“I didn’t know if I could handle another failure.”
It was April 2021, and Kevin Ho had just received his most difficult assignment yet: transition back to civilian life.
His time in the 10th Mountain Division had been nothing short of life-changing. It had built his character, driven him to excellence and taught him a work ethic he’d lacked before. But now it was time to go back to a normal existence — whatever that was.
Like many other veterans, Kevin had assumed the most challenging part of his life was over. But what, exactly, the next chapter was supposed to look like continued to be unclear. He fought to find direction and his personal health struggled. The road ahead looked bleak.
Fast forward some years later, and Kevin is now a sophomore at the University of Tennessee, Tennessee’s Military Friendly State Veteran of the Year 2025, and is in the running for National Veteran of the Year. What changed?
Coming home
When he graduated from South County High School in 2016, higher education was not on Kevin’s list of priorities. It’s why he joined the army instead. His high school experience hadn’t prepared him for the structure and responsibilities of university life, and so the military looked far more appealing.
When his time in the army was over, Kevin realized that he now had the skills to give university a try.
“I had never really anticipated myself being successful in a school environment again, primarily based off of the experience I had in high school,” Ho said. “But those skills I got in the military transferred over to higher ed.”
One of Kevin’s first squad leaders, Anthony McClain, was a Tennessee native. Kevin remembers McClain’s love of UT football with fondness.
“He would have UT football games and UT (sports) on his phone and we’d watch it together. And that was kind of like the first real college experience that I would get into.
“I only applied to one, and that was Big Orange. Greatest place on earth, right?”
Kevin had been so focused on the military that he had never seen higher education as a pathway. But he now decided to part ways with his hometown in Lorton, Virginia and travel roughly 480 miles south to Knoxville, Tennessee.
He found his community on the hills of Rocky Top.
It was through organizations like the Veterans Success Center and Veterans Upward Bound that Kevin found a system that supported him. And when he rushed a fraternity in his first semester, he found a warm welcome and his closest friends in Delta Kappa Epsilon.
Kevin didn’t wait for the communities to find him. Instead, he put himself out there and showed UT what he had to offer. He went on to be a senator in UT’s Student Government Association, and he started working for the Veterans Success Center as a way to give back.
That uncertainty he felt about higher education before was turning into clarity. Kevin often remembers what the darkest point in his life was, and he knows he’s past the most difficult challenge yet.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to be successful in college. I didn’t know if I could handle another failure. But being able to take that leap of faith, you know, and be able to jump into higher ed, I feel like was my biggest hurdle.”
Helping others find their footing
Campus resources were key to getting Kevin set up on campus. He was accepted to the university roughly two weeks before classes started, and on top of moving his entire life and his service dog, Margie, to another state, he didn’t even have the basics to start college. Things like a parking pass suddenly became another challenge.
“They helped me out tremendously,” Kevin remembers. “I don’t think I would have been able to really acclimate if it wasn’t for the Veterans Success Center and Veterans Upward Bound.”
Because of how he struggled during the transition from army to civilian life, Kevin is able to see others undergoing the same challenges and understand how to reach them. He says he reminds those around him to look for the silver lining, push forward and not let failures be the focus of their life. As a veteran himself, he knows what it’s like to get to experience the culture shock of college.
“Oftentimes it’s their first time … not having like that structure from the military. … They’re a lot older than a lot of the students, they’re not 18, they’re not 19 years old.
“Being able to provide a community and a support structure is ideally what we want to accomplish.”
That outreach and advocacy for student veterans is clear in Kevin’s life. As president of the UT Chapter of Student Veterans of America, he works to create a community for other student veterans. And he says walking with Margie around campus is a gateway to opening up conversations with other students about being a veteran and attending a university. His journey to UT is not the traditional one, and he says it often surprises others. For himself, knowing he chose a different route can be a mental hurdle as well.
“When times are tough in school, those assignments are super long, and I’m staying up late and stuff, in my head I’m always like, ‘Oh, is this it? Is this the right time? Maybe I should have come a little bit earlier,’ but you know, when I push past it and I have that support from the organizations that I am in, I feel like (that) makes it worth it.”
Kevin is determined to continue pouring into UT and carving out a space for himself.
“I feel like I have a really strong support structure. I hope that people in similar shoes like myself can have that, you know, can have people that they rely on, because higher ed’s definitely not an easy task. If it was, everyone would do it.”
Moving forward: the nomination that feels “surreal”
Kevin points back to the years between leaving the military and coming to UT as his biggest motivator as he moves forward.
“I promised myself I would never get back into that kind of mentality. Nor do I want to see people that I care about or people that are in my life get to that point. I don’t ever want anyone to have to deal with that.”
Kevin was recently named Military Friendly’s Tennessee Veteran of the Year 2025. He’s now in the running for National Veteran of the Year. Moving even higher in the process would be nothing short of amazing for him.
“It’s already surreal enough,” Kevin said. “Being able to get to that next step would just solidify my thoughts that I’m doing the right thing.”
If you’re returning to UT in August, you might see Kevin walking across Ped Walkway with Margie, or you might happen to be in the same class with them. He’s active in SGA and Greek life, and he’s excited for the next few years of his life at UT, as well as beginning a career one day.
“I don’t think my advocating is going to stop now. … I don’t want it to stop there. I want to continue to move forward.””
You can vote for Kevin at www.militaryfriendly.com/vote before July 4.
Did you know?
- 700+ student veterans call UT home
- UT has received the Silver ranking as a Military Friendly school, by Military Friendly
- UT provides in-state tuition prices to veterans, active-duty military personnel, reservists, Tennessee National Guard members, and Army and Air Force ROTC cadets, regardless of residency status
