{"id":4287,"date":"2025-02-28T09:01:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T09:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=4287"},"modified":"2025-02-28T14:16:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T14:16:22","slug":"mcglothin-sets-example-through-military-service-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=4287","title":{"rendered":"McGlothin sets example through military service, giving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SIU Donor Story: Rick McGlothin\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tB0yKWF97-Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Jeff Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>During his distinguished military career, Rick McGlothin has made service a prominent component of his life. That dedication is also reflected in his support of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.<\/p>\n<p>McGlothin \u201993, division chief at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, paused his early military career to achieve his bachelor\u2019s degree in vocational education studies from SIU\u2019s School of Education. He then earned a master\u2019s from Webster University. He and his wife, Dionne, live in Virginia and have two children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI achieved the rank of major in the Air Force, and since then I\u2019ve become a GS15, which is the highest non-senior executive grade for government civilians,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of this goes back to that foundation, everything that was established, by my time at SIU.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since graduating, McGlothin has made regular financial contributions to Southern, particularly the African American Award Endowment Fund.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to give minority groups an opportunity to go to college,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile I was at SIU, I saw a lot of minority students that had challenges there. If I can give a little bit that can help a student pull themselves out of situations they have come up in and better them, I feel that is something that can help the country as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Inspired by his parents, who didn\u2019t have the same opportunities that he did, McGlothin appreciates the emphasis they put on education.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey instilled in us the importance of education,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re from a generation when things for African Americans weren\u2019t always the best. Even in today\u2019s society, there are still challenges that have to be overcome, but they really had challenges. My mother would always say pray and do the best you can. Even to this day, I sit back and hope they are proud of me because I tried to do the best I could.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McGlothin hopes that the students will be similarly inspired by his story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you don\u2019t see something, you can\u2019t imagine being something,\u201d he said. \u201cI try to be an example for young people, so they can say \u2018If he did it, I could potentially do it.\u2019 That\u2019s one of the reasons I\u2019m motivated to contribute to SIU.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To make a gift and support SIU students, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/siuf.org\">siuf.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jeff Wilson During his distinguished military career, Rick McGlothin has made service a prominent component of his life. That dedication is also reflected in his support of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. McGlothin \u201993, division chief at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, paused his early military career to achieve his bachelor\u2019s degree in vocational education &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=4287\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">McGlothin sets example through military service, giving<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donor-stories","category-illinois-higher-education","category-siu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4291,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4287\/revisions\/4291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}