Todd Bajakian

Class of 1991

Following in the footsteps of his father, Todd Bajakian started at Mount Wachusett Community College in 1989 after graduating from Lunenburg High School with the goal of transferring to a four-year college.

“I liked the small-school atmosphere of Mount Wachusett,” he said. “My experience there helped me to realize my goals before attending a four-year university.”

Bajakian earned an associate’s degree from The Mount in 1991 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Norwich University, the military college of Vermont, in 1994.

“MWCC was a great stepping stone,” he said. “I gained great leadership experience serving on the student senate for two years. This experience taught me a lot about public speaking and seeing a project from idea to completion.”

During his service in the Army, Captain Bajakian was deployed at the start of the Iraq war in April 2003. As part of Task Force Bullet II, his battery hauled over 100 tons of captured enemy ammunition from Baghdad and other locations throughout the country in an effort to make it a safer place for both the people of Iraq and Coalition Forces.

He received the Bronze Star for his service during his eight-month deployment to Iraq.

“Iraq was different from other deployments. It was the first deployment where I was actively shot at,” he said. He also served in Kuwait twice as well as in Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of a NATO peacekeeping mission. “It is a challenge to be a leader in this kind of situation, because you need to be the one to step forward, the person to motivate other soldiers to get the job done. You can’t ask them to do anything you wouldn’t do.”

Bajakian’s future goals include continuing his military career. Recognizing the importance of education, he also plans to pursue his master’s degree.