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According to Statista: ”In 2021 about 5.09 million veterans had obtained a bachelor degree or higher in the U.S. In that same year, about six million veterans had some college or an associates degree, and about 773, 422 had less than a high school diploma.”
To put a face to these statistics and find out about what pursuing school after service in the military is like, I spoke with three veterans of different backgrounds in life, careers in individual branches of services, and later on different college choices.
Did they get the same opportunities despite completely different jobs and branches in the military? Are the colleges they attend offering services for them? What’s it like leaving the military to pursue careers after serving?
My first source was someone I previously worked alongside in the U.S. Army, Matthew Ferrer. He said that his transition from his career as a military police officer to his goals of becoming a justice graduate and pursuing a job as a police officer has been everything but smooth.
Ferrer began his career in the Army, and enlisted at the age of 18. He served for six years as a military police officer, where he was deployed in Turkey, along the border of Syria, and in Africa too.
Upon leaving the military he immediately registered for college and had to learn how to obtain resources from the Veterans Affairs on college Benefits.
Ferrer said that the Army did not offer any sort of assistance for the transition. Ferrer applied and earned the Veterans Affairs 9/11 GI Bill, and the Disabled Veterans Vocational Rehabilitation Bill, Chapter 33. He now attends St. Mary's College in Texas where he is pursuing a criminal justice degree.
Ferrer at times feels successful and at other times struggles to even get to class because of his disabilities from the Army. He said he has personally experienced professors treating him negatively because of his service and sacrifice to our country.
He said one professor went so far as to verbally devalue his need to have a service dog with him in classes and belittled his career with comments about him being in war and combat.
My secondary source was Zoe Garbarino, who has been deployed to the Middle East. She described the process of moving from being a journalist and communications soldier to working toward her dream of attaining a bachelors of science in nursing so she can one day become an esthetician.
Garbarino enlisted at the age of 17 into the Army as a public affairs specialist, serving for a total of five years with deployments to places such as the Middle East, where she saw and experienced combat and was on the response team for casualties.
Garbarino said her favorite time in the military was seeing soldiers she's helped mentor succeed in life, the Army and as a civilian.
After serving her term, Garbarino decided it was finally time to put herself first and pursue a dream of hers to become an esthetician.
Just like Ferrer, the Army did not offer any services or resources for her time transitioning out, and she had to research everything on her own. After her time in the Army, Garbarino registered immediately for college and began the nursing program at the Arizona College of Nursing.
She applied for the 9/11 GI bill offered by Veterans Affairs and believes because of her military experience she is much more advanced in lifesaving courses, first aid and CPR. At the beginning of her transition from the military, she struggled to find a balance but is now making friends and is succeeding in her classes.
She said her biggest achievements have been her hard work in the military and how she took that hard work and applied it as a civilian college student.
According to an article in the Diverse Educational Report: “Veterans possess immense potential for academic success. Our experiences, skills, and self-discipline often give us a leg up in the classroom. This isn’t merely anecdotal. Several studies have found student veterans, on average, perform better in college and tend to have a higher GPA than traditional students.”
My last source was a man by the name of Barry White, who enlisted into the Marine Corps in 1979.
White's story is a bit different from the first two Army veterans but important for military personnel thinking of changing career paths while in college, finding opportunities better offered outside of the college scope.
He went into the Marine Corp as an aviation - egress environmental cryogenics technician. White served for a total of 21 years, 11 active duty and 11 in the Reserves.
During his time of service he was deployed out of the country where he supplied long distance aircraft support from the United States to Israel and Egypt. After his time in service, he decided to leave because he was not being promoted. White was required to do the work of others, all the while those marines got paid the same as him to do nothing.
That situation opened up his eyes to what he wanted to do with his future. While enlisted in the Marine Corps, he took classes at the local community college, attended an aeronautical college on base.
He achieved certifications in various areas, such as integrated computer electronics. He excelled in project management classes and decided upon honorably discharging out of the Marine Corps, so that he could invest his time in working rather than going back to college. He already had certifications and was personally recommended for a job that was willing to train him with no degree required.
The first job that he landed was at Honeywell, where he was hired for the internship program as an electronics technician. The Marine Corps did not offer any services or resources to him, and everything he did, or learned, he did on his own and within his own research.
Even though he did not complete college, like many veterans, he took some classes and from there succeeded through the non-traditional route of going straight to work when the Veterans Affairs and the Marine Corps offered no help, or resources for him.
Each of these veterans had their own stories and individual military career, and they all offered advice to anyone who is possibly looking to transition from the military to college.
Ferrer said to apply to multiple colleges with veteran services and veteran communities. Garbarino said it's okay to take your time to find the motivation like in the military and find your groove. And White said that the best option is to go to school immediately, and optimize education offered to you.
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