Veterans returning to school face a new challenge

Veterans find new life at UNM

By Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga
New Mexico Daily Lobo
Last updated: 2 hours ago
Veterans returning to school face a new challenge: the shift to college life.

During the last two years, UNM has seen a 38 percent increase of veterans’ enrollment, according to Student Veterans of UNM.

With the official end of the war in Iraq in 2011, many veterans, including Vice President of Student Veterans Army Sgt. Chris Duncan, have decided to return to school, or start college for the first time.

Duncan, a 32-year-old philosophy student, is one of the 1,070 veterans enrolled at UNM. He decided to start college in spring 2009, immediately after two years’ deployment in Iraq.

Duncan said he hopes to earn skills that will help him secure a job in the civilian world.

“Going to school was less stressful than having a job, in my opinion, so in going to school I’ve had a less stressful transition to civilian life,” he said.

On the day before he returned from Iraq, Duncan said he witnessed the death of three of his fellow soldiers after an improvised explosive device exploded near a Humvee he was driving.

Duncan, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in Iraq, said he wasn’t aware of the full effect of post traumatic stress disorder on his ability to focus until he began at UNM.
read more here