Student Veterans:
Free Tuition Comes With Many Costs When a service member is discharged from the military, it is appropriately termed “separation” because it comes with the grief and uncertainty that being torn from one’s family brings. The past several years were structured for service members, and they were inseparably tied to some sort of social system, whether it was with a battalion, a platoon, or a four-man team. Solitude was rare. Most service members go to college after separation where earning a degree can be an elusive goal, as these men and women become student veterans. Coupled by conflicting feelings of detachment and determination, a student veteran is a unique type of college student that faces many more challenges that they cannot prepare for. In order to understand the term “student veteran,” it is essential to break the two words apart. For the purpose of this essay, “student” will be referred to as Oxford English Dictionary’s standard definition of “a person who is undergoing a course of study and instruction at a university or other place of higher education or technical training” (2013). In reference to the U.S. Code: Title 38 – Veterans’ Benefits (2012), a veteran is “a person who has served in the active [United States] military, naval, or air service, and who was discharged or released therefrom under conditions other than dishonorable” (2012). To qualify as a student veteran, one must have met both of the above criteria and be enrolled in an institution for higher education, whether or not he or she is receiving educational benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Some men and women join the military because of the educational benefits that come with serving. Others decide to separate because they are frustrated with their commands, long hours, or deployments.
Whatever the reason, the transition from marine, soldier, airman, or sailor to student veteran can be very difficult, but there are many resources to help ease the transition. The transition begins before the service member separates from his or her branch of military. When a service member decides that he or she will not reenlist and plans to attend college, the future student veteran may become socially described as a “shit bag,” or a despicable person as is described in the Oxford English Dictionary (2013). A student veteran is synonymous to the term “shit bag” because the military culture uses this slang term to describe those who are lazy, good for nothing, or incompetent. His or her brothers and sisters in arms see the future student veteran as taking the easy way out instead of reenlisting. Being treated unfairly can make the transition to the civilian world challenging. Luckily, one of the resources to help with these challenges is the Transition Assistance Program, or TAP. TAP is mandatory, weeklong seminar that service members must attend before separating from the military. In the weeklong program, service members choose one of four career pathways based on what their plans are after separating. For example, a service member who wants to join the work force right away will attend an employment pathway, rather than a future student veteran’s pathway to education (States News Service, 2012). However, no instruction can prepare student veterans for the unfamiliar social system in college. For this reason, many colleges have the Student Veterans of America (SVA) organization to “provide military veterans with the resources, support, and advocacy needed to succeed in higher education and following graduation” (2013). At Central Michigan University, the Veteran Resource Center makes it easy for student veterans to apply for educational benefits, and the staff provides assistance for transitioning service members cope with unfamiliar.
Despite the many resources that can help the transitioning student veterans, they (especially marines) can still feel alienated from their new peers when they first attend college. As a new student veteran, I have experienced what it is like to feel alienated. I am a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, the smallest of the military branches with 195,054 members out of 1,427,482 collectively (DMDC, 2013). For the past five years, I was told that I was invincible and that I was among the best of the best. I was embedded with knowledge of the history of the Marine Corps, an understanding of the motto Semper Fidelis (Latin for always faithful), and I was taught to always capitalize the word “marine” because marines were special. I no longer felt special when I began attending classes at Central Michigan University in August 2013. I could not relate to my peers, let alone communicate with them without coming off as infallible or judgmental. As a student veteran, I expected other college students to be at my level of respect and discipline that the Marine Corps instilled in me. I was taught to adapt and overcome any obstacle and to never complain. I became riled after listening to my classmates complain about how much homework they had or how they were happy to barely pass a quiz or exam. In the Marine Corps, failure is 79 percent. It was easier to seek friendships with other veterans at first because we could at least relate to each other and laugh off the culture shock we were experiencing.
The most difficult task to date is getting my peers to understand that attending college is not a privilege because my educational benefits did not come without high costs and sacrifice. The first cost was money; as a recruit in boot camp back in 2008, I had to elect to invest $1,200 in order to buy into the Montgomery GI Bill, a bill that would later help with the costs of college (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2013). The second cost was time; in order to receive 100 percent of my benefits, I had to serve honorably for at least thirty-six months. Of course, I served my five-year enlistment in its entirety. The third tentative cost is sacrifice because I am obligated to serve in a war if a draft is implicated. For the next three years, I am a member of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), which is a military program that all service members sign on to affiliate themselves with. When a service member first enlists, he or she signs on for a mandatory eight years. The first four or five year enlistment is spent on active duty, meaning that the service member will be attached to a military unit on a military installation somewhere in the world. The service member spends the next three to four years in the IRR, which is a stand-by program in case there is a draft. The U.S. Department of Defense will first recall veterans in the IRR before utilizing citizens registered in the Selective Service System. This would be a tremendous sacrifice, especially after having served an active enlistment. For this reason, I keep up with current events and the United States’ affiliation with foreign countries, in case war is declared. A student veteran has much more than money invested in their higher education.
For many student veterans, the benefits of a debt-free education outweigh the costs of having served. They now have a chance to study topics they only dreamed about while serving in the military. Student veterans undoubtedly face many challenges when transitioning from a military life to that of a college student. The challenges do not come from academics or meeting deadlines, but from interacting and being part of a world that they have been absent from for many years. A student veteran is more than someone who previously served in the military; he or she is a person that will not give up and will find a way to adapt and overcome.

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References:
DMDC. (2013, September 24). Armed forces strength figures for august 31, 2013. Retrieved from https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/dwp/reports.do?category=reports&subCat=milActDutReg
English Oxford Dictionary (2013, September 24) student (n). Retrieved from http://0- www.oed.com.catalog.lib.cmich.edu/view/Entry/192056?rskey=lfOshK&result=1&isAd vanced=false#eid
States News Service. (2012, December 3). Pendleton implements new transition program Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA310823428&v=2.1&u=lom_cmichu&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=6c298b48caf443a1eaec6dffe396820b Student Veterans of America (September 25,2013) Mission and vision. Retrieved from http://studentveterans.org/about-us.html U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. (2013, September 23, 2013) U.S. Code: Title 38 – Veterans’
Benefits. Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/38/101
U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. (2013, September 25) Montgomery GI Bill. Retrieved from: http://www.gibill.va.gov/benefits/montgomery_gibill/