Arin Wester has big dreams of protecting others. Those dreams were born by the sea.

“After boot camp I went to Tennessee. I did the inland, kind of like the waterways, took care of the day markers and the buoys,” Wester said.

Inspired by his time by the water living in Florida, Wester served in the United States Coast Guard for four years. He completed “A” school in San Francisco before traveling to Key West, spending two years there working as an Electronics Technician.

“I liked it a lot,” Wester said. “It was fun.”

Still driven to serve the community, Wester is taking his career on a new path. He is now enrolled in the Associate of Arts degree in Criminal Justice program at Keiser University Tallahassee. The course covers components of the criminal justice system, including criminal behavior patterns, law enforcement organizations, and fundamentals of criminal investigations.

Wester says the program and University staff are helping him achieve his goals.

“What appealed to me the most is the one class per month. I do a lot better that way, especially because I work. That’s a big reason why I chose Keiser,” Wester said. “The office staff and everybody is really really knowledgeable with the G.I. Bill. I really wasn’t so having them there to kind of guide me through that and do what I need to do, it’s been great.”

Wester is hoping to use his degree to work in federal law enforcement, serving in the United States Marshals Service.

Wester says his time in the Coast Guard inspired him to continue a life of serving and protecting others.

“You always want to serve your community, so if I can do it on a large scale like that, I would really like it,” Wester said. “Especially the times that we live in, it seems like it’s really relevant and just needs to be done. People have to care about each other to have a good life.”

Wester expects to graduate in about one year.

Keiser University is a private, independent, non-profit university serving nearly 20,000 students at 21 Florida campuses, online, and two international sites. Co-founded in 1977 by Chancellor Arthur Keiser, Ph.D., and Evelyn Keiser, Keiser University currently offers more than 100 degrees from associates to the doctoral level. Keiser University is a  designated Hispanic-Serving Institution, a member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and was ranked No. 5 in the U.S. in Social Mobility by U.S. News And World Report in 2022.