The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Texas Lottery Veteran Recognition: Jacob Schick
09.06.2019 | Football
Former Marine infantry soldier and leader of a mental wellness nonprofit organization to be honored during coin toss when Texas Football hosts LSU.
Jacob Schick knew when he was 8 years old he wanted to make the world a better place. He wanted to be a Marine.
But it was a classic military workout that actually provided Schick the means to awaken people's hearts and minds to change.
In 2013, he guided the initiation of a social media campaign that went viral. The challenge of 22 pushups a day, for 22 days, drove attention to the 2012 Veterans Affairs study which concluded that 22 veterans die on average every day by suicide.
"It affected all of us as veterans, because we knew it was an issue, but knowledge is only power when it's shared," Schick said. "You can't fix a problem until you realize there's a problem."
Schick is the CEO of 22Kill, a non-profit organization focused on suicide awareness and prevention by providing mental wellness programs and therapies to veterans, first responders and their families.
"We deal in human issues. The humans we deal with just happened to have worn a uniform at one time or another," Schick said.
The responsibility of the uniform appealed to Schick at a young age. He fondly recalls his grandmother talking with pride about his grandfather, a World War II veteran and Marine infantryman. Schick wanted her to speak of him with the same admiration, and he enlisted to become a third-generation Marine at the beginning of his senior year in high school.
His boot camp orders came earlier than expected following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Schick knew the country was headed to war, and he volunteered for infantry.
"It was in my family lineage to be a war fighter," he said.
Three years later, he was a team leader. As they patrolled the Sunni Triangle near Baghdad, Schick's tank hit an explosive device, and he was thrown through the roof. His prayer, while laying bloodied and shattered, wasn't for his life, but only that his fellow Marines wouldn't have to watch him die.
"Once I got hit and did my self-assessment, I knew I was hurt bad," Schick said. "I knew that was my last act as a combat Marine, and those guys are my family in every sense of the word. It was my last way to let them know, to show them I loved them and how much they meant to me and helped mold me into the man I am.
"I didn't want them to see that horror."
He suffered damage to the left leg and arm, as well as internal injuries. His recovery process required 18 months, more than 50 operations and 20 blood transfusions. And though Schick was grateful to be alive, he didn't know what to do with the life that was saved.
"I had no purpose," he said. "It was very difficult to go from one of the world's most elite gladiators, to not being able to use the bathroom on my own.
"Physical pain reminds you you're alive, but mental pain will test your will to stay alive."
He relied on medication to numb the mental trauma and pain, before finally seeking help for his dependencies as well as his post-traumatic stress, which he eventually learned to be a normal response to an abnormal situation.
Schick said the inspiration to launch 22Kill grew from being "sick and tired of going to funerals."
The organization provides clinical programming, therapy models and community engagement.
"These veterans and first responders are the tip of the spear to change the narrative on mental wellness," Schick said. "If you can get these men and women to say, 'It's OK to not be OK' and lead this charge, we'll change the way mental wellness is viewed. I think that has the power to change the world."
Thanks to the Texas Lottery, great things are happening all across Texas. Every year, more than $1.5 billion of lottery revenue goes to good causes like public education and veterans' assistance programs.
Beginning with the first veterans' dedicated scratch ticket game in 2009, the Texas Lottery has now contributed over $119 million to the Fund for Veterans' Assistance.
Since 1992, the Texas Lottery has generated more than $29 billion in revenue for the state of Texas. Through strict adherence to their vision, mission and core values, the Texas Lottery is dedicated to ensuring that this support continues.