Military Veteran, Aspiring Biomedical Engineer to Serve as Student Speakers

The countdown to commencement has begun! We can’t wait to celebrate the Class of 2026 in just under two weeks.

This year’s keynote speaker is Will Eberle, founder of Mission Driver Consulting and executive director of Alyssum, a mental health respite program in Rochester, Vermont. 

Dan Smith, president and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation, will receive the Community Service Award.

Three faculty will be honored with the Teaching Excellence Award: Patti Cook, Slyvia Puglisi, and April Zajko.

Close to 500 students will receive associate degrees, and two of them will serve as student speakers for the Class of 2026: Darrell Martin and Briana Samaniego. Darrell is a U.S. Army veteran who spent more than 50 years in construction management, and Briana is on her way to a career in biomedical engineering. Read their stories below.

‘Something I’ve Worked For’

Darrell Martin first attended college in 1965, as an engineering major at Rutgers University. He worked two jobs to afford school—one as a car mechanic and one as a high school swim coach. At the height of the Vietnam War, Darrell enlisted in the U.S. Army. He volunteered with Special Forces and served as a Green Beret in Europe, and would spend 24 years in the military, eventually retiring as a First Sergeant from the New Hampshire National Guard Mountain Infantry Company. 

After leaving active duty, Darrell launched his career in construction management, utilizing a skill set that he’d begun to develop as a boy working alongside his father. Over the course of his career as a builder, Darrell set high standards for himself and the people around him; he likes things done just so. “In my construction business one of the things that I have always been is a very fussy finish carpenter,” he said. 

When he and his second wife moved to Holland, Vermont after retiring, he found out about the CCV academic center in Newport and about CCV’s tuition discount for senior citizens—the perfect opportunity to finish what he’d started years ago.

At CCV, Darrell had the chance to explore new interests and rekindle old ones. He took art classes, something that wouldn’t have been practical earlier in his academic career. In one class, his peers told him, “Darrell, you should be illustrating kids books. And I went, ‘well that’s a compliment and a half.’” A lifelong outdoorsman, he took Natural History of Vermont. “Even though it was the middle of winter and we were taking samples in three feet of snow, it was both fun and super educational.” 

He also took the Assessment of Prior Learning class, which offers “credit for what you know,” and between his military and construction management experiences, wound up earning roughly half of the credits he needed for his liberal studies degree. 

In 2024, Darrell was recognized with a CCV Leadership Scholarship. The faculty member who nominated him shared that he “embodies positive leadership…He brings creativity to the CCV learning community. He deeply understands the importance of a classroom community; he even initiated an end-of-class potluck to celebrate finishing the semester.” Needless to say, Darrell was flattered. “I have gotten a lot of awards through the military, and the leadership award from this school meant more to me than a bunch of those awards.”

Darrell is looking forward to commencement, humble as he is about being a student speaker. “It surprises me, among other things, that they picked me…I’m just Darrell. I’m no special guy. Yes, I’ve had a little bit of a unique life,” he says. “Being up on stage with a bunch of people that I respect a lot—that’s pretty rewarding, no question about it.” As far as the degree itself, Darrell says, “Has it changed my life any? I’m still gonna be the guy out there on Saturday morning splitting firewood.” Still, “it’s meaningful. It’s something that I feel like I’ve worked for.”

‘Becoming What I Want to Become’

“Higher education has always been something that I have dreamed about,” said Briana Samaniego. “I am a first-generation student, and my parents [wanted me to] have a better chance at supporting myself, at becoming whatever I wanted to become.”

But Briana’s dreams were deferred after a serious accident, followed by years of near-constant medical procedures. At one point, she was told she might never walk again. Eventually the idea of going to college resurfaced. “After my accident I had about three years that had passed by and I noticed that all of my friends had graduated or [were] starting in a field that they had dreamt about, and meanwhile I’m in a hospital bed.” Briana remembers thinking, “okay, I’m not going to give up. I’m going to pursue what I originally meant to.”

She started looking at options, knowing she would need flexibility to accommodate her ongoing recovery and rehabilitation. “CCV was there. And everyone was super helpful and supportive.”

Starting out, Briana couldn’t shake the feeling that she was behind. “I guess the best way of describing myself is like the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland who’s like looking at the clock going ‘oh my god I’m running out of time, I’m running out of time, I gotta go, I gotta go’…that’s me.”

Her parents were her biggest cheerleaders, encouraging her to go at her own pace. And CCV staff and faculty were extremely supportive. “I didn’t feel like I was late. They didn’t make me feel like I was old, or a bad student. If anything they made me feel like I could actually go for what I wanted to go for, like I could finish out my degree and become the Briana that I always wanted to be.”

Briana excelled at CCV, earning a spot on the dean’s list and serving as a student leader. She was the sole student representative on CCV’s Academic Council, which reviews and evaluates the College’s academic programs, and a member of the Student Advisory and Leadership Council. She held a work-study job as a lab assistant at CCV-Winooski, and this spring, she’s part of a committee supporting CCV’s accreditation process.

Briana will graduate next month with a degree in STEM studies, and plans to pursue a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering. Two days after commencement, she’ll drive to the University of Delaware for an eight-week internship through the Vermont Biomedical Research Network INBRE program, a prestigious opportunity focused on advancing biomedical research and workforce development.

As graduation nears, she’s excited about addressing her classmates. “I’m happy about it. I’m also super nervous about it. And I hope that I can deliver a good speech. I want to make an impact. I want to leave a good message with everyone, kind of encourage them to keep dreaming or just be proud of where they’re at.”

Briana sees two possible paths for her future: “One is doing research, specifically in nerve regeneration…second is either creating medical devices or working with an industry that is creating medical technology that can help in surgeries or help disabled individuals.” Internships and education will help her decide which path to choose. It will be a process of “understanding what I’m really good at.” And that, she knows, will come with time.

Join Us to Celebrate the CCV Class of 2026!

When: Saturday, June 6th at 2:00 p.m.

Where: Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont

Learn more: ccv.edu/graduation