On March 30, 2010, at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Ryan A. Conklin headlined a student sponsored discussion on his military experience in Iraq. Appropriately, the site was the campus location of the Brooklyn Pizza eatery. The event was the Student Government Association's March "Difficult Discussion", and the focus was on what it was like for Ryan as college-age person to be a soldier in Iraq.According to an article by Carlos Pineda at Central Florida Future.com, it was Kersti Myles, the diversity initiative specialist of the Student Government Association, who felt that veterans were not getting the recognition that they deserved, and so she brought Ryan to UCF to enlighten the students there on what the veterans' experiences were like. “‘I know that [Ryan] was a dynamic speaker and figure on TV,’ Myles said. ‘I wanted people to see that veterans are not just Vietnam or World War I and II veterans. I wanted to show that the youth is involved in Iraq.’”
Ryan Conklin spoke about why he enlisted, what the life of an infantryman is like, and how he was able to cope under the unnerving conditions that he endured in Iraq.
(Photo: Ryan Conklin and Marlon Gutierrez, courtesy of Marlon Gutierrez, by permission)
