Laura Buys visiting a classroom during her Air Force career. Photo provided by Laura Buys
Eckerd student and Air Force veteran Laura Buys wrote her college application essay about her persistence as an artist—even as she was deployed to the Middle East. Leland Wilson ’09 left after his first year at Eckerd to join the army. He came back 14 years later and finished his degree.
Despite their varying paths and timelines, both veterans highlight the positive impact Eckerd had on their lives.
“I’m so grateful to be at Eckerd and it’s really been a dream come true,” Laura says.
Laura Buys
Laura, a junior interdisciplinary arts major from Saint Paul, Minnesota, enlisted in the military right after high school graduation. She served as an intelligence analyst from 2012 to 2017. She gave briefings to aircrew and government officials around the world and was deployed when she was 20 years old.
Her Eckerd application essay detailed a day she spent in a military classroom. During a lecture, Laura was drawing a flower. The sergeant approached her in the classroom, filled with hundreds of people, and said to never let him catch her drawing again. He ripped up the paper. But Laura strove to preserve her identity.
“I refuse to not make art,” Laura says.
She began making art in secret, drawing for other soldiers or sending cards to loved ones back home. In addition to maintaining her identity as an artist, Laura promised herself she’d uphold her morals, femininity and caring heart.
Laura Buys poses for a professional portrait. Photo provided by Laura Buys
“It [being in the Air Force] actually made me more sensitive, and more caring, and more empathetic for others,” she says.
Understanding systems of power that create issues led her to pursue social work after she left the military. Laura earned a master’s degree in social work from Syracuse University. She did everything from supporting people with disabilities to working at a juvenile detention center.
“I really got to see the full spectrum of human experience and held a lot of people through their pain,” Laura says.
But ever since she was a little girl, art was Laura’s dream. Art is the language that needs no words, she says. Regardless of culture, age or differences, it is something we can all feel in our hearts.
Over time, she transitioned to being a full-time artist. As a multidisciplinary artist, Laura creates paintings, sculptures, performance art and more, with empowerment at the core of her work. Laura and her artwork have been featured in the Everson Museum of Art, the National Veterans Resource Center, and the National Veterans Memorial and Museum.
Laura Buys shows exhibiting some of her artwork in a gallery. Photo provided by Laura Buys
Laura previously visited St. Pete and was planning the move for several years. She toured the campus and could envision her art hanging on the gallery walls and herself making sculptures and using the kiln. Professor Emeritus of Visual Arts and Gallery Director Arthur Skinner ’72 gave Laura a tour. She showed Skinner her artwork. He told her she’d be a great fit for Eckerd. Laura analyzed her GI Bill and says she had just enough funding to complete an art degree at Eckerd.
“It just felt like magic,” Laura says.
Going back to college and becoming a student again was outside of her comfort zone. Laura says the College has exceeded her expectations and she’s enjoyed pushing herself as an artist.
Laura dreamed about studying abroad too, but hadn’t yet had the opportunity. In January of 2027, Laura will head to London for a Winter Term trip focused on photography.
“The school has been such a beautiful experience for me and such a rewarding experience for me. Having gone through the military at such a young age, I have such gratitude for life every day, and I’m so grateful to be at Eckerd,” she says.
Though each step of her journey may not seem connected—it is, Laura says. She hopes her journey reminds others to believe in themselves, never give up and live life to the fullest, even through the hardest chapters.
The tattoo on her arm depicts an ancient Greek word with over 40 translations of the human experience. It means everything from terrible to wonderful. Art is how she works through each feeling.
She values each step of her artistry, whether it was drawing when she was five years old, making secret sketches in the barracks, or working in her Eckerd studio.
“All you need to do to be an artist is to create art,” Laura says.
Leland Wilson ’09 in his Army fatigues in 1996. Photo provided by Leland Wilson
Leland Wilson
Wilson grew up in remote Alaska and found Eckerd when reading books on colleges. He knew it was a long way from home—and warm. Wilson was the first member of his extended family to go to college, but he told his parents that he wasn’t ready.
“I did terrible the first year,” he says.
He enjoyed Eckerd, but wasn’t focused on academics. Wilson left and joined the Army, serving as a combat medic for four years. He was stationed at bases in Oklahoma, Texas and New York, among others. He treated common colds and the flu, injuries, and more serious cases, including three gunshot wounds and three soldiers who were struck by lightning. Wilson earned a medal for saving the life of a soldier who attempted suicide.
During the beginning of Wilson’s fourth year, he was training in Panama. Wilson’s night-vision goggles stopped working and he fell from a small cliff, breaking his back. He went through surgery and rehabilitation and left the Army. The next step of his career was in fitness and rehab. He worked with athletes—Olympians even. But he felt that he couldn’t further his career without finishing his degree. So he came back to Eckerd.
“I had a wonderful experience coming back,” he says. “It being Eckerd, it doesn’t matter if you’re not entirely traditional. I immediately made a large group of friends across factions and interests: student politics, athletes, you name it.”
He graduated with an economics degree in 2009, worked in Alaska for over a year, and then went to the University of Florida for an MBA in finance and law school. Now, Wilson owns two law firms.
Wilson is involved with Eckerd to this day, giving guest talks on campus and mentoring students who reach out to him. He tells students that they might end up exactly where they expect—or somewhere entirely different.
“I wouldn’t say that I got serious about having a career until my forties,” he says. “Embrace the journey.”
