USC Price student honors veterans by serving them

Dennis Wu is proud to have served in the military. He’s also proud to serve the military.

While earning his Master of Public Policy at the USC Price School of Public Policy — his fifth graduate degree (more on that later) — Wu works as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, adjudicating claims made by veterans for medical and pension benefits.

“It’s important to bring to light the hardships that a lot of veterans are having as we celebrate Veterans Day,” Wu said.  “… even though we’re not at war anymore in Afghanistan or in Iraq, we need to recognize that our country still has an obligation to help our veterans who made the sacrifice of serving who experience difficulties that we need to help them work through.”

Wu joined the U.S. Air Force in 2011 as a Judge Advocate General — or JAG — after earning his law degree from the University of Notre Dame and spent seven years as an active-duty attorney. It would be the beginning of a series of notable law assignments for government agencies, from the U.S. Postal Service to his current position with the VA.

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But it was his time with the Air Force – especially on a deployment to Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2012  — that forged his understanding of and empathy for the plight of many veterans. “In addition to the physical injuries suffered by many soldiers,  oftentimes, after being away for so long, troops come back to a world that is different than what they knew. Many of their spouses and friends have moved on. They suffer from a wide range of issues from sleep disorders to PTSD.” Wu said. “It is difficult for them to return home from war as they sometimes struggle with a sense of belonging and purpose.”

That’s why, in this current job as an attorney for the VA’s Board of Veterans’ Appeals, Wu said he tries to err on the side of the veterans when assessing their claims.

“We give the veteran great deference in terms of what they say and their medical records,” Wu said during an interview on the patio of Wallis Annenberg Hall. “When it is roughly close, we go with the veteran.”

Wu has also done his part to serve the public sector. Always one to hold a legal job whether in school or not, he became an attorney with the U.S. Small Business Administration in July 2020 – just five months into the pandemic.

“It was six days a week, ten hours a day. There was a huge backlog of people who needed loans,” Wu said. “They were telling me, ‘Dennis, I dunno how I’m going to make ends meet. I need this money soon. I have employees to pay.”

He added: “This job was more than just a paycheck. I made sure that each business could get the maximum amount they qualified for in their bank account as quickly as possible. However, as much as I felt a sense of gratification from this job, I looked forward to the day I wasn’t needed anymore because (it would mean) that our work is done and people are back to work, the virus is gone and things are back to normal.”

Lifetime Learner

Wu grew up in Daly City, Calif., the son of immigrants from Myanmar. His parents instilled the value of education, a lesson that Wu absorbed with unusual gusto. In addition to a bachelor’s degree in sports management from New York University, Wu has earned the following degrees … so far.

He entered the USC Price School this fall to earn his MPP.

 “Dennis is such an asset to our program,” said Assistant Professor Matt Unrath, who has Wu in his Foundations of Policy Analysis class. “His unique professional experiences really help to ground our class discussions about effective policy design.”

So why so many degrees? For Wu, the law, business and public policy are of a piece, each one informing the other to give a multifaceted view of complex issues. Plus, he likes learning for the sake of learning and believes, “we don’t stop learning because we get old, but instead, we get old because we stop learning.”

And he’s not done yet. He’d like another degree in the realm of education, as Wu firmly believes the path to solving many problems in society is to improve public education.      

So what’s next, other than more degrees? Perhaps a career in politics. Or maybe a return to his love of sports.  Remember, his undergraduate degree was in sports management, and he once dreamed of becoming Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

With the Olympics coming to Los Angeles in 2028, don’t be surprised if Wu takes a prominent role in the event.