In honor of Veterans Day, the Community College of Vermont is extending gratitude to the many veterans and military members in our community for their service. Each semester, CCV serves more than 400 veteran and military-connected students in our academic centers and online. A Military Times Best for Vets 2025 College, CCV recognizes the unique needs of these students and is proud to offer specialized support services, including a dedicated Veteran & Military-Connected Student Services team, peer mentors, scholarships, transfer support, and career services. 

Meet Katura Huckabay, a Navy veteran and CCV student. 

Finding Her Own Path

At 18 years old, Katura made the decision to leave her family’s organic farm to join the Navy – a big change for someone who was homeschooled and hadn’t experienced life away from their homestead. “I needed to get out and start my life and I felt like joining the military would be a good step to do that,” she shared.

Katura started her service in 2000 and served for four years, experiencing a changing world and cultural climate during this time. She joined during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” period, served through the events of September 11, 2001, and in the Iraq War. “It was a really intense time to be in the service,” Katura said. “But I felt like serving in the military is especially important for people who are not traditionally included…whether that’s political points of view or gender. I felt like if you want to change something, if you want to make something better, you need to do that from within.” 


Katura served as a signalman, “one of the oldest and most traditional jobs in the Navy,” she noted, which is someone who does the navigation, visual communications, and “old school seamanship” on the ships. “It was really fascinating,” she said. “But it doesn’t really translate to land very well.” 

A New Direction

After being discharged from the military, Katura enrolled in culinary school. “I grew up on an organic farm in Vermont. We raised animals and vegetables, and I cooked for the farm hands from the time I was a child,” she said. “So for me, this is a thing that I know I love to do, that I know I’m good at.”

She attended the New England Culinary Institute and worked as a chef in the food service industry for ten years before burnout from the high-stress environment became too much. “I love food, I don’t love restaurants,” Katura said. She transitioned to working in food service in a public school where she has been for the past decade, which worked better for her schedule as a single parent. “You can’t work nights and weekends and still be as present as I felt was necessary.”

Now that her daughter is starting high school, Katura has started to look towards what is next for her professionally. “I decided that I need an empty nest project. I wanted to feel relevant…I also wanted to do more to give back to kids in the community,” she said. And CCV is her first step. 

Building a Future at CCV

Katura shared that her primary motive for joining the Navy was to build opportunities for herself. She was able to earn her GED (something she had looked forward to when enlisting) and take a couple of college courses, one of which was held on a ship while serving. Katura was later able to transfer these credits to CCV when she started taking classes in 2024.

“I did always know that I wanted to go to college, and I think it’s because I grew up in a family that was highly educated,” she said. “My parents chose to be organic farmers, but they both had degrees.” One thing Katura has enjoyed in her time at CCV is learning with a diverse group of students. “I find that most of my classmates are in their early 20s or late teens, but it is very interesting, and I have really enjoyed having classmates from other countries and other backgrounds. That’s one thing that I appreciated about the military and I also really appreciate about CCV.” 

Katura is pursuing a degree in behavioral science, with the ultimate goal of becoming a therapist for adolescents. “I’m not sure which direction that’s gonna take me, whether [I’ll] lean a little more towards social work or psychology or possibly even public policy. A lot of those things really fascinate me, so I feel like getting a behavioral science associate [degree] from CCV is a good first step.”

Thank you to all veterans for your service. For more information on veteran & military-connected student services at CCV, visit ccv.edu/veterans.