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My name is Dennis Alexander Austin. In this presentation I plan to tell you a bit about myself.

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My family is originally from Panama. My parents moved up to the United States in the late nineties where I was born. After moving several times and a divorce, my mom settled in Fayetteville NC where I grew up. I attended Cross Creek Early College High School and graduated in 2016.

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Soon after graduating high school, I was accepted into NC A&T State University and moved to Greensboro. My first semester was rough due to lack of funds and I soon found a job in a kitchen on UNCG's campus. While I was able to pay my rent, I still had very little money and I often went days without eating. My grades suffered greatly, and I ended up failing out in the spring of 2018. I moved back in with my father and started thinking of ways I could pay off my student loans.

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In June of 2019, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a Gas Turbine Systems Technician Electrical (GSE), and I was shipped off to bootcamp where I stayed for the next two months. I spent the next nine months in Michigan receiving training for my job. It went by incredibly fast and the i was shipped off to Japan, where I would live for the next four years.

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I was stationed on the LHA-6 USS America. I soon learned being an engineer on this ship was not going to be easy. There were many nights where I got little to no sleep and I spent almost all my time fixing equipment or managing the maintenance schedule. I struggled to keep up with the fast paced environment but by the time I left I knew the engine room like the back of my hand. I had become the subject matter expert on the ship's electrical distribution and machinery control systems.

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I was honorably discharged in June of 2024. I had managed to pay off all of my student loans and I was readmitted to A&T in that same fall. That's the abbreviated version of how I got here.

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As for my personal life there isn't that much to say. I play video games and DND with my friends. I workout and I occasionally will work on cars. I also enjoy reading and being in nature. That's about it.