news stories and videos.
For details on the April 27 event, go here.
