CU aims to recruit veterans to campus
From Boulder to Springs, university wants to help - and gain new perspective
Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News
Published October 31, 2007 at midnight
University of Colorado campuses are boosting efforts to recruit veterans and members of the military, helping them complete their education in the face of repeat deployments.
Veterans, as well, are finding the universities well-equipped to help with mental health counseling, disabilities and financial aid, as those are standard services available to all students.
The university, in turn, finds the military men and women to be mature students eager to learn. And, typically, the veterans come with $38,000 from the GI Bill to help pay the bills.
"They give us a broader perspective," said Greg Akers, a former Marine colonel hired to run the Boulder campus' Office of Veterans' Affairs. "They have real- world experiences."
"They leave at 18 and come back at 34," at least mentally, if not chronologically, said Dana Rocha, who runs a comparable office at the Colorado Springs campus.
The students vary widely. Afghanistan combat vet Matt Grove, a former Marine sergeant, is working on a history degree in Boulder so he can rejoin the Marines next fall as an officer candidate.
Ariela Myers, from Louisville, is a flute player in the Colorado National Guard band and a junior studying music at the Boulder campus. She's joining the regular Army next spring, again to play in a military band.
Grove said he's happy to hear he'll have help starting up his GI Bill benefits. But he's most pleased with the opportunities the new office will provide for veterans to simply find each other. On a campus full of 18- and 19-year-olds, "it's good to be around people with the same experiences" in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
The veterans are not as easy to spot as you'd think, Grove said. "It's people you wouldn't even expect. I'm always shocked by who tells me they are a vet at CU."
The office at the Colorado Springs campus was started a year ago.
It was spawned by the need to help student soldiers suspend their educations when they were being deployed on 24 hours' notice, Rocha said.
UCCS spokesman Tom Hutton said the university has even managed to help some soldiers continue their education while deployed, through its online education program. The campus also teaches Arabic to Fort Carson soldiers en route to Iraq.
With five military installations in Colorado Springs, UCCS has 900 service members, veterans and dependents enrolled.
imsea@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5438
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