Growing up with both dyslexia and ADHD, Wade Dickinson Jr. struggled a lot in class. So he never could have imagined that he would one day be getting his master’s degree. In spring 2025, Dickison was named Laurel Ridge’s Outstanding Graduate in Cybersecurity for the Middletown Campus.
Today, he is a full-time student at George Mason University, from where he expects to earn his bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity in 2027. In spring 2026, he will start the university’s accelerated master’s program, and will earn his graduate degree in 2028. Dickinson also has certificates in Cybersecurity Specialist and Networking Fundamentals from Laurel Ridge, where he said he maintained a 4.0 GPA and earned a spot on the President’s List every semester.
After graduating from high school, Dickinson, who grew up in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, worked in construction for a couple of years. Then, the housing crisis of 2008 hit.
“The jobs kind of dried up,” he said.
That led Dickinson, who had been previously interested in joining the military, to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. He served three combat deployments to Afghanistan and one humanitarian mission in the southern Philippines. Unfortunately, exposure to burn pits in Afghanistan led to Dickinson developing lung cancer and he was medically retired from the Marines after eight years of service. He was simultaneously found to have testicular cancer as well.
Wade Dickinson during his time with the Marines.
While Dickinson is in remission, he now has chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, better known as COPD. He has been declared 100-percent permanently disabled by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Dickinson and his wife, Heather, who earned her associate degree in registered nursing from Laurel Ridge and is also a GMU student – she is working on becoming a nurse practitioner – have four kids, so initially after his retirement he stayed home to take care of the children. As the children became school age, Dickinson began looking into returning to school – that is, until the pandemic hit and he found himself homeschooling the four.
He enrolled in Laurel Ridge in fall 2023.
“It’s really close, I live in Strasburg,” said Dickinson about his original reason for choosing Laurel Ridge. “Initially, I wanted to do the drones program.”
But then he started talking to the employees in Laurel Ridge’s Veterans Center, veteran academic advisor and school certifying official Jeanmarie Corrado and military benefits official Sharon Painter, and learned about the Cybersecurity degree program, which appealed to him as a former military police officer.
“It kind of aligned with what I wanted to do going forward,” said Dickinson, who eventually hopes to work in a cybersecurity role for a local government or a federal agency.
IT Professor Matthew Hansel and Cybersecurity Professor Rebecca Smith were among Dickinson’s favorite teachers.
“With Professor Hansel, it wasn’t just death by PowerPoint,” he said. “He does a lot of hands-on, putting your hands in computers, things like that. I really enjoyed Professor Smith’s classes. She would bring in other outside materials to show us, or we would get into conversations about things that were happening, real-world events.
“I liked the small class sizes at Laurel Ridge. There was a lot of one-on-one with the professors. I really liked that.”
While at Laurel Ridge, Dickinson was in the Cyber Club and still participates in their events. He was also a frequent visitor to the Veterans Center.
“I really liked it because they kind of knew the ins and outs of using the veteran resources and knew a lot of what veterans need to go to school and understood transitioning out of the military,” Dickinson said. “It was always there if I needed somebody to talk to, especially if I was having a bad day. Jeanmarie was my counselor. She was dedicated to the veterans and veteran dependents, and Sharon always made sure that our accounts were taken care of, and always gave us guidance on when we needed to contact our VA representative.”
He enjoyed using the computers and free printing in the Veterans Center and being able to go there to grab a cup of coffee or a snack. Dickinson also appreciated the Veterans Week activities, such as a luncheon and trivia contests.
Dickinson said he never imagined he would be a full-time college student and would one day be planning to get his master’s degree.
“I always struggled with school, especially when I was younger, because of my ADHD and dyslexia,” he said.
Technology, such as an app that turns documents, slides, notes, study guides and the like into spoken words, has been a game changer for Dickinson.
“With the app, I retain things a lot better,” he said.
Dickinson recalled learning early in his time at Laurel Ridge that the tutoring center and writing center were resources available to all students.
“I used the writing center to review papers before I turned them in,” he said.
Laurel Ridge Community College was known as Lord Fairfax Community College until June 2022. For consistency purposes, the college will be referenced as Laurel Ridge going forward.