Shared History, Shared Success
ACP's October 2025 Mentorship Success Story
We’ve all heard that opposites attract, but just as often, a common background can lead to greater synergy and success. For ACP Protégé Cindy Thuli and her Mentor, Dawid Grzybowski, their shared experiences and interests contributed to a successful mentorship. The pair, who are now colleagues at USAA, explain how ACP’s free, year-long program helped Thuli re-enter the paid workforce after a career hiatus.
Thuli is an Active-Duty Military Spouse and US Air Force Veteran with significant post-military experience. Grzybowski, a fellow Air Force Veteran and ACP alumnus who’s now a technical program manager at USAA, says Thuli immediately impressed him with her knowledge and drive. “Cindy was already keeping a keen eye on her path and future,” he says. “She came into the program as a well-educated and seasoned professional, so the focus of our mentorship had to be adjusted to meet her exact needs.”
Thuli says that her time in the Air Force and in aviation project management “felt like [doing] a little bit of everything.” After a nearly seven-year career break to accommodate the challenges of military life and parenting, “I was looking for career direction and help re-entering the work force… I didn’t know how to apply the experience I had from the military and post-military.”
While Thuli knew her military and civilian background put her ahead of the pack, she needed guidance on applying it to a job search. Thuli was excited to implement her strategic planning and process improvementskills in a corporate setting. Although leaning towards a career in cybersecurity, in 2025, she participated in a USAA fellowship in risk analysis through Hiring Our Heroes and began to consider alternative paths. Grzybowski, an experienced Mentor who had followed a similar trajectory with USAA when he left active duty in2021, helped Thuli weigh her options and present herself as a strong candidate for different roles.
When Thuli’s fellowship transitioned into a full-time position with USAA, it wasn’t the finish line, but the start of a new phase. “We were able to pathfinder a well-defined direction for her career [at USAA]… [and] establish clear expectations for work-life balance as her career progresses,” says Grzybowski. Today, Grzybowski and Thuli continue to identify professional and academic milestones she wants to achieve in her new career, such as obtaining her PMP certification.
“In some ways, I had given up the prospect of finding meaningful work, because I thought my experiences were too incoherent,” Thuli explains about her pre-mentorship mentality.
“Having someone in my corner [to help] me see a clear path forward was instrumental. Translation [of past experience] is often the hard part, and a Mentor like Dawid was exactly what I needed.”
ACP mentorships have a powerful ability to connect Protégés with Mentors who relate to their challenges, and to help civilian employers appreciate the remarkable experience of our Veterans and Military Spouses. If you’re an experienced professional with a desire to help the military community, sign up here to volunteer an hour a month and make a profound impact. Post-9/11 Veterans and Active-Duty Military Spouses can apply and get connected with a Mentor.
