Like many Americans, the shocking events of September 11, 2001, caused northern Virginia native John Konya to want to help in some way. At the time, he was a month into a brand-new internship with the United States House of Representatives, a position garnered after Konya took a few technology classes and his older brother connected him with some contacts on Capitol Hill.
“I started in August 2001,” remembered Konya. “Being young, I didn’t really know much about politics. It was interesting to work around that. The next month, 9/11 happened, so I thought about joining the military.”
Instead, Konya stuck with the internship he had just started, and the move paid off. As his internship ended, he was offered a full-time information technology job and decided to stay for a few years. The desire to join the military never really went away for Konya, though. He had been raised in a military family, with his father having served for 20 years as a Naval aviator and his grandfather having fought in World War II. His desire to help and serve his country ultimately won out after watching the United States’ invasion of Iraq and seeing that things were not going well.
Konya left the Hill and joined the United States Marine Corps, beginning boot camp in August 2004. Almost a year later, he was sent to Iraq for what was supposed to be a seven-month deployment. However, on December 31, 2005, Konya endured a life-altering injury that would send him home early and challenge him with a long road to recovery.
“I was wounded by a roadside bomb,” he said. “It basically sent shrapnel into my back and my head. It smashed in the top of the left side of my head, so I was bleeding underneath the skull with an epidural hematoma.”
Konya had suffered a traumatic brain injury that would require a craniotomy, a permanent titanium plate inside of his skull and months of physical and cognitive therapy, as well as two additional surgeries.
“I was lost because I’d been away from my friends that I’d been with every day for six months – my Marines,” he stated. “Being a traumatic brain injury, you didn’t exactly know what was going on. You’re not able to understand and process things as you normally would. I was just very, very upset and angry at myself for letting this happen.”
It was around that time when he encountered someone who would change his way of thinking forever. A Navy corpsman – a medic who served alongside the Marines – who had recently lost both of his legs in Iraq and was confined to a wheelchair came to Konya’s bedside and asked if the hospital staff was taking care of him or if he needed anything. The moment profoundly affected Konya.
“From that day on, and I do think about that pretty much every day, if there’s ever something that I’m struggling with, I think, ‘If he can come in and ask me if I need help, well, then I guess I need to just start doing this and get better.’ That was very much my motivation for going through all the physical and cognitive therapy.”
And he did get better. What that brave Navy corpsman may never know is all that Konya would go on to accomplish after recovering from his injury: starting a family, with a wife, daughter and son, and returning to Capitol Hill to ultimately become the Director of Information Technology for the House’s Committee on Agriculture. Konya also earned educational achievements of an associate degree from Northern Virginia Community College, a bachelor’s degree from UVA’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS), and master’s degrees from both George Mason University (GMU) and the Harvard Extension School.
In specifically recalling what led him to SCPS to earn the rest of the credits he needed to finish his bachelor’s degree, Konya said that he received an email from Pre-Admission Advising Program Director Kathryn Buzzoni, advertising a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (BIS) degree from UVA without ever leaving northern Virginia. “I got that email and thought, ‘Could I do that?’ And then I got accepted, and it was just an amazing experience. I loved UVA so much. Going to a place where you know it’s a great school, it really motivated me.”
Konya chose the business concentration for his BIS degree, which he earned in 2014, and believes SCPS prepared him well for the Master of Business Administration degree he later received from GMU. He also pointed to UVA Professor Ran Henry’s influence in aiding him with his educational and professional pursuits. “I really enjoyed his class and wanted to become a better writer and make myself a little bit clearer, and I learned a number of things from him that made me better.”
The two have stayed in touch over the years, with Konya serving as guest speaker in Henry’s class on occasion. He has also kept in contact with SCPS classmates Laurie Axford and Tim Wagner. He even earned his MBA with fellow BIS alumnus Tucker Patterson. Most recently, Konya traveled to Charlottesville in September to attend a BIS reunion held on Grounds.
Outside of his fast-paced role on Capitol Hill, Konya is a member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, an organization chartered by Congress and formed in 1932 with a mission to “foster an environment of goodwill and camaraderie among combat-wounded veterans and proudly continue to serve the country by helping America’s active duty, veterans, her families and those who have borne the burden of battle.”
After all he has accomplished since his life-changing experience, Konya is not finished setting and achieving goals – everything from improving upon his already impressive 305-pound bench press to potentially teaching classes at Northern Virginia Community College one day. “I really think that’s where I got my start. I think I could be a pretty good example of what you can do when you start at a community college.”