Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Camilo E Fernan | Navy Counselor 1st Class Dionna Mills poses for a portrait photo at Recruit Training...... read more read more
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Meet Petty Officer Dionna K. Mills, a Navy counselor at the Navy ‘s only boot camp. Mills works in #RecruitTrainingCommand ‘s Career Counseling Center and is the expert to go to when Sailors have questions related to their career goals.
“There’s a lot of lingo that we learn. The longer you’ve been in, the more three-letter acronyms pop up as Navy programs,” said Mills. “Our job is to decipher programs and educate Sailors so they understand them enough to make positive decisions to impact their careers.”
Mills entered the Navy 12 years ago as a Quartermaster and probably would not have stayed in the Navy had she not found the opportunity to convert to a new career path. During her pregnancy tour, she was assigned to the career counselor’s office, with which she had no experience.
“Absorbing into that department made me realize that this is what I’m made to do. It kind of created this passion that I didn’t know existed,” she said. “It’s nice to be able to explain programs to Sailors and then see someone be eligible and excel in their career. A lot of the time, it’s hard to create goals. We get to those goals. I liked helping people move forward positively in their career. Their win is my win, too.”
At home, Mills focuses on lifting as well, but instead of her fellow Sailors’ careers, she lifts weights.
“My husband and I are big into like weightlifting. He's a power lifter and I'm a bodybuilder. We have our own little gym at the house,” she said. “My daughter is involved with gymnastics. We all try to stay active together as a family.”
While hard work is a part of who Mills is at both work and home, she stresses the important of finding balance in life to her daughter who has experienced many periods of absence when Mills was deployed.
“She understands life a little bit more and she understands how much I enjoy my job,” but she also understands the difficult choices I've had to make at times,” said Mills. “Deploying for six to seven months at a time and not being able to see her every day when she was younger was rough for her. At one point, she asked me to get out, but now that she's older, she sees the bigger picture.”
Just as the Sailors that Mills helps gain a greater understanding of their careers, she hopes her children are able to gain a greater perspective through her experiences.
“I've been able to transfer my education benefits to my daughter, so if or when she decides she wants to go to college, it's paid for,” said Mills. “Hopefully, at some point we get stationed overseas as I want to instill that love of culture in her just to see the world.”
| Date Taken: | 03.23.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.23.2022 14:42 |
| Story ID: | 417025 |
| Location: | GREAT LAKES, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, RTC Staff in the Spotlight: NC1 Dionna Mills, by PO1 Camilo E Fernan, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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