Jacksonville lawyer and UCF alumnus Joseph Rogan \u201911 approaches every day with the same mentality: Put the mission first. Never accept defeat.<\/p>\n
Whether those tenets apply to his career or his relationships, the U.S. Army\u2019s Warrior Ethos principles\u00a0are something The Burnett Honors College graduate has carried with him since he enlisted in the Army Reserve at the age of 17.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really was just a calling,\u201d said Rogan, who served eight years in the Military Police Corps.<\/p>\n
Rogan grew up in South Florida and chose to join the Army Reserve before his senior year of high school.<\/p>\n
His parents were supportive but hesitant. In fact, Rogan\u2019s paperwork sat on the table for two weeks until one day he came home to find the missing component completed: his mother\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out years later that my brother had persuaded her to sign it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In the summer between his junior and senior years of high school, he traveled to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, for basic training. He called it a maturing experience and unlike anything he had ever endured.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you learn a lot about values and reasons to trust and work with people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He arrived on campus in 2008 after finishing military police school as a first-generation college student and ended up double majoring in political science and psychology. He joined ROTC that first year and, of course, he was still committed to the Army Reserve, training with his unit regularly.<\/p>\n
After his first year at UCF, his unit was activated and deployed to Iraq.<\/p>\n
For 10 months, before he had reached the age of 21, Rogan was responsible for mentoring, advising and training the Iraqi police, some of whom had been officers for decades.<\/p>\n
Rogan said the experience helped him find his calling as a lawyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were there, the Iraqis were still operating under Saddam Hussein\u2019s penal code. But it was in a democracy. You can imagine there are some really big problems with that,\u201d he said. \u201cSince then, they\u2019ve rewritten the penal code, but at the time, my job was to explain how to treat people in what we view as norms in a democratic society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rogan returned to the United States, and about a week later, he was back in classes at UCF.<\/p>\n
The transition was a major adjustment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was still a difficult time going from holding a gun one day to sitting in class with a pencil the next,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In addition, he withstood several injuries while overseas, including a traumatic brain injury from a vehicle explosion. Other injuries required surgeries upon his return.<\/p>\n
But as he adjusted to studying full-time again, he found ways to apply what he had learned from the military to his everyday life.<\/p>\n
His work ethic yielded exemplary grades in his classes. His professors, especially in courses like Middle Eastern politics, saw value in his real-life experiences for class discussions.<\/p>\n
Rogan credits Director of Honors Advising Rex Roberts \u201900 \u201903MA for helping him integrate back into a routine schedule and UCF\u2019s community.<\/p>\n
Rogan went on to attend Georgetown Law and spent time working in Washington D.C., where he got involved with UCF Alumni\u2019s chapter and eventually rekindled a friendship that later blossomed into a marriage with alumna Ashley Noland \u201910.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be a perception with a university like UCF that because we\u2019re large, it\u2019s not a community. That it\u2019s like a factory. That was never my experience,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was very much the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n