By Joe Garvey

Shawn Collins’ first attempt at college in Florida didn’t go exactly as planned.

But he’s thrived in his second chance at Old Dominion University.

Collins, an electronics technician in the U.S. Navy, will graduate in December with a bachelor’s degree in information systems and technology from the Strome College of Business. He’s maintained a 3.98 GPA.

Furthermore, he will complete the Navy’s Seaman to Admiral-21 program and be commissioned as an information professional officer.

He has also served in leadership roles with NROTC Hampton Roads. Additionally, he completed 143 hours of community service with Habitat for Humanity, his church and has been president of his local homeowners association in Chesapeake.

And by the way, he’s accomplished all this as he and his wife raise three young children.

“My time at the University of South Florida is a complete 180 to my time here,” he said. “It’s all because of the effort I put in. Definitely, take it seriously and the world is yours.”

Collins, a self-described “Army brat” who grew up in Orlando, enrolled at South Florida as a pre-law major coming out of high school. But he lasted just two semesters.

“I did what a lot of college students do,” he said. “I went there and just wasn’t focused.”

At 20, he joined the Navy, which he said was the “best decision I ever made, other than marrying my wife.”

Collins, who said he’s always been interested in IT and technology, spent a little over five years stationed on the USS Iwo Jima, which was then based in Mayport, Florida. He worked on communications gear, satellite communications and radars, among other things. He met his wife, who’s now an IT contractor, on a deployment to the Persian Gulf.

After moving to Norfolk in 2019 as he transferred from the Iwo Jima to shore duty, he decided to fulfill his longtime dream of becoming a naval officer. He enrolled at ODU in the summer of 2020 and entered the Seaman to Admiral-21 program, which keeps active-duty participants at their enlisted pay grade in addition to providing up to $10,000 per year to cover tuition, books and fees.

This, along with ODU’s discounted active-duty tuition of $250 per credit hour, allowed Collins to “get my education and provide for my family and also take my career to a new level. I really didn’t have to pay out of pocket for any of my education.”

One of his academic highlights was an internship through ODU’s School of Cybersecurity and the Office of Naval Research. Collins and his teammates used machine learning to create a content-based ad-blocker that filters out unwanted pushed advertisements, which can be a source of security and privacy issues. The program they developed was 98% effective, Collins said.

“That was a really cool project,” said Collins, who along with his teammates presented their findings virtually in January at the sixth International Conference on Cryptography, Security and Privacy, which was held in China. “It really opened up my mind in regard to cybersecurity and how I can use the skills that I’m learning here at ODU and apply them toward solving real-world problems. That was a pivotal moment in my academic career.”

Collins, the father of a 6-year-old son and two daughters – a 3-year-old and a 2-month-old, said his ODU professors have been very understanding as he juggled personal and professional obligations. He said Robert Strozak, whom he had for calculus, and Perry Nerem, his physics professor, made a particular impression.

“The information that they taught me, it opened up my mind,” Collins said. “It kind of sparked some academic interests in things that I didn’t know I was interested in or didn’t even know I was capable of. So, if you will, they kind of gave me a confidence about myself academically that I didn’t know that I had.”

“What always struck me about Shawn – besides being a stellar student – was that he was always dressed meticulously, as if he was going to a job interview,” Strozak said. “It's as if he viewed school as his job, and he exuded an air of professionalism and maturity that you don't often see at his age. I have no doubt he will excel in any endeavor he chooses.”

Nerem said Collins “was a delightful student. He would often stay after class to ask questions and discuss interesting ideas inspired by that day's lecture with myself and his classmates.”

Cmdr. John Drosinos, executive officer for the NROTC Hampton Roads Consortium, noted that Collins has been a role model to the midshipmen within his battalion.

“Officer candidate Collins has demonstrated superior mentorship, academic standing, physical fitness and the desire to be an officer in the United States Navy,” Drosinos said. “He possesses the leadership traits the Navy needs to lead our next generation of sailors.”

Collins said the time-management skills he’s acquired in the Navy were critical to his success in his second go-around at college. But he’s also learned that students shouldn’t sell themselves short.

“After you tackle some of these classes that when you’re in them, they feel impossible, it just gives you a confidence that your mind is incredible and it can solve problems that you didn’t know that it could solve,” he said. “A lot of times, you find that you are your biggest limitation.”