As a petty officer second class in the Navy, it was Adam Connell's job to successfully board ships being used for arms smuggling, drug trafficking, and other nefarious activities in South America and the Persian Gulf.
To get from his frigate to a 200,000-ton supertanker commandeered by pirates and other bad guys took telescopic hook ladders, precision timing, and lots of nerve, especially since the ships were sometimes traveling abreast at speeds of 25 knots.
But the distance Connell had to travel from ship to ship pales in comparison to the cultural gap he's had to bridge transitioning from almost five years of military life to campus life as a nursing student at the University of Iowa.
Fortunately, Connell, a sophomore working on his Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, found a range of services the UI offers to make the transition to college for veterans a bit easier financially, academically, and even socially.
Connell enrolled in the first-ever meeting of the College of Education class "Life After War: Post-Deployment Issues," designed exclusively to help veterans examine their military experiences, while honing study skills. He got a work-study position in the UI Veterans Service Office, which offers veterans access to computers and tutoring, through a collaborative program between the UI and the VA Hospital in Iowa City. And he met other veterans through the UI Veterans Association.
QUOTE/UNQUOTE
Adam Connell: "The support offered through the UI Veterans Association really helped me out a lot. I was able to hang out with people who speak the same language as I do. And it was just good having camaraderie again, something I took for granted when I was on active duty."
DID YOU KNOW?
Iowa and Texas are the first two states being used as test beds for a pilot Hero to Hired program that connects veterans with employers eager to hire them, using a website and mobile app. The UI is helping direct veterans to the service, which will add four additional states in 2013, and is working to get listed on the H2H website as an institution seeking veteran job applicants.
FYI
Learn more about some of the many ways the UI is helping veterans succeed at http://now.uiowa.edu/2012/04/
