What it’s Like to Go from War to a Liberal Arts College –
By Max Kutner / May 29 2017
When Fernando Braga arrived at Vassar College for freshmen orientation, he immediately had second thoughts. Most of his new classmates were young and living on their own for the first time. But Braga, 34, had a wife and daughter and lived in a house off campus.
He had also been to war.
Braga had served with the Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom. After returning from overseas, he worked doing rail maintenance for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City. His life experience and age set him apart from his classmates. He recalls feeling like Adam Sandler’s character in Billy Madison, who at 27 must repeat grades one through 12. “It was only 17- and 18-year-olds and no one else,” he recalls thinking his first week at school. “I was like, ‘Holy shit, what in the world?’ It was like, ‘Did I do the right thing?’” Students who saw him dropping off his daughter at daycare thought he was a faculty member.
His struggles weren’t unique. Veterans at other schools have spoken about how difficult it can be to fit in at college, and a study published in March in the Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability found that because of the mental health issues veterans might face after returning from combat, they are at higher risk for dropping out of college and are more likely to show lower academic achievement.
Fortunately for Braga, he had people with similar backgrounds for support. He is one of 11 United States military veterans who enrolled at Vassar, a small liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, in fall 2013. Through the Posse Foundation, a nonprofit, Braga and his fellow veterans received scholarships that supplemented federal education funding. The hope was that the veterans would find attending college together more helpful than going on their own.
Continue to newsweek.com article: http://www.newsweek.com/veterans-college-campuses-vassar-posse-615839
