Find Other Veterans

I registered for college while stationed in Okinawa in 2003. I ended up deploying to Thailand just before leaving active duty so my ability to start coordinating and researching my future "duty station" in the 1st Civ Div was affected.

(1st Civ Div is where civilians live for those of you not familiar with Marine terminology.) I had one month after leaving active duty in August 2003 before the fall semester started at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Not wanting to live in the barracks, err, dorms, I opted to rent a one-bedroom apartment close to campus. My landlord was a scumbag and I was paying dearly for the location. I didn't feel like I fit in with the rest of my classmates (most of whom were five or six years younger than me) and I certainly didn't feel like they could relate to my experiences. So I felt a little awkward socializing with my new peers after class. There was not a place on campus where I could go to find another veteran, someone who I could relate to.

During my second and third years at "The U," an Army Ranger veteran named Andy Davis and another student, Tony Richter, started a non-profit group called Comfort For Courage (C4C) which started with care-package drives and shipping them over to our troops overseas and moved on to start a student group for veterans. That group is now known as the Veterans Transition Center (VTC) and is now in its third year and is already a huge success. I became involved as a member and then moved on to a leadership position within the group. It helped me to be a part of a group again, especially a group of veterans.

Whether or not you are going to school or if you decide to start working, I think it is important to find at least one other person who knows what you've been through, and usually that means finding a veteran. If you can find a group of veterans to hang out with, you should be well on your way to a successful transition.

(Submitted by Aaron Ledebuhr)

Comments

[Dr.Randy Plunkett]

I would encourage anyone who is contemplating college after military service to check out Student Veterans of America, (www.studentveterans.org) If your institution of choice does not have a veterans group, SVA will help you start one.

[Pat Ebner]

Aaron,

Thanks for spreading the word about getting with other Veterans on campuses. Minnesota has become a front runner in Veterans programs for education assistance on campuses. In 2006, the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs through Governor Pawlenty's initiative established a Higher Education Veterans Program in which Veterans Education Coordinators are on all major campuses throughout Minnesota to assist Veterans with their education benefits. We as Veterans Coordinators provide assistance to all the campuses in Minnesota to include the UofM and private colleges. Our mission is to support veterans, current military members and their families by providing on-site information about benefits and provide outreach to other veterans resources within the state. We have established numerous Veterans Centers on campuses in Minnesota that provide a place for Veterans and their families a place to meet and get assistance. We try to provide a one-stop shop for Veteran students to help guide them through the various paperwork and forms that need to be completed when a Veterans applies for college. All the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Education Coordinators are Veterans ourselves and we understand how hard it can be to transition from the military to civlian life. For more information on our program and to get a listing of the Veterans Education Coordinators please see our website at www.mymilitaryeducation.org

Thank you,
Pat Ebner
Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, Higher Education Veterans Coordinator, Southwest Region Minnesota

[James]

I would agree with Pat. I work with the same program and have gone out at briefed the SVA with another coordinator back in Jan 08 in Chicago. A good bit of what the SVA has done like all of us that were in the military have doe at one point in time "we take things and make them our own" The SVA has brought back to their campuses a number of the goals and objectives of the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs Higher Education Veterans Programs over their 9 months of existence.