Last spring, as part of a course on international security, Colt Gray studied how South Korea staffs, directs and maintains civilian control of its armed forces.
Three months later, he was there.
Gray — a James Madison College, or JMC, senior majoring in international relations and a U.S. Coast Guard reservist — deployed with his unit to Pohang, South Korea, to support a Combined Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore exercise. His unit helped provide waterside security as U.S. and Republic of Korea forces practiced moving military cargo from ships to shore without relying on an established port. It was the first exercise of its kind conducted by the two countries in nine years.
The deployment made the connection between Gray’s academic and military experiences especially clear: his Coast Guard service placed him inside a complex multinational exercise, while his JMC coursework helped him understand the alliance and military structures behind it.
“It was the definition of international relations,” Gray said.
The path that brought Gray to Pohang began several years earlier at a small military school in Alabama.
Gray grew up near Lake Huron in northeast Michigan, where his interest in working on the water first drew him to the Coast Guard. At 17, he enrolled at Marion Military Institute in Alabama, where he took college courses alongside military training. A year later, he enlisted in the Coast Guard, attended boot camp and transferred to Michigan State University in spring 2025 in the middle of his sophomore year.
He came to MSU looking for a way to combine military service, athletics and a more traditional college experience. Rugby gave him an immediate community. At a late practice the night before his first classes, Gray arrived knowing almost no one and left with teammates’ phone numbers. He later earned a place on the team’s travel side and now lives with four teammates.
Finding an academic direction took a little longer. Gray transferred to MSU without a major in mind and began exploring programs across the university. Then he read about JMC’s international relations major and faculty. “This is exactly what I want to do,” Gray said.
Balancing rugby, Coast Guard service and JMC’s reading- and writing-intensive courses, he valued classes where readings carried into discussion and papers gave him room to explore subjects that interested him.
His favorite was an international security course taught by JMC Professor Kirstin Brathwaite, where students selected a country and wrote three papers examining its military over the course of the semester. Gray chose South Korea after hearing that his Coast Guard unit might deploy there. When it happened, that research gave him context for the exercise and informed his conversations with South Korean military translators.
Gray serves part time with a Coast Guard unit that provides waterside and landside security. In South Korea, his unit enforced safety zones around the larger logistics exercise. When he joined the Coast Guard, Gray wanted an operational role that would allow him to work on boats and contribute directly to a mission.
His JMC studies helped him understand where that work fit within broader U.S. strategy and the alliance with South Korea.
“My coursework helped me connect our operational role in the exercise to the broader strategic context of the U.S.-South Korea alliance,” Gray said.
Some of the deployment’s most lasting moments came through conversations with South Korean service members. One Republic of Korea Army translator assigned to Gray’s unit was a university student in Seoul only a few years older than him. Their conversations gave Gray a firsthand perspective on compulsory service and military culture in South Korea.
Connections also formed through patch exchanges. When one Republic of Korea Navy sailor had no patch to trade, he took off an undershirt printed with a navy design and offered it instead.
“My conversations with Korean service members allowed me to connect my academic research with firsthand perspectives on military service and Korean culture,” Gray said.
Gray received the Coast Guard Achievement Medal and earned the Korea Defense Service Medal. He was also part of a team awarded the Coast Guard Meritorious Team Commendation.
The connection between his academic and military experiences extends beyond the South Korea deployment. Gray used a 14-week Coast Guard advanced training program in Yorktown, Virginia, to fulfill JMC’s field experience requirement. Working with JMC faculty adviser Matt Zierler, Gray wrote a 33-page paper exploring how the balance among Coast Guard missions changed in the 25 years following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He drew on congressional hearings, Coast Guard publications and publicly available data on search and rescue, maritime security and drug interdiction.
Gray expects the Coast Guard to remain part of his life after graduation. He plans to continue serving as a reservist and hopes eventually to become a commissioned officer. He is also applying to graduate programs in national security and federal positions in analysis and investigation, with a particular interest in maritime security.
Reflecting on his time at JMC, Gray hopes his experience shows that there is no single path to — or through — the college.
“You don’t have to follow a cookie-cutter academic path to succeed at Madison or feel that you belong here,” Gray said.
This story originally appeared on the James Madison College website.
