From the Battlefield to the Classroom
While many of America’s young men and women have survived the rigors of military operations worldwide, arriving at college after active duty may prove to be as daunting as the first day of boot camp. A new student organization at California State University, Dominguez Hills has been created to help veterans adapt to college life. The Veterans Alliance is supported by the Military Student Center and provides information, resources, and a forum for student veterans, as well as faculty, staff, and alumni who have served in the armed forces.
“Veterans come from a background of well-defined structure and direction,” says Erika Valdez, the campus’s military advisor. “Transitioning into the university setting, where information disseminated to students may be ambiguous or conflicting, can be quite difficult. It is important to provide an on-campus forum where student veterans can find the information they need from one common source and help each other through a peer-support system.”
Maryalice Swiney is a senior majoring in political science and Africana studies. She spent 3 years in the National Guard and 4 years as a supply clerk for Air Defense Artillery. She was stationed at Escon Village in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia when the U.S.S. Cole was bombed in the port of Aden in October of 2000.
Swiney says that her military experience has helped her gain more focus on her studies.
“After I got out of the military, I had a different outlook on education and learning that helped me a lot to become more disciplined,” she says.
Salvatore DiGaetano, a junior majoring in public administration with a health services option, was a chemical specialist in a field artillery unit and was deployed to Iraq in 2005. He says that his decision to prepare for a career in health care was influenced by his experiences as a medic.
“I got to see the aftermath of combat,” he recalls. “”It changes your view of life when you see [soldiers] injured or pass away.”
“Michael Chestnut, a senior majoring in interdisciplinary studies focused on environmental studies, is President of Veterans Alliance at CSU Dominguez Hills and established a similar organization while a student at El Camino College. He served with the 1st Battalion 2nd Marines from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., guarding the Kuwait and Saudi Arabia border to stop the Iraqi advance until Operation Desert Storm commenced.
After serving active duty, Chesnut was in the Army Reserves and was deployed to Iraq in 2003 for a year. He retired as a staff sergeant in 2008. He hopes to host a job fair on campus featuring local industries and companies that are most interested in hiring veterans.
“There are a lot of things that happen to veterans that they won’t talk to just anybody about,” he notes. “There is no one that knows better the problems that [veteran students] are facing than the ones that are currently going to college.”
For more information on the Veterans Alliance at CSU Dominguez Hills, visit http://csudhvets.ning.com/
This article has been edited and reprinted with the permission of CSUDH. The original article appeared in the e-newsletter, CSUDH Dateline.
- Joanie Harmon
