A conversation at UIC became a Foundation.

I'm Roger, a Marine veteran, student, and one of the co-founders of Esprit de Corps Foundation.

EDC started through conversations Damian and I were having while we were students at the University of Illinois Chicago. We met through UIC Student Veterans Affairs, and as we spent more time around other veterans, service members, and military-connected students, we kept coming back to many of the same questions.

What happens after service? Where do people find community again? Why does support often exist in separate places instead of bringing people together? And what would it look like to build something that people could continue growing with through school, careers, family, health, and whatever came next?

Those conversations eventually became Esprit de Corps Foundation.

Today, alongside my work supporting military-connected students at UIC, I'm studying Integrated Health Studies and preparing for a future in nursing and community health. I'm especially interested in how health, prevention, education, and community can work together to improve people's lives.

For me, EDC is an extension of that same idea. Build something that takes care of people, keeps them connected, and gives them another place to belong.

I S.E.R.V.E. because leaving the military shouldn't mean leaving behind the people, purpose, and sense of belonging that came with it.

The Marine Corps taught me the importance of being part of something larger than yourself. After service, I found another community through UIC and through the veterans and military-connected students around me. Those relationships helped inspire the earliest conversations that eventually became EDC.

I want other people to have that too.

Not just somewhere to go when they need help, but people to meet, experiences to share, opportunities to pursue, families to bring along, and ways to continue serving others.

EDC started with conversations about what was missing. I S.E.R.V.E. because I want to help turn those conversations into something that lasts.

Reach back. Move forward. Bring others with you.

Founding Vision · Governance · Veteran Engagement · Student Veterans · Community Health · Outreach · Operation Next Mission · Operation Anchor