CAPTAIN VALERIE WALLIS

Capt. Valerie Wallis: I'm Captain Valerie Wallace and I'm in the Army Reserve. Aside from paying for tuition at a private school I decided to come into ROTC because I thought that it would take this shy little girl from Texas and build her Leadership skills and help her be able to stand in front of people and to lead.

One of the reasons that I decided to come into the Army Reserve from Active Duty Army was because I was ready to plant some roots. To come on home to Texas, and be able to get a job in the civilian business world, I picked up my MBA while I was Active Duty. And I wanted to spread my wings a little bit and try out the business world and I feel that the Army Reserve has given me the opportunity to be at one place for a little bit of time and also still be in the Army.

I work for a company that is an industry leader in producing fiber optic cable and fiber optic hardware products. With my background in the military and leadership experience definitely helps in my civilian job. I feel comfortable talking to large groups or small groups or one-on-one with customers or co-workers.

My role in my Reserve Unit as an Assistant Professor of Military Science and Scholarship Officer at Texas Christian University allows me to coach, teach, mentor and to spread the word of what the Army did for me and I absolutely love it.

I try to talk to cadets any chance that I get. I feel that it's important to develop a relationship with them so that if there's ever a question that they have or some problem that they have that they feel comfortable coming to me to talk about it. And it's really rewarding to see a cadet push through an issue or a difficulty or some type of failure and develop their own plan and get the job done.