John

John Crowley is pursuing a joint MBA/MPP at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School where he is a Harvard Presidential Scholar, LunaCap Foundation Scholar, and Rubenstein Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership. John answered the call to service when he reported to the United States Military Academy in the summer of 2010. Eager to contribute to the war effort of his generation, he commissioned as an engineer officer and joined the 82nd Airborne Division upon graduating from West Point in 2014. In an effort to give back to his alma mater while serving on active duty, John joined the founders of Steel Hearts, a nonprofit organization that honors the legacies of fallen US service academy graduates through the sale of memorial bracelets. In his work co-directing Steel Hearts, John developed a strong interest in nonprofit work and veterans’ issues. In June of 2017, John deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. Serving alongside NATO allies fundamentally reshaped John’s worldview. He learned of severe underemployment and a civil-military divide plaguing the international veteran community. He discovered that many partner countries do not provide veteran welfare and transition programs that are now commonplace in the United States. Moreover, due to cultural norms, their veteran status – namely, leadership experience and interpersonal skills – is not valued in the civilian workplace worldwide. John left active duty service in search of ways to leverage the strength of the private sector in support of the international veteran community. Ultimately, John hopes to create a social enterprise designed to educate, train, and employ an entire demographic of underserved international veterans.