Why We Soar: UD and DC formed me

Andrew Letsch ’17 got a head start on a career in the nation’s capital when he had two pivotal experiences: the first, the three-day Dayton2DC immersion Washington, D.C., and the second, a DC Flyers the summer internship before his senior year.

Letsch, who is now an action officer with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, said he’s been “polished by Capitol Hill.” 

Those UD opportunities, and his time in the military, have made him a more prolific advocate for the University of Dayton, something he’s done through UD’s young alumni group, day10. His volunteerism contributes to UD’s goal for the We Soar campaign.

Letsch got involved with day10's executive committee two years ago, volunteering his time and encouraging young alumni to give back. At one of the volunteer summits, he was asked, ‘Why volunteer?’

“I thought, ‘Why wouldn’t I volunteer?’ This school has given me lifelong friends, a great education, a network into the real world, my first jobs, my wife. What more could I have asked for when I was trying to find a school, right?”

But finding the perfect school wasn’t Letsch’s first plan. Growing up the oldest of eight children in Racine, Wisconsin, Letsch wanted to enlist in the military after high school. After a weekend trip to UD’s Family Weekend to visit his cousin, he decided to delay his military pursuits.

“The campus feel, the way people talk to each other, the way people party together, the way people respect each other; I’ve just never seen or felt anything like it,” Letsch said. 

After graduating from UD, Letsch took an internship working under former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. He wrote Letsch a letter of recommendation to the officer candidate school for the Marine Corps. 

Letsch and his UD sweetheart, Janey Bottini ’17, got married during the pandemic. The day after the wedding, they packed up a U-Haul and moved to 29 Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center.

Letsch deployed twice, living in Australia and Japan where he led 40 to 50 Marines as a platoon commander and led another 200 Marines as an executive officer. 

“I don’t usually put those two things together because my military experience seems so different from my Dayton experience, but it’s really not,” Letsch said.

“One led me to the other.”

Moving to the quiet desert in Southern California, Letsch said he and his wife decided they needed to bring the UD feel of community, open doors and neighborly porches to wherever they called home. 

“You make friends on a military base because everyone’s in the same situation together. So, it’s like we basically tried to bring the ‘open door policy’ to wherever we’re going,” Letsch said.

After his first son was born and Letsch’s deployment ended, he decided to join the day10 executive committee. It was the summer of 2023. 

“When you go to these [UD] volunteer summits, it almost sounds like — well — like we’re all brainwashed,” Letsch said. “But it’s like the opposite of brainwashing because it’s really each individual person telling their story and how it relates to Dayton, and they all end up somehow sounding the same.” 

Fascinated by the success of alumni that transcend his timeline at UD, Letsch chooses to invest in future UD graduates through donations and volunteering. Last year he donated to the Student Veterans Association.

“My favorite thing about going to these volunteer summits is meeting people I’ve never met because they didn’t live on my floor freshman year,” Letsch said. “But maybe they were on my floor — when I was 5 years old.”

Letsch donated to the Dayton2DC scholarship this year because of the impact the trip had on kickstarting his career. He’s encouraged his Flyer friends to do the same and give to the scholarships that helped set them up for success.

It could lead to the head start a student needs. “It’s like you’re giving to the future version of you,” Letsch said.