Jacob Heytens is a senior studying social work in the College of Education and Human Services Professions at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He’s also a veteran, a husband and father, an intern working with at-risk youth, and a volunteer supporting his fellow veterans on campus and beyond. He’s served as a case manager and an Army scout/cavalryman. Heytens is a Bulldog, and his tapestry of experiences has given him a drive and a mission to help others.
And much of that stems from 2011, when he was serving in Iraq with the U.S. Army, and his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED).
On his very first mission, Heytens was in a convoy snaking through a town 20 miles south of Baghdad. He was standing in the open air of the roof gun turret of one of the trucks. It was the dark of night, and he was gripped by the fear of his first patrol. First mission or not, he knew things weren’t right. He remembers people on the unlit road, and one person “standing there with a running hose, just staring at me.”
“I think there is something that's measurable in the brain that gives us that intuition when something's wrong,” he said, “because I couldn't really pinpoint exactly what it was, but I just got that sick-to-my-stomach feeling.”
And then his world was all light. “Like a camera flash going off in my face.” It was an IED.
The shock wave hit him like an enormous unseen fist, blowing the lenses out of his protective eyewear, boxing his ears and throwing him back into the truck. Concussed, temporarily deaf, and blinded without his glasses, Heytens was disoriented, angry and overwhelmed. He wanted to fight for survival, and he thought of his family.
Heytens survived the explosion, but was later diagnosed with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). He was hurt and deeply shaken–his first time outside the wire in what now felt like an impossibly long deployment. “I think everyone has that feeling that people could die here–but it won't be me,” he said. “All of a sudden I was like, it very much might be me while I'm here.”
But he survived the rest of his time overseas, and eventually came home.
There, he struggled with the traumas he’d experienced and witnessed. With the encouragement of his loved ones, he reached out for help through the Veterans Administration (VA) and was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Then began the long process of working with therapists and those around him to face this new challenge. He’s now spent a decade working with that support, including his clinical psychologist Jude Henningsgaard, PhD. “He saved my life.”
“That kind of opened my eyes,” he says. “Therapy does help.”
It wasn’t an easy road, but after that help and intentional healing, he’s using the things he’s learned along the way, and a persistent drive to put his experiences and perspective to work helping others.
Heytens became a case manager at a residential treatment center. Many of the kids he worked with there had been victims of childhood trauma and gang violence. “I was able to empathize,” said Heytens, who found a profound purpose in helping them. “That was some of the most passionate work that I've ever done.”
When that center closed, Heytens had to consider what was next. Inspired by his previous role, he looked into how he could continue helping others, and, despite having tried college before, “I knew I wanted to come back and finish to get licensed to either do clinical work or legal work.”
He applied to UMD to pursue a degree in social work, and got started right away. “It's the best decision I've ever made,” said Heytens. “I absolutely love being here.”
At UMD, he focused and worked hard, even connecting with the University Honors program, where Program Coordinator Joelle McGovern and Associate Professor Ryan Goei encouraged him, and recognized his potential. “Those two are the ones that inspired me to push higher and harder for grad school,” he said. “Joelle and Ryan really gave me confidence in myself.”
Since coming to campus, Heytens has become heavily involved in helping other veterans, from connecting with others in the classroom, to volunteering at the St. Louis County Veterans Court and the Duluth Lake Superior Warriors hockey team.
And that’s a path that has ultimately helped him in as many ways as it’s helped them. “I feel like through helping other veterans, I’ve healed myself quite a bit.”
That realization helped inspire Heytens’ Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) project as well: his research is looking into the power of peer-to-peer mentoring in community programming and its impact for both mentee and mentor. “We’re interviewing people who've been through adverse life experiences and now work in community programming, helping others who have been in similar experiences,” said Heytens. He hopes his research can help highlight the impact being a mentor has in the healing process.
After graduating from UMD, Heytens hopes to continue helping, advocating and change-making, either as a social worker or through an advanced law or social work degree. Whatever that future looks like, he wants to put his experiences and his education to work advocating for veterans and other at-risk groups.
“My main goal, my main mission, is that I just want to be able to help.”
Header image: Jacob Heytens stands in front of UMD’s Kathryn A. Martin Library, home of the University Honors Lounge, where he spends much of his time on campus.