Fall 2025 Winner of the Military Veteran Scholarship

Tyler Cain

Tyler’s experience as the child of a veteran has inspired him to expand initiatives surrounding veteran support. He is deeply committed to helping veterans, having created his own nonprofit organization and working to change VA policies. Congratulations, Tyler, we look forward to all of the positive impacts you will continue to make for our service members!

Read his essay

My commitment to advocacy is rooted in lived experience. In 2005, my father was deployed to Iraq, where he endured seven improvised explosive device (IED) attacks. He returned home with a severe traumatic brain injury and later developed post-traumatic stress disorder. I hold immense pride in his service; he is, without question, a hero. His sacrifices, and the profound impact they had on our family, shaped not only my worldview but also my long-term professional aspirations.

As a child, I was grateful for the opportunity to attend reintegration retreats for military families. These programs, often framed as healing spaces, provided a welcome reprieve from the everyday challenges of post-deployment life. However, I gradually became aware that while veterans were the central focus, their families, particularly children, were largely overlooked. Young attendees, myself included, were routinely placed in separate rooms, detached from programming that addressed the emotional and psychological dimensions of home life after war. Conversations with peers revealed that many were navigating complex home environments shaped by trauma, yet were met with little institutional recognition or support. Although these retreats were deeply appreciated, they often felt more like temporary vacations rather than holistic support networks.

This awareness led my mother, grandmother, and me to co-found Hearts of Patriots, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the spouses and caregivers of veterans living with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. The organization emerged from the recognition that while many programs rightly center the veteran, far fewer address the invisible burdens borne by families. Through this work, I developed a deep understanding of both the systemic gaps in care and the powerful role that grassroots advocacy can play in filling them. My interest in institutional reform led me to pursue a master’s degree at Arizona State University, during which I worked as a paralegal on VA disability appeals. In that role, I supported veterans in navigating complex bureaucratic processes to secure the benefits they were owed. This legal work reinforced my belief in the law as a mechanism for justice, particularly for populations underserved by the systems ostensibly designed to support them.

This summer, I will further my understanding of policymaking as a congressional intern in the office of Representative Joe Wilson. This opportunity will allow me to explore the legislative dimensions of veteran support, while building on my existing legal and advocacy background. In the fall, I will begin law school at Cleveland State University with the goal of becoming a legal advocate for veterans and caregivers in Northeast Ohio, my home region. Throughout this journey, I have come to view attorneys not simply as legal technicians but as pillars of their communities. They are individuals entrusted with the responsibility to not just uphold justice, and advocate for the marginalized, but to meet a client on their worst day and help through a wide ranging slew of human issues. I see the legal profession as a calling that blends intellectual rigor with civic duty, and it is this combination that motivates my path forward.

Long-term, I aim to pursue a career that integrates legal practice and public policy. I hope to expand the reach of Hearts of Patriots, contribute to more inclusive and effective VA policies, and one day serve in elected office. I aspire to be a legislator who crafts policy with a deep understanding of the human experiences behind it, because I have lived them alongside the very people I seek to serve.