Going the Extra Mile

On a beautiful December day in northern Virginia, Brandon Maruca ’06 and other runners traversed the 10.5 miles from George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon to The Veterans Corporation headquarters in Old Town Alexandria. He was running for a good cause and with his grandfather, a veteran of World War II,
in mind.

Maruca, an international business & management major, had organized the first Holiday H.O.V. (Honoring Our Veterans) Run as a public-service project to raise awareness and funding for The Veterans Corporation, a nonprofit organization that helps guide veterans in starting their own businesses.

Maruca was an intern at The Veterans Corporation through his participation in Dickinson’s Washington Center program last fall. The Dickinson Semester in Washington, D.C., provides students with an experience-driven immersion in the nation’s capital. Four credits are earned in the program, through internship, academic seminar and an independent-study project completed under the guidance of a Dickinson faculty member.

The Semester in Washington is conducted in partnership with the prestigious Washington Center for Internships and Seminars, which was founded in 1975.

The internship was a perfect match for Maruca.

“The Veterans Corporation just seemed really outgoing, and I liked the idea of helping veterans,” he says, remembering the stories his grandfather had told him about the war. “I also had been involved with the Civil Air Patrol, and I originally wanted to go to the Air Force Academy,” Maruca adds.

So far—and the funds are still coming in—Maruca’s run has raised more than $1,000 for The Veterans Corporation. It comes at a critical time for the organization, which in the past months has had to turn from a federal-funding stream to raising private donations for its programs of education, training and outreach.

John Madigan, Veterans Corporation executive director of business development, says he was “pleasantly surprised by Brandon’s idea for the run. I’m ecstatic that he took away so much from the internship that he internalized the mission of helping veterans to succeed.”

“I’m happy with how it came out,” Maruca says, “given the limited time that we had. The Veterans Corporation is anxious to do it again. Given ample time, it should be very successful.”

Maruca earned special praise from his grandfather.

“He was glad I did it to help veterans,” Maruca says. “In fact, he donated some money as well.”

Maruca hasn’t regretted his decision not to go to the Air Force Academy.

“I felt Dickinson could offer me an experience on par with the academy, plus provide a bit more freedom,” he says, stressing the added value gained from the Semester in Washington program.

“It was a great real-world experience for me,” he says. “My business and economics classes really helped me in D.C.”

Among his other accomplishments while an intern, Maruca built The Veterans Corporation’s first extensive demographic database of veterans, which since has been used by Congress. He was involved in grant writing, and his independent-study project, done with David Sarcone, assistant professor of international business & management, focused on marketing for The Veterans Corporation—for which he was glad to go the extra mile.