Dragon Stories

Iraq Veteran Ally Kester feels at home at MSUM after transitioning from military service and transitioning her gender.

A family heritage of service spurred Joaquin Watson to join the U.S. Army. Now he’s the president of the Dragon Student Veterans Club.

Heidi King supports military-connected students as the student relations coordinator for MSUM’s College of Arts and Humanities and as a volunteer on the campus’ Veterans Service Committee. 

MSU Moorhead has launched Dragon VALOR, a Veteran Ally Organization that strives to elevate student Veterans’ academic success.  

Air Force member has balanced being on active duty and getting two master’s degrees at MSU Moorhead. 

Today we honor Wendy Gibson, an MSUM employee who served nine years in the United States Army. 

We honor Parker Wood, a senior at MSUM studying elementary education. He will soon begin service with the North Dakota Air National Guard.

Today we honor veteran Molly Johnson, a senior at MSUM studying ecology and evolutionary biology with a geospatial analysis emphasis. Molly is from Moorhead and was inspired to join the military through her family, as many of them also served. Her sister Heidi was in the army band prior to moving to Colorado and her other sister Ali served as an Air Force medic. Molly’s mom worked as a social worker for soldiers at the armory in Fargo and her father is captain of the Fargo Fire Department. 

Today we honor veteran Justin Kester, a first-year computer science student at MSUM. Justin’s experience in the military lent a hand in determining their major in school.  

Today we honor Jonathan Bauer, a second-year animation major at MSUM. He is originally from Montgomery, Minn. Jonathan served in the Army for three and a half years in active duty as a wheeled vehicle mechanic and wrecker operator. He first served in Camp Casey, South Korea, then in Fort Drum, New York.  

Today we honor veteran Brenda Norris, a staff member here at MSUM. Brenda is the Executive Director for Facilities Management and prior to that she worked on campus as a consultant on several capital building projects, beginning in 2002.   

Dilworth native Peyton Schwer is in his first year at MSUM studying computer information systems.