In honor of Veterans Day, we want to highlight the service and work of one of Habitat for Humanity’s former student workers, Tyler Eutsler.
A Waco native, at 17, Tyler enlisted in the United States Navy as an electronics technician and served for six years. During his time in the Navy, Tyler sailed around the world, traveling to six continents while fixing equipment on the amphibious ships and even doing some career counseling for other Navy enlisted sailors. In just six years he was promoted to E-6, Petty Officer First Class.
Following his service, he continued to work with the Navy as a contractor for another year while applying to colleges. It was during this time, while underway and with plenty of time on his hands, that he began reading such classics as Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which introduced him to urban planning in an authentic way and set him on a course he is still on today. When his contract was up, Tyler applied to several colleges, chose Texas A&M University, and began school in the fall of 2019.
Tyler was originally a student worker at our Habitat ReStore in 2021, but when staff at ReStore discovered that Tyler was studying urban planning, they referred him to Charles Coats, then the director of homebuyer services for Habitat.
During Tyler’s time with B/CS Habitat, he assisted Habitat in both day-to-day office tasks and with several large research projects, the largest one is detailed in this podcast episode. In addition, he provided invaluable connections to the student body of the Department of Architecture, which helped us to grow our listenership among both professors and students, by sharing some of our Think Brazos content with them. He also helped staff follow the College Station City Council’s meetings.
Overall, in our eight years with B/CS Habitat, we have supervised some phenomenal student workers from Texas A&M, but Tyler was the first one so far who we partnered with for an independent research project. He needed little direction from us and provided us with significant insight into the origins of important regulations in Bryan. For this, we thank him for both his service to our nation, our community, and to Habitat for Humanity this Veterans Day. While he will certainly be missed, as Tyler prepares to graduate next month, we wish him all the best and we are certain that, wherever he goes next, he will have a significant impact on the community and the organization where he serves.
Congratulations, Tyler!
For more policy conversations to help Brazos County families thrive, be sure to subscribe to this podcast on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts!
(If you are a Texas A&M or Blinn student who might be interested in serving this community through a work study position like Tyler did, or in any of the many open positions at this organization each semester, please contact the Office of Financial Aid and their Community Service Program to learn how to sign up.)
Watch on YouTube
Mentioned in the episode
- Jane Jacobs’ “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”
- Mercatus Center study on minimum lot sizes in Texas
