My name is Rafael Sampayo and I'm from Brownsville, Texas. I went to St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas and about six months before I graduated I was looking into jobs--I saw the Army, went on the Internet, and I go, "Hey, this sounds like a cool job, a linguist."

So I went to the recruiter and said, "I want to be a linguist." I also asked for the student loan repayment program and the cash bonus.

Growing up in South Texas, I spoke Spanish and English and I thought maybe it would be cool to be a Spanish linguist, but I basically chose Arabic-- now I speak three languages.

If you join the Army you will always learn something.

The Army itself does force you to become a lot tougher—Basically, the Army will provide an opportunity for a better education, better training and also the experience you'll need to be competitive in the workforce. You just have to make that decision to kind of go with it, jump out. It's that first step to the rest of your life.