{"id":138041,"date":"2020-09-02T10:16:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T16:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=138041"},"modified":"2022-09-22T09:33:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T15:33:10","slug":"overcoming-with-grit-and-determination-levino-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=138041","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming With Grit and Determination | Levino Johnson \u201916"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Levino-Johnson.jpg\" alt=\"Levino Johnson stands outside in front of a sculpture of a globe.\" class=\"wp-image-138042\" srcset=\"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Levino-Johnson.jpg 678w, https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Levino-Johnson-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Forced as a child to watch his mother deal with drug addiction,\u00a0Levino\u00a0Johnson \u201816 dropped out of high school with just a ninth-grade education. Fearful at confronting these hardships,\u00a0Levino\u00a0found a level of grit and determination, propelling him to achieve more.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI knew I wanted to do something more than\u00a0what I was doing,\u201d\u00a0Johnson\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t want to go down the same route my mother\u00a0did\u00a0and\u00a0I wanted to do better than my father.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Johnson&#8217;s\u00a0difficult upbringing in Buffalo, New York, didn\u2019t quench the fire in his stomach for success, however. From ages 7 to 12, he cared for his six siblings. At just 16 years old, he earned his GED. A year later, he enlisted in the Army.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During his 12 years of service in the Army,\u00a0Johnson\u00a0devoted himself to both serving and education. He hired an academic tutor while earning his\u00a0bachelor\u2019s degree. Upon completion of his service, he had attained the rank of staff sergeant and the thirst to advance his career and\u00a0his education. He fell in love with Colorado\u00a0while stationed at Fort Carson,\u00a0leading him and Min\u00a0Kyoung, his wife, to settle\u00a0in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His wife pushed him to pursue additional education to advance his career, even walking hand in hand onto campus with\u00a0Levino\u00a0to seek information about UCCS.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI was nervous,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;I knew UCCS was a pretty great school.\u00a0I definitely doubted if I was the smartest cookie in the cookie jar in terms of competing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The School of Public Affairs faculty personally welcomed him, guiding him\u00a0through paperwork, even giving\u00a0Johnson\u00a0a tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think that was the defining moment for me,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Dr.\u00a0Edin\u00a0Mujkic\u00a0and Ms. Regina Winters were paramount to me working as hard as I did after being accepted into the program. They fostered an environment of openness which allowed me to dive deeper into my field of study.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">UCCS faculty became what\u00a0Johnson\u00a0loved about the university, inspiring him to earn his Master of Public Administration (MPA) while working a full-time job.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the military, you\u2019re basically a public servant for the nation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I learned at\u00a0UCCS what it means to be a public servant.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Johnson\u00a0graduated with Pi Alpha\u00a0Alpha\u00a0honors and now works as a program analyst for the Office of the Inspector General within the U.S. Department of\u00a0Homeland Security in Aurora, Colorado.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Johnson\u00a0is currently pursuing a doctorate in public policy and hopes to continue his career\u00a0in public service. He aspires\u00a0to someday be named to a\u00a0Presidential Cabinet position\u00a0and hopes to be a role model for those\u00a0growing up in\u00a0difficult situations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDig deep. You have to find that fire in your stomach. Use it to get out of that&nbsp;situation. Grab onto whatever you have there and pull yourself up.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Forced as a child to watch his mother deal with drug addiction,\u00a0Levino\u00a0Johnson \u201816 dropped out of high school with just a ninth-grade education. Fearful at confronting these hardships,\u00a0Levino\u00a0found a level of grit and determination, propelling him to achieve more.\u00a0 <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=138041\" title=\"Overcoming With Grit and Determination | Levino Johnson \u201916\">(More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":138042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,427],"tags":[369,39],"class_list":["post-138041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-alumni-stories","tag-alumni-success","tag-college-of-public-service"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Levino-Johnson.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-zUt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142809,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138041\/revisions\/142809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/138042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}