Class of 2024: Former Marine Seth Bagbey found home among Hokies

Name: Seth Bagbey

College: Natural Resources and Environment

Major: Wildlife conservation

Hometown: Clarksville, Virginia

Favorite professor: Kevin Hamed, collegiate associate professor of fish and wildlife conservation. “If anybody has passion, he has it.”

The saying “Once a Marine, always a Marine” was etched in Bagbey’s mind during his four years in the Marine Corps. But after his time at Virginia Tech, he’s added an addendum: “Once a Hokie, always a Hokie.”

“They’re two things I’m extremely proud of,” Bagbey said, noting that he’ll wear both his Marine Corps ring and his Virginia Tech class ring when he walks across the commencement stage in Lane Stadium in May. “I'm forever a Marine, and I'm forever a Hokie.”

But while he always knew he’d join the Marines, he originally had no intention of graduating from Virginia Tech.

Serving his country

Growing up in the tiny town of Clarksville, Bagbey’s obsession was the military. Hard-wired for patriotism, he inhaled news stories and YouTube clips about conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and devoured history books about World War II. “I wanted nothing more than to fight for my country,” Bagbey said.

Before he even graduated high school in 2017, Bagbey enlisted in the Marine Corps, and that summer he shipped off to boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, terrified and elated at the same time.

Soon he was on a ship speeding through the Suez Canal into the Persian Gulf. His Marine Corps tours took him to Greece, Spain, Estonia, Sweden, Latvia, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates, among other places he’d barely imagined. He fell in love with the open ocean, with the thrill of adventure far from home.

But even on the day he and his unit summitted 12,383-foot Mount Fuji in Japan, he wore a reminder of home: a Virginia Tech hoodie.

A life-changing Hokie football game

Bagbey wasn’t exactly a Virginia Tech fan before his enlistment. But when he was home on leave in October 2019, his mom surprised him with tickets to a Hokie football game.

Watching fellow Marines play Madden Football on Xbox during long months at sea had made him a student of the game, but this would be his first in-person football experience. It turned out to be the legendary six-overtime battle against North Carolina. “Enter Sandman” hit his bloodstream like a drug, and he rode the wave of crazy fan energy till the final touchdown.

At that point, Bagbey told his mom, “If I go to college, it's gonna be at Virginia Tech.” After that, if he wasn't in uniform, he was wearing his Tech hoodie.

A community of veterans

After four years, Bagbey decided he’d done what he’d set out to do in the military. He left the Marines and returned home to Clarksville. After substitute teaching in local schools, he eventually decided he might as well get a degree, since the GI Bill was paying.

Virginia Tech was the only school he applied to. He told his mom, “If Virginia Tech doesn't accept me, I'm not going anywhere.” When he got the email that he could start classes in January 2022 — he had enough dual-enrollment credits from high school to apply as a transfer student — his mom cried.

Arriving on campus as a wildlife conservation major, with his German shepherd Zoe in tow, Bagbey threw himself into the Virginia Tech experience. The skills he learned in his military days came in surprisingly handy. For instance, with Bagbey competing in riflery, Virginia Tech’s Wildlife Society came in third of 20 universities at the 2024 TWS Southeastern Student Wildlife Conclave.

Yet when he first arrived, he felt lonely — older and more experienced in a way that made it hard to connect with students.

One day he walked into the Office of Veteran Services and said, “Hey, I just need to talk some veterans.” Those conversations, along with tailgating and playing laser tag with the Veterans@VT student group, finally helped him settle in. “Veterans can talk to any other veteran,” he said. “They can relate.”

This is home

After substituting in public schools, plus working at the Ft. Chiswell Animal Park, Bagbey hopes to launch a career as a wildlife educator. “I love teaching, to see people be like, ‘Wow, that's so cool. I learned something today,’” he said. He wouldn’t mind coaching football too. 

In fact, he’s so committed to staying near his happy place, Lane Stadium, that for now Bagbey and his girlfriend, fellow 2024 Hokie grad Ela Yirmibesoglu, will stay in Blacksburg. Virginia Tech Athletics’ “this is home” mantra means something to him. “It makes me emotional every time I think of it,” he said, “because this place made me feel like this is my home.”