Chad L. Michael Memorial Endowed Scholarship

Chad L. Michael ’01, special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), was one of 10 Americans killed on October 26, 2009 when a U.S. military helicopter carrying seven U.S. Army soldiers, Chad and two other DEA agents, crashed in western Afghanistan. They were on a joint mission to combat narcotics trafficking in support of the U.S. military efforts to secure Afghanistan.Chad began his law enforcement career in 2001 as a deputy with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the same year he earned his bachelor’s degree in criminology from Saint Leo University. He remained with the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office until 2004, when he achieved a lifelong dream of becoming a federal agent. Before volunteering for service in Afghanistan, Chad lived in Miami, and worked for the Drug Enforcement Agency. He was 30 years old when he died.