Rebecca Morelock
“I knew Austin Peay had a great military presence, it was close to the Fort Campbell, and I could easily transition from one school to the next and graduate in a timely manner.”
Major: Health and Human Performance
Hometown: Crystal Lake, Illinois
Involvement: Student Veterans Organization president, Veterans Affairs work study at VetSuccess
on Campus
When the Army asked her staff sergeant husband to choose his next duty station, Rebecca Morelock picked the spot. He knew the decision rested on her earning her degree. The choice was hers.
“Once I found out we were moving, I did all my research, and Austin Peay was the only one reasonable for me to continue my education,” Morelock, a mother of two and former Army specialist, said. “He knew I was not going to stop, that the next place we went, I was absolutely going to graduate from college.
“I looked at Austin Peay and thought, ‘This is the school I’m graduating from.’”
Morelock left the Army when she was stationed at Fort Wainwright in Alaska to join her husband at Fort Bragg in North Carolina to have the couple’s first child, now 6. They also have a 3-year-old. They moved to Fort Campbell in 2017, and she enrolled at Austin Peay.
He’s on his third tour, serving in support of the 5th Special Forces Group.
Morelock wanted to put her own military experience and the time she’s spent at other colleges – and transferring between them – to use at Austin Peay.
She’s held multiple offices with the Student Veterans Organization, and she helps other veterans by working at the VetSuccess on Campus. And she’s sat in on APSU’s Military Education Task Force, which meets monthly to discuss better serving military students.
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“I think Austin Peay is very military-friendly,” she said. “There are so many of us. It’s been very inviting, to be a veteran, to be military. Austin Peay always is trying to see how to better serve military students, in any capacity they can.”
Morelock has enjoyed her time at Austin Peay and wants to continue here.
“I guess because my time was cut short, this is just one way I can help veteran military students,” she said. “I like being in a position where I can talk to people and help others.
“That makes me feel really successful.”
