TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The University of Arizona is partnering with the nonprofit Warrior Scholar Project to help military veterans transition from serving the country to studying in college.
WSP says over 115,000 veterans move from military service to the college classroom.
Andrew Suarez and nine others met at the University of Arizona campus for the two-week academic bootcamp.
The University has been hosting the academic intensives since 2016.
When Suarez left the Marine Corps in 2021, He went to school to study kinesiology.
“Most of the people who are entering their freshman year have been using computers and laptops and iPads their entire education," he said. "So there are skills, websites, videos, that they know that I don’t know.”
He said he struggled with readjusting to being in the classroom until one of his friends told him about the Warrior Scholar Project.
Here, he was around other veterans or active military members who were experiencing something similar — both students and teachers.
Some of the classes in the bootcamp are taught by WSP Fellows who had taken the class before. The students and fellows agreed that there was a benefit to having someone with a shared experience. Alberto Vasquez-Varela was one of those teachers.
“You’re told about this when you’re transitioning out of the military," he said. "That whole purpose— you need to find your purpose, and that’s exactly what I was struggling with.”
Vasquez-Varela said he found it again when he started studying and teaching helped him with that.
"I found throughout my academic journey that teaching is actually the best way that I learn," he said. "My main priority right now is just to be a sponge, intake as much as possible."
Vasquez-Varela and Suarez are both headed back to school in a few weeks—to East Los Angeles College and Montclair State University respectively.
