Colleges offer veterans-only classes to ease transition

West Virginia University offers veterans courses in history, public speaking, and on transitioning from military to student life.

The students in the Saturday morning class trickle in and, as they introduce themselves around a table, reveal far more intimate biographies than just name and hometown.

One confesses to demons he struggles to control. Another says he’s here to find a community. “Forgive me,” an Iraq war veteran begins haltingly. “I have to use notes. I have a brain injury.”

The students are participants in a veterans writing seminar at George Washington University, where for two days they immerse themselves in the basics of the craft and learn how to plumb for therapeutic and creative purposes their experiences in places like Iraq, Bosnia, and Vietnam. The class is a non-credit weekend seminar open to veterans and their relatives, but the university plans to adapt the model soon into a for-credit, semester-long course for student veterans.…Read More

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