Katy Quartaro thought the director of the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs was joking when he called to tell her that she had been named a Tillman Scholar. She didn’t think she stood a chance against the competitive applicant pool.  

Quartaro was driving when she received the call. She parked her car and started nearly hyperventilating when she heard the news. Quartaro said the rest of the day felt surreal, and she questioned whether she deserved the award. She noted that one of the scholars was a Medal of Honor recipient.  

She is one of 60 student veterans and military spouses from 15 universities who were named 2019 Tillman Scholars. The scholarship was created to honor Pat Tillman, a starting safety for the Arizona Cardinals who set aside his NFL career to enlist in the army after the 9/11 attacks and was killed in Afghanistan.  

Quartaro is studying public administration in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She received her bachelor’s degree in forensics and psychology from Syracuse University in 2018 as well.  

Lauren Pyland, the operations manager at the OVMA, said Quartaro is “incredibly humble.” Quartaro will be hosting SU’s Veterans Day ceremony this year, and Pyland said she had to add all of Quartaro’s accolades to the description Quartaro wrote about herself for the ceremony.  

“She doesn’t like to take credit for everything. She doesn’t want to make it about herself, Pyland said. “But she is obviously a leader as soon as she steps into a room.” 

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Quartaro joined the Marine Corps right out of high school. She jokes that she did this to one-up her older brother who was in the Navy. During high school, she didn’t want people to view her as someone who only excelled academically. She was also concerned about paying for college and wanted to avoid getting into debt.  

While in the Marine Corps, Quartaro worked on more than 100 criminal investigations. She also worked with dogs trained to detect drugs and explosives.  

“I learned probably more than I ever wanted to about people — and some good, some bad,” Quartaro said. “But I wouldn’t really change it.” 

Now, in her third year working as a team leader with Peer Advisors for Veteran Education, she said that working with the group is what she is most proud of on campus.  

“Seeing other veterans support veterans through those situations has been really, really rewarding and I hope that the PAVE program has made a difference for the veterans on campus,” Quartaro said. 

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While Quartaro mentors other students at SU, she has also found personal mentors like Pyland and Jennifer Pluta, the assistant director of Veteran and Military Family Career Services. Pluta said she was so happy when she found out Quartaro got an internship at the FBI’s headquarters office. 

Quartaro’s commitment to supporting other student veterans resembles some of the qualities of Pat Tillman, including a tendency to prioritize the needs of others, Pluta said. She added that serving others is one key aspect that both Quartaro and Tillman have. 

“Every time you needed someone to step up and take on something, Katy has always been more than willing,” Pyland said.  

Quartaro applied for the Tillman Scholarship twice. Unlike the first attempt when she applied because she was told to do so, the second time she put a lot of thought into how she could make a difference in the fields she wants to work in.  

Quartaro is part of the University’s brand campaign. A picture of her is on a giant wall in the airport and she was on a billboard, said Leah Lazarz, the communications manager at the SU’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families and the OVMA.  

“I think that everything that I’ve done so far has really been about something bigger, and I fully intend to just keep it that way and keep working towards that,” Quartaro said. 

Published on November 10, 2019 at 9:21 pm

Contact Mandy: ackrayna@syr.edu | @MandyKraynak