Dragons Who Serve: Keifer Slobe

Keifer Slobe chose Minnesota State Moorhead for more than its environmental degrees. Throughout his first semester, he has quickly grown fond of the Veteran Success Center and the resources it offers to military-connected students. Aaron Krenz, the Yellow Ribbon Advance director, serves students like Slobe during the transition from combat to campus. 

Even after being stationed in places where the sun shines past 4 p.m. for more than five months of the year, he still chose to come back to Minnesota. Originally from Woodbury, Minn., he relocated to the Fargo-Moorhead area right after his nine years of active service as a Sonar Technician, Surface First Class Petty Officer in the Navy. From Virginia, to Chicago, and all the way to San Diego, Slobe was looking for more community at the end of his service.

“There were different groups at boot camp, so three of us from the Midwest made our own little group,” he says. 

Here at Moorhead, Slobe has found more community not just through his classes, but by spending time in the Veteran Success Center. Although there is an age gap between him and the traditional college student, he has built a community of support and reassurance. 

Although being back in a classroom after serving as a lead analyst role on the intelligence watch floor of the Navy was a difficult change, “MSUM made the experience as seamless as it can be,” said Slobe. He enjoys his current college experience and connecting with students inside his major and in the Student Veteran Club. Slobe has also been able to utilize the local VA, which played a large role in bringing him to the area.

Slobe is a mentor to Veteran students: “I bring a more experienced perspective to students who may be thinking of joining, or students already enlisted who are looking for guidance.”

Though there are fewer Moorhead students who served in the Navy compared to the National Guard, that hasn’t stopped Keifer Slobe from feeling like a part of the Dragon Community.