Siena College
09/26/2025 | News release | Archived content
Every Saint Has a Story: Nick Hudak '26
Sep 26, 2025
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What does an "intelligence specialist" do? Nick Hudak '26 had no idea, but he checked the box because it sounded cool. That decision, plus two years tracking China's military movements in the South China Sea, led Hudak to what he'd been searching for all along... his path.
Hudak can remember exactly how suffocating the boredom felt sitting in that statistics class at Hudson Valley Community College nine years ago. The Cohoes native was finishing up his associate's degree and had always assumed he would transfer to a four-year college later that fall. But in that exact moment, he couldn't bear the thought of two more years of school.
"My laptop was already open. So right in the middle of class, I went to the Marine Corps website and filled out the form. I got a call from a recruiter less than an hour later asking me to swing by. I decided I'm just going to do it."
Hudak couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't on the right path, but he also wasn't sure where he wanted to go, so that made course-correcting difficult. He decided to make the most drastic change he could possibly imagine, and then he would reevaluate once the dust settled. Of course, Hudak had no way of knowing his new path was pointed toward Japan, but 'drastic change' was the point.
From the military options, Hudak chose the Marines because it was the toughest service branch with the nicest uniforms. That's more strategic thinking than he put into the next decision. After scoring well on a five-subject aptitude exam, he was asked to pick his preferred specialty. The choices included communications, supplies, reconnaissance, etc. Hudak didn't have a strong feeling one way or the other, and to be honest, he wasn't really sure what the options were suggesting. He picked "intelligence" and then shipped off to Parris Island, South Carolina for boot camp.
"Before I left for boot camp, the recruiter just kept hammering home the point that you'll get out of the Marines what you put into it. I decided I would commit 100 percent and make it a rewarding experience."
Hudak survived boot camp, despite losing 30 pounds, and advanced to Marine combat training in North Carolina. Next, it was schoolhouse training in Virginia Beach where Hudak learned to be an intelligence specialist. He graduated schoolhouse in 2018 and received his first set of orders - a two-year assignment in Okinawa, Japan serving in the 3rd Intelligence Battalion with the III Marine Expeditionary Force.
It's an intelligence analyst's job to retain as much information as possible and relay that information, often to superiors who depend on the information, with 100 percent accuracy. For example, when China began dredging and then reclaiming land in the Spratly Islands by building large-scale artificial islands on the top of shallow coral reefs, the U.S. had particular interest in learning why.
"I would make an assessment based on trending information and the available intelligence, and I would present my findings in a room with sometimes 50 to 100 Marines, many with a higher rank than myself. You've got to be good at public speaking, and you have to be right. Bad information can get people killed."
While stationed in Japan, Hudak - who had never crossed an ocean before enlisting - traveled to China, South Korea, Japan, and Thailand (that's where he pet a tiger, above). He's grateful to the military for the chance to explore the Far East, and he's also grateful he came back stateside when he did. In March of 2020, Hudak got a seat on literally the last plane out of Okinawa before the pandemic froze travel for months. Next, Hudak was assigned to two years' worth of intelligence analyzing in southern California, this time tracking developments in the Middle East as a G-2 at Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division. Once that stint expired, Hudak had fulfilled his active duty obligation to the Marines and drove home. Finally, he was ready to complete his education, and this time, he had a plan.
"My brother is a Siena graduate, and I always had the thought of coming here, but I just assumed Siena was a business school until I went to the website and I discovered Siena offers forensic science. I was so surprised.
I enrolled using my GI Bill, and at first, it was definitely a culture shock going from the Marines back to college. I'm so glad I did it, though. My time at Siena has been wonderful, and the professors make the classes so enjoyable. School used to feel like I was trudging through the day. But now I'm studying what I want, and each class is so engaging.
This semester I have an internship with the New York State Intelligence Center in their social media unit. We're doing open source intelligence gathering to aid law enforcement in their criminal investigations. In high school and then at HVCC, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but through the Marines, I found this line of work that I'm passionate about that I never knew existed.
I'm very religious, and I believe this is the pathway God wants me to take."
Siena College published this content on September 26, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on September 29, 2025 at 16:24 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]