you're reading...
Student Life, USF World

Marine Corps sergeant finds passion in writing, teaching, counseling

When Gunnery Sgt. Steve Maynor Jr., a member of the US Marine Corps for 15 years, is not running Physical Training with cadets, counseling professors and students, or working on his own education at the University of South Florida, he focuses his time on his other passion: writing.

Maynor writes opinion pieces when he has time for the Charlton County Herald, which is produced out of his hometown Folkston, Ga.

“I started doing it about a year and a half ago,” Maynor said. “I wanted to tell stories from a different perspective. Some of the opinion pieces that were in the paper were talking about nothing of substance, so I decided to write. I always had confidence in my writing and I wanted to bring attention to some issues that get overlooked or that people just don’t want to talk about.”

Maynor has been enlisted in the Marines for 15 years, and has done quite a bit of traveling. He has been stationed all over the world, from Buford, SC, his first assignment, to Okinawa, Japan. His primary role in the Marines has been to maintain an aircraft logbook, which requires him to keep analyze and keep records of data from all aircraft maintenance, but he also has spent some time as a drill instructor in Parris Island, SC.

Maynor’s career has now sent him to work full time at USF’s Navy ROTC as the Assistant Marine Officer Instructor. His time at USF, however, has a dual purpose. Maynor is also a full-time student pursuing a degree in applied science with a concentration in leadership studies and a minor in Africana Studies. But it is sharing his writings with everyone, even those he works with at USF, that sets him apart.

“He loves the writing that he does,” said Christine Borgia, staff assistant in the Navy ROTC office. “I am sure he would love to be on the other side of the interview.”

This year, however, will be Maynor’s last year in his position at USF. Once he graduates in the spring, he will go back to serving wherever the Marine Corps sends him. Once he retires in a few years, however, he plans to come back to teaching because it is what he enjoys most.

“I like the interaction with the students. I like teaching,” Maynor said. “When I retire, that’s what I plan on getting into: teaching and social work, just being involved with the students. Watching them come in as freshmen and develop into a mature adult is pretty gratifying. If I could stay here forever, I would.”

Many people in the Navy ROTC office at USF enjoy working beside Maynor.

“He is a great person to work with,” Lt. Steven Durst said. “He is just a great guy and brings a lot to this program.”

Retirement for Maynor also means he can put focus more on his writing, which is only a hobby for him now.

“I don’t do it quite as much now as I would like now because I am a full time student so that takes up a lot of my time,” Maynor said. “Going into full-time writing is a possibility when I retire, but my true desire is to teach and be involved in the guidance counseling aspect of school. I think writing is just something that I will do over time. I will always write. I will always have ideas and want to write about them.”

About Kirsty Churchill

I am a University of South Florida student working towards a PR degree.

Discussion

2 Responses to “Marine Corps sergeant finds passion in writing, teaching, counseling”

  1. Amazing story about a TRUE warrior on all fronts. Keep taking FULL 30′s Drill Instructor!

    Gunnery Sergeant T.O. Clay
    Assistant Marine Officer Instructor
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

    Posted by Timothy Clay | November 15, 2011, 10:29 am
    Reply to this comment

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Pingback: Marine Corps sergeant finds passion in writing, teaching, counseling « kirstyallene - December 4, 2011

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Digital Bullpen on FB

Blog Stats

  • 41,014 hits

Our Reporters

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 50 other followers

Powered by WordPress.com