York College Alumna Receives Prestigious Military Intelligence Honor
Stephanie Savage ’19 upended her life to join the military. Last year, she became only the second woman to be presented with the Colonel Carl F. Eifler Award.
When Stephanie Savage woke up one morning in 2014, she knew two things for certain.
She no longer wanted to study to become a nurse. And before the day was done, she was going to enlist in the military. She dropped out of nursing school in Lancaster County and signed a contract with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard that day.
Ten years later, the sergeant and 2019 York College of Pennsylvania graduate is putting her bachelor’s degree in Intelligence Analysis to work protecting the country. That service was honored last year with the presentation of the Colonel Carl F. Eifler Award from the National Military Intelligence Foundation.
Making her mark
The award is the most prestigious honor a Reserve or National Guard intelligence Soldier can receive. Savage was chosen from among 14,000 potential candidates nationwide and is only the second woman and third Soldier from Pennsylvania to earn the award.
Savage was working from her apartment in Harrisburg when her boss called her with the news.
“It really showed me that, ‘Hey, you’ve done all this great work and you deserve a seat at the table. Your voice matters. Now it’s your turn to go be a leader and make sure you’re shaping these intelligence leaders so one day they can walk across this stage, too,’” she says.
Forging her path
After Savage decided to use her military educational benefits to earn a degree from York College, she found herself in constant motion. In addition to her studies, she worked three jobs and even ran track and cross country for a semester, all while fulfilling her National Guard responsibilities. John Weaver, Ph.D., Professor of Intelligence Analysis, encouraged her even when she doubted herself.
“He 100 percent laid the groundwork for me to be as successful as I am today,” Savage says.
She couldn’t afford to serve an unpaid internship, so she worked with Dr. Weaver to use her monthlong Guard pre-deployment training at the National Training Center to fulfill her internship requirement.
“He allowed me to be a leader in the way I wanted to be,” she says. “He wasn’t forcing me to fit in a box I wasn’t going to fit in.”
Protecting the nation
Since graduating from York College, Savage has worked behind the scenes monitoring threats—manmade menaces and natural disasters—to keep the country safe. In her current post, she operates a vulnerability-management cell for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Department of Homeland Security, alerting the public to cyber vulnerabilities nationwide.
Previously, while on active duty, she served the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade, focusing primarily on foreign threats
Set up for success
York College gave Savage more than just a starting point.
“I still use the knowledge that I learned in undergrad to this day,” she says. “I can see where it sets me apart from other professionals, where I have well-rounded edges.”
She raves about her professors to anyone interested in earning a college degree.
“The thing I appreciate the most about York College was the academics and how professional, well-rounded, and well-sourced the professors were,” she says. “I feel like I was given the tools to keep going and learn more.”
The proof that she’s putting what she learned to good use is the fact that Savage is working toward her master’s degree in Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University in Maryland. She soon will deploy to Africa to operate a security mission.
If Savage could talk to her 2014 self, the one who upended her life to join the military, she’d tell her there would be hard times ahead. But she’d also impress on her that it would be worth it, that she is capable of taking on challenges and overcoming obstacles to success.
“I’m so thankful that I made that decision every single day of my life,” she says.
