{"id":141386,"date":"2023-09-13T09:11:22","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T13:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=141386"},"modified":"2025-07-22T09:41:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:41:27","slug":"champion-for-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2023\/09\/13\/champion-for-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Wright State dedicates garden honoring veterans and military-connected students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wright State University and its Veteran and Military Center dedicated the Captain Shawn L. English Champion Garden<\/a>, an outdoor space that honors veterans, military-connected students and those who support them.<\/p>\n

Wright State held a dedication ceremony on Sept. 8 outside the Veteran and Military Center.<\/p>\n

The garden is named in honor of Shawn English, a 1999 Wright State Army ROTC graduate who was killed in action in Iraq in 2006.<\/p>\n

The ceremony included remarks from Wright State President Sue Edwards, Ph.D.; Tom Gunlock, chair of the Board of Trustees; Seth Gordon, Ph.D., director of the Veteran and Military Center; Jacob Bashore, who participated in Army ROTC with English; Anthony Heiland, president of the Wright State Veteran and Military Society; and Tricia English, Shawn English\u2019s widow.<\/p>\n

Tricia English said memorializing Shawn English with a campus garden space that is open to everyone is a special honor because Wright State and its Army ROTC program changed the trajectory of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such an instrumental place that gave him, not the confidence, but the competence that led him to believe that he could be a good officer,\u201d Tricia English said. \u201cHe knew he had those skills, but he needed the education. It was at Wright State where he gained that competence, a belief in himself and self-efficacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Located outside the Veteran and Military Center<\/a> near Millett Hall and parking lot 10, the Champion Garden is open to all members of the Wright State community.<\/p>\n

The garden celebrates those who support \u2014 or champion \u2014 veterans, including other veterans themselves, family members, faculty, staff and those who work with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s called a Champion\u2019s Garden because he had champions that lifted him up and allowed him to live the life that he wanted,\u2019 said English. \u201cThen he became a champion for others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The garden also provides a gathering space to help military-connected students feel that they belong at Wright State by creating opportunities for meaningful interactions. The outdoor space features comfortable patio seating and tables under a large pergola.<\/p>\n

A bench in the garden memorializes Christopher Roche II, who worked in the Veteran and Military Center as a student and died in 2020. Roche majored in cyber security and served in the U.S. Navy before transferring to the Navy Reserves.<\/p>\n

Community members can support the Captain Shawn L. English Champion Garden by purchasing an inscribed brick or patio paver or an inscribed dog tag. Learn more at wright.edu\/VMCgarden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Support for the Captain Shawn L. English Champion Garden has been provided by many donors including George B. Quatman Foundation, Fifth Third Bank Trustee; the Wright State President\u2019s Office and the Wright State University Foundation; the University of Dayton; Raytheon; and Cargill.<\/p>\n

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Wright State University and its Veteran and Military Center dedicated the Captain Shawn L. English Champion Garden, an outdoor space that honors veterans, military-connected students and those who support them. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":141387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4309,4305,729,2043,725,727,747,2039,715,4855,720],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-association","category-army-rotc","category-around-campus","category-facilities-planning","category-home-news-sidebar","category-homepage-photos-and-video","category-liberal-arts","category-military-veterans","category-news","category-social-sciences-and-international-studies","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141386"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160229,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141386\/revisions\/160229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}