Salute to Our Great Hearts Veterans: Daniel Ruiz

Great Hearts Academies are pleased to recognize, celebrate, and honor some of the amazing Veterans in our schools who have not only served our country in the military, but have continued to do outstanding work to support the students of Great Hearts.

Daniel Ruiz served 20 years in the United States Air Force. “I enlisted in August of 1997 and retired in September of 2017,” he said. “I served in the intelligence career field as a Spanish Linguist, providing translations for key operations.” In 2005, Ruiz was appointed a special duty as a Defense Courier, transporting highly classified documents between US government installations in Europe. During that time, he lived in Kaiserslautern, Germany and his job as a courier took him all throughout Europe and the Middle East, from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy to Turkey, Iraq, and Afghanistan. “We came back to San Antonio in 2009 where I spent the next 8 years of my career, once again working in the intelligence career field as an Intelligence Analyst.”

Ruiz is currently working as the Multimedia Coordinator within the marketing department of Great Hearts America. He began with Great Hearts in 2019 and has served as an apprentice teacher and Family Giving Officer at Great Hearts Forest Heights in San Antonio before settling into his current creative role.

“The Air Force’s motto is Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in All We Do. I have carried those words with me in any position I’ve held since retiring in 2017. It truly guided me as an apprentice teacher, as I tried to instill those same values in my students.  Many of the core virtues of Great Hearts line up with the Air Force motto. Excellence in all we do goes in line with Responsibility,” he said.

Ruiz recalls one time where his position at Great Hearts and his time in the military intersected. “I spoke to my students on September 11th about serving during such a pivotal time in our nation’s history,” he said. “It was a surreal moment, telling them about so many things that changed because of that tragic day in our history. The heightened security all around our nation and our airports, the number of lives lost that day, the number of military members who gave their lives in defense of our nation’s freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan. It blew their minds to know that I was in DC at the Pentagon just one week prior to the attacks. In that moment, I felt honored to have served.”

Please join Great Hearts in honoring Veterans like Daniel Ruiz who have served our country.

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