Kayland Teemer

I attribute my success to being a lifelong learner and my strong belief in education. I've been in college for 17 years and I'm currently working on my doctorate. I feel like the more you know, the more you grow, and the more that you can relate and understand everyone and where they come from and what they stand for. I think that's the biggest problem in the world today - we don't educate enough, and this is why we have so many differences. The more you travel, the more you're educated, the more you know, the more you can understand who people are and what they are. My entire family is like that. My husband just graduated on Saturday with his master's degree, and my son graduated with his bachelor's degree in 2 years after graduating from high school early. We are just really big on education and learning. I lead by example, and I believe that if you're not using your brain, you're not growing.

The biggest challenge I see is that around 3% of veteran men are unemployed compared to females at 7%. This is typically because females are lower on the totem pole in the military. Men network and make their connections while they're in, and when they get out, they have connections already. For women, we typically don't have that because usually we're already mothers, we're wives, and we're worried about our families while we're in. When we're coming out, we're not really focusing on networking. When I came out myself four years ago when I retired from the Army, I noticed that I didn't have a really strong network outside of the Army. While you're in, you're not really thinking about networking, you're thinking about your job, being a wife, being a mother - all these other things that men have time to think about. So when women come out of the military, it's hard for us to build that network and find our way. We still have those responsibilities - we still gotta be a wife, we still gotta be a mother after we get out. Right now there are so many unemployed women who are veterans during these government cuts, and a lot of the women that work for the federal government, most of them are veterans. The opportunity is helping these women start working on their network two or three years before they get out, because if I knew what I knew, I would have started building my network. Things would have been a lot easier if I had that network working for me coming out.

The most important values to me are education, giving back, and understanding others. I believe the more you know, the more you can grow, and the more you can relate and understand everyone and where they come from. I think we need to educate more and try to understand who people are and what they are, because honestly, what everyone does doesn't affect your life or what you do in your home. Understanding other people actually makes for an easier life and makes us able to get along with one another. I'm really focused on giving back - I want to make it easier for my females in arms, making sure that my female veterans are getting what they need when they come out so they can give back as much as the men are giving back. We all come out with so many great skills, but women are not being given that opportunity because we don't have that network. Women are awesome leaders, we have so much skill, we have so much potential, and they need that opportunity. My work has been really rewarding and fun - I've met some awesome, amazing women, and I'm able to give them part of my network that I built coming out of the Army.