Profile:
Sophia Mendoza
Equal Opportunity Advisor

“Becoming a Soldier was not your ordinary job, and I liked the sound of that.”

From Basic and Advanced Individual Training (AIT) in Fort Jackson, S.C., to Active Duty in Los Angeles, Calif., to training in Rochester, N.Y., to her current station in Honolulu – yes, you could say Sophia Mendoza is achieving the level of adventure she was hoping for when she enlisted in the Army Reserve.

But while Sophia is in the Reserve, she is also among the 13,500 servicemembers who are Active Guard/Reserve (AGR) Soldiers. This means that she serves with a reserve unit as an active-duty Soldier in the Army.

To Sophia, being an active-duty Soldier in the Army Reserve also means being able to benefit from active-duty advantages.

“Higher education is very much a priority in the Army. My education and my job performance are what got me promoted to master sergeant.”

With military training programs constantly available to Sophia, she has not hesitated to pursue new challenges. Sophia has participated in programs such as Equal Opportunity Advisor Training, Master Fitness Training, Army Leadership Training, Combat Lifesavers Training, Budget Management Training and more.

All of this training has helped Sophia find her calling as an equal opportunity (EO) advisor.

Plus, Sophia has even been able to transfer some of her military training and job experience into college credits through the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Military Program. These college credits are going toward a degree in human resources development.

“For over 18 years, I have been teaching Soldiers. … It has been the most rewarding experience I could have ever hoped for.”

As an EO advisor, Sophia is “an agent for cultural change.” Her primary responsibilities include training other Soldiers to become EO representatives for their units, recommending appropriate remedies to eliminate and prevent unlawful discrimination and sexual harassment and assisting all commanders in assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating the EO program.

But to Sophia, it’s more than a job. It’s fulfilling her dream of being a teacher; it’s an opportunity to make a difference in the Service; and it’s the experience she needs for when she eventually retires from the Army as Master Sergeant Mendoza and re-enters the civilian world as Ms. Sophia Mendoza.

Sophia’s Military Career Timeline

• February 1983: Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training (AIT) in Fort Jackson, S.C.
• August 1983: Stationed at Corps Support Command in Los Angeles.
• August 1985: Administrative specialist at Corps Support Command in Los Angeles
• May 1994: Protocol non-commissioned officer (NCO) in Rochester, N.Y.
• August 1997: Completed Assistant Training (advanced to sergeant first class)
• August 1999: Stationed in Los Alamitos, Calif. (advanced to master sergeant)
• June 2002: Stationed at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
• October 2003: Equal opportunity (EO) non-commissioned officer in Honolulu, Hawaii