Finding the American Dream: USU Program Director Remembers Family’s Journey from Colombia
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christian Betancourt, program director for the Master of Health Administration and Policy (MHAP) program at the Uniformed Services University (USU) recalls his journey to pursue a better future.
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Betancourt received his doctorate in Health Services Research from George Mason University in three years and graduated with honors. Earlier this year, Betancourt came to work at USU as an assistant professor for the MHA program before taking the reins as program director earlier this year. (Photo courtesy of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christian Betancourt) |
October 17, 2023 by Ian Neligh
As drug-related violence boiled over into the streets of Cali, Colombia, during the mid-1980s, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christian Betancourt’s father made a crucial decision that drastically changed his family’s future.
He moved to the United States.
“People were getting shot in the street,” says Betancourt. “This is when Pablo Escobar had taken over everything—government, the police. Everything.”
He said his parents did the best they could to shelter him from the violence even as it reached their neighborhood and took people they knew.
The subsequent journey to the U.S. had its fair share of challenges but for Betancourt’s family, it provided an opportunity to pursue a better future.
“We didn't have anything,” says Betancourt. “So to come from that to this, what else can it be called besides the American dream?”
Recently, Betancourt became program director for the Master of Health Administration and Policy (MHAP) program at the Uniformed Services University (USU). He recalls his journey, starting in a tough neighborhood in Massachusetts and then joining the Navy, ultimately earning his doctorate and becoming the MHAP program director, the provider of health policy and administration education for the Military Health System.
“The point of view of an immigrant and how they see America is - it’s that light on the hill,” says Betancourt. “It's like if anybody can make it there, it doesn't matter how (hard) it is—you've made it.”
A baker
Betancourt’s father was the neighborhood baker while living in Colombia.
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Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christian Betancourt’s family traveled from Colombia to the United States during the 1980s to escape drug violence. (Photo courtesy of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christian Betancourt) |
He says they weren’t homeless but were pretty poor as a family.
"I mean, we didn't have much,” Betancourt says. “We really didn't have anything luxurious at all and so the money that we made from that little shop wasn't like what you think as a small business owner here in the States, it was just enough to take care of us.”
As crime related to the drug trade intensified around them and his father’s friends were getting killed it became time to make a change. In later years his father admitted that if they hadn’t moved, the chances were likely the violence would have reached their doorstep as well.
“The alternative was always much worse than going to the States and figuring it out,” Betancourt says. “So he just chose that route.”
According to Betancourt, in the 1980s the U.S. offered temporary residency or work permit opportunities if immigrants would work on farms. His father jumped at the opportunity despite knowing nothing about farming and the family moved to the U.S. in 1986.
“And during this time, of course, a lot of things were still kind of in limbo in terms of our residency. I mean, citizenship wasn't even on the horizon,” Betancourt says. “It was just enough to legally come over here. But we made it.”
Massachusetts
The Betancourt family ended up in Massachusetts where his two brothers were later born. Betancourt jokes going from a tropical environment to New England was a little challenging.
“When (my father) moved to Massachusetts, he had $31 in his pocket; that's all he had,” says Betancourt.
And then there was the snow.
“We come from tropical blood,” he says. “It's like ‘we're from Colombia and it's nice and warm all day long.’ I’d never seen snow.”
Being a new resident of New England was about to change things in a dramatic way. However, not everything about their new community was different. Their neighborhood was a tough one, but he says compared to what was going on in Colombia at the time it wasn’t nearly as dangerous.
“People selling drugs on the street wasn't an abnormal thing and my parents knew that,” Betancourt says. “But then given where we came from in Colombia, this was a step up. ‘Hey, you're in America, it's no big deal,’”
For the first time, they also owned a vehicle, a 1978 Gremlin. He adds that in Colombia no one, except the very fortunate, owned cars.
“We thought we were in a race car,” Betancourt says of the famously small vehicle. “So when we moved to the States, it was like, ‘You got your own car.’ We’ve made it.”
Going to Disney World
When the family had finally saved up enough money to go on a vacation they decided to visit Disney World.
“We went to Disney World on vacation and it was like, ‘Florida is awesome. It's hot here all year. There's a ton of Latino people. It's like, this is perfect,’” recalls Betancourt.
His father, also impressed, immediately left his family in Florida, went back to Massachusetts, and sold the house. The family was now going to live in the Sunshine State.
“I like to say that we stayed on vacation because we stayed in Florida,” he says. “We lived in a trailer park for a few years before we started renting a detached home.”
He said that despite coming from a disadvantaged background he never felt like he was missing out on anything.
“So it was just kind of the stereotypical Hispanic family…,” says Betancourt. “(It’s about) a strong core and it doesn’t matter what others view you as. We viewed ourselves as ‘we're good.’”
Military service
Attending high school in Orlando, Betancourt says he was a member of the Air Force ROTC his entire four years. So when it came time to graduate in 1997 he considered the Air Force the logical choice — but ran into complications with their requirements regarding his residency status.
One day as he was leaving the Air Force recruiter’s office disappointed, a Navy recruiter spotted him in the hallway and told him his status wouldn’t be a problem.
“I went to talk to the recruiter, and that day I signed up for the Navy, and a few months later I went to boot camp,” says Betancourt. “... I've always taken advantage of opportunities that present themselves. I have a hard time saying no to something good.”
As a Navy junior Hospital Corpsman, he spent his first three years with the 2nd Marine Division, 3rd Battalion 6th Marines, at Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina, as a Fleet Marine Force corpsman.
“I was out in the field a lot, I mean, it's the infantry,” says Betancourt. “You're in the dirt, digging holes, sleeping in the woods, deployed and I’ve done all that.”
He then served as an Emergency Medical Technician for the Acute Care Clinic at the Naval Branch Health Clinic, in Jacksonville, Fla. and was later assigned as the Junior Medical Officer representative on the USS McInerney.
Betancourt later worked in the Naval Branch Health Clinic in Mayport, Fla., but decided in 2010 to separate from the Navy and go to school.
He received a Master’s degree in Health Services Administration from the University of Central Florida and worked for the Orlando Veterans Affairs Medical Center for the Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program.
“I worked with homeless veterans who were suffering from substance use disorders, different types of addictions and mental illness,” says Betancourt. “I was embedded in the mental health department and worked specifically with these types of veterans.”
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Betancourt joined the Navy in the late 1990s and became a Navy junior Hospital Corpsman. He spent his first three years with the 2nd Marine Division, 3rd Battalion 6th Marines, at Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina, as a Fleet Marine Force corpsman. (Photo courtesy of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christian Betancourt) |
Becoming an officer
After three and a half years working at the VA, he began to consider returning to the Navy as an officer.
“(In 2014) I was picked up for a commission and we got stationed in Japan,” says Betancourt. “My wife and I and our two children – my son at the time was 10 years old and my daughter was five — and as a family, it was the best three years… Japan was awesome. People are so nice and the food is fantastic.”
He later obtained the credential of Certified Defense Financial Manager in 2016 and went to work at the Navy Professional Development Center, in Bethesda, Md, as the director of resource management, or a comptroller.
Betancourt was then presented with the opportunity to apply for a competitive program that would allow him to get his Ph.D. He says at first he didn’t think he had a shot at being accepted, but decided to try anyway.
“I beat out seven other people, and some of these applicants, from what I heard later on, were Ivy League undergrads,” Betancourt says. “…It may be some imposter syndrome in there somewhere, but I was like, ‘I’m not supposed to be selected for this.’ I think I just stole somebody else's opportunity,’ but since I got selected, ‘I’m going to crush it.’”
And ‘crush it’ he did. Betancourt received his doctorate in Health Services Research from George Mason University in three years and graduated with honors. Betancourt then came to work at USU as an assistant professor for the MHAP program before taking the reins as program director earlier this year.
“I think that if, at the very least, one kid reads (my story) and says, ‘man, if he can do it, then I certainly have a shot’ I'm happy with that.”
He says opportunity, the work ethic learned from his family, the support of his wife and kids, and his spirituality all helped him to realize his version of the American Dream.
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