Courtesy Photo | U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Erick Volquezrodriguez, middle right, stands with senior...... read more read more
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OKINAWA, Japan – Erick Volquezrodriguez, a United States Marine Corps Reserve Sergeant assigned to III Marine Expeditionary Force Support Battalion, III MEF, was recently recognized as the Reserve Administration Noncommissioned Officer of the Year. He was awarded after designing official guidance that helps Marines navigate the path to U.S. citizenship through their military service.
Volquezrodriguez was born in the Dominican Republic and migrated to the U.S. with his family in 2004, when he was seven years old. The hurdles he encountered with his resident legal status are what inspired him to create “U.S Citizenship Guidance - Dir. to 25th Marine Regiment Personnel.”
Growing up in Boston, Massachusetts, Volquezrodriguez dedicated himself to his studies and interests in musical instruments. As a result of his efforts, he was presented with the City Music Program Scholarship to study the saxophone at Berklee College of Music.
“I received my scholarship for Berklee City Music and was able to work on college during my junior and senior year of high school,” he said. “I would go to high school during the day and would attend college classes at night. I graduated from Berklee’s City Music in the summer of 2015 at the same time I graduated high school.”
Immediately after graduation, he wanted to enlist into the Marine Corps as a musician. However, due to immigration challenges, his process on becoming a Marine was delayed.
Clerical errors made on his legal status application led him to spend the next three years learning about the Immigration Nationality Act in hope to obtain citizenship.
“Day in and day out I would look into the Immigration Nationality Act (INA) trying to understand the system and how I could fix my status,” he said. “After investing this time, I found the answer to my plea. However, this meant I needed to leave the country to begin my change of status.”
In February 2018, Volquezrodriguez boarded a flight to the Dominican Republic with no return date. He flew there and waited on the U.S. Embassy to provide him with an interview and await his status to change from undocumented to permanent resident.
After living in the Dominican Republic for eight months, he was able to return with permanent residence to the U.S. Less than three weeks after he moved back to Massachusetts, he received a call from a U.S. Army recruiter asking if he was interested in serving.
“When I received that call, it reminded me that three years prior, I had tried to enlist in the Marine Corps,” he said. “I knew that If I joined the Military, I would be eligible to obtain my Citizenship through one continuous year of honorable military service. This was an opportunity I could not pass so I went back to the Marine Corps recruiting station in Boston and enlisted in February 2019.”
Originally, he dreamed of becoming a Marine Corps musician. After the hardships he faced with the immigration system though, he shifted his goal to becoming an immigration attorney instead. He requested a Legal Administrator military occupational specialty but did not qualify due to citizenship status. This led him to enlisting on an administrative contract.
After completing his initial training requirements, he was assigned to 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, in Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Once he arrived, he realized a significant deficiency in packages being submitted from Marines requesting citizenship through their military service.
“I noticed that the packages for citizenship applications we received at the battalion and regiment levels were not what the Department of United States Immigration Citizenship Services were looking for,” he said. “I took it upon myself to create a guidance called U.S Citizenship Guidance - Dir. to 25th Marine Regiment Personnel. This guidance would show exactly what Marines needed to do for their citizenship packages.”
Volquezrodriguez briefed the 25th Marine Regiment’s Personnel Officer, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Pires, on his desire to create a more streamlined approach for citizenship requests.
“During an Administrative Site Assist Visit for Marine Forces Reserve in early 2024, Sgt. Volquezrodriguez was asked to present his template and citizenship package to the Administrative Assist Unit, and they were very pleased,” Pires stated. “During a separate visit, he briefed his guidance to a designer of the USMC SMART program. This led to his guidance being implemented into the SMART database, which is accessed on Marine Online, under “A Few Good Links.”
The tool is available to both active and reserve Marines and provides them with a template to facilitate their citizenship requests in a timelier manner. Based on the professionalism and dedication to duty displayed by Volquezrodriguez, Pires nominated him for The Reserve Administration Noncommissioned Officer of the Year Award.
“Volquezrodriguez’s work on the citizenship template was outstanding,” he mentioned. “He had so many other contributions across the Regiment and Marine Force Reserve as a whole, leading him to be selected as the award winner. I am extremely proud of him and can say that he is the top Marine Corps Reserve non-commissioned officer that I have served with.”
Volquezrodriguez attributes much of his success to his parents, who gambled much moving to the U.S. with the intent of providing him a better life.
“They invested everything into my siblings and I. When they brought us to the U.S., they were risking everything to ensure that we could pursue whatever we dreamed of – I wouldn’t be who I am without their efforts and guidance,” he said. “As a Dominican native, we believe the American Dream is to be someone, we migrated to the U.S. in pursuit of that dream.”
| Date Taken: | 07.15.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.14.2024 20:38 |
| Story ID: | 476153 |
| Location: | OKINAWA, JP |
| Hometown: | BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, US |
| Web Views: | 396 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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