As we celebrate Veterans Day this year, it’s a great time to honor the men and women who have served our country and to recognize how their values continue to inspire students at International Leadership of Texas.

At ILTexas, teachers, faculty, staff, and families with military experience serve as powerful role models. They help students understand the value of discipline, respect, and perseverance, lessons that reach far beyond the classroom.

ILTexas’ mission is to prepare students for exceptional leadership roles in the international community by emphasizing servant leadership, mastering English, Spanish, and Chinese, and strengthening mind, body, and character. Those goals align closely with the core values of our nation’s veterans: leadership, teamwork, discipline, and service to others.

Veterans who step into the classroom bring these same traits with them, and the results speak for themselves:

• Over 100,000 veterans work as K–12 teachers across the U.S.

• In 2016, about 32 percent of all teachers had military backgrounds.

• Students taught by veterans often show stronger leadership and problem-solving skills, and veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill had a 72 percent higher success rate in higher education, with GPAs about 0.4 points higher than civilian peers.

This year, some ILTexas MJROTC programs also recognized the Marine Core's 250th birthday with a celebratory cake cutting.

As we thank our veterans and celebrate the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary, ILTexas honors those who continue to serve by shaping the next generation of global leaders who live out “Others Before Self” every day.