New class strives for vet friendly campus

Talk to a veteran at Norwich, and often the same story will be told.

"We were repeatedly surprised to discover that many Norwich student veterans felt a sense of isolation and disconnectedness from the Norwich community," said Professor William Estill of the communications department.

This discovery stemmed from interviews done to produce the video, "The War at Home," which explores the lives of Iraq and Afghan Veterans and the issues they face upon returning home from war.

Over 15 Norwich student and faculty veterans participated in the interview process, sharing their experiences of combat, relationships and adjustment. After hearing the same story from the veterans, Professor Estill decided more needed to be done at Norwich to make their transition at Norwich more positive. 

"More and more our documentaries have become vehicles to help people make positive change for themselves and society," Estill said. 

So he, along with the help of Jesse Mattson, 25, a senior communications major from Essex Junction, Vt., created a veterans communication seminar that counts as a three-credit humanities elective for Norwich students. "The class acts as a network, a focus group and a forum to learn what readjustments student veterans face. We also want to reach out and educate the community, effecting positive change," Estill said.

The class was first offered in the spring of 2009 and the students who participated worked hard to create changes at Norwich. Their goal was to positively affect student veterans and make integration into the community easier, especially for students coming back from combat.

"The goal is to have a combination of activities and outcomes. It's a place for them to come together and discuss experiences and the challenges and opportunities they face. We have a variety of guests related to their needs, expertise and goals," Estill said.

"The major project of last year's class was to write a proposal of the changes that would make Norwich more vet-friendly. The students did independent research outside of class and made a formal presentation of their proposal to the Colby Writer's Symposium," Estill said.

Nine students who completed tours of duty in Iraq signed up for the pilot course, and they bonded in the very first class meeting.  As they expressed in "Recommendations for Change," "While our experiences in war were different, our feelings about them weren't. What we experience is hard for civilians to relate to and understand, and having this class opened the opportunities to share our experiences with one another, good and bad.  We all struggled to readjust to campus life, making our academic goals difficult to achieve."

"Last year they provided such a report and that is what lead to all the improvements this year, but we are not done," said President Richard Schneider.

The first step the Norwich administration took in making the school more vet friendly was to hire a veteran's advocate, Joyce Rivers. Her primary responsibility is to make the transition back to student life easier for Norwich vets, and she acts as a liaison between students and staff/faculty to assist in any problems and issues these vets face. 

This spring, Estill is leading the second vet communications seminar, hoping the students will continue breaking boundaries within the Norwich community and provide a safe haven for vets to communicate with one another. 

"Before the class, I thought that veterans would want to talk about their experiences. What I found is that they hold so much inside because that is what the culture of the military has taught them to do.  Like anyone, when a level of trust is reached and the environment is safe, they talk about their experiences and how it has impacted their lives," Estill said.

This semester's class has five veterans, and a corps student who plans to commission as an officer in the military. 

John Pomeroy, 25, a civil engineering major from Stafford, Va., served as a Marine Corporal from 2002-06 and completed two tours in Iraq.  Pomeroy said he was looking for a humanities elective that "wasn't a waste of time."

The current class has three goals: the transition for students leaving to and returning from deployments, a short term prep class offered to veterans to help ease back into an academic lifestyle and recruitment at VA hospitals.

"I am very interested in what this class has to offer and I have asked them for a report at the end of the class on how to continue to make NU a better place for our Veterans," Schneider said.

Students of the class have already hosted guests such as Joyce Rivers and President Schneider to share their concerns about problems veterans face upon returning to or beginning campus life at Norwich.

"I hope to make a difference in other veterans lives and I also hope to help future veterans have an easy transition back to Norwich," said Cynthia Freudenthal, 24, a senior nursing major from Gorham, N.H.

Both Freudenthal and Pomeroy felt it was difficult to find and meet other veterans because of the strict structure their majors require. The vet seminar class offers them the opportunity to easily connect with one another.

"This class gives me a great opportunity to meet other veterans. I am very happy in this class and I feel that it truly is very important for Norwich to have," Freudenthal said.
All of the students have the same goals and ideas on how to improve the NU experience for all veterans. 

 "I want to make this school more vet friendly," said Eric Boudro, 24, a senior criminal justice major from Windsor, Vt., who served four years with the Air Force. 

Boudro faced many challenges upon returning to campus, such as registering for class and problems with VA loans, and he hopes Norwich can ease this burden for other veterans.

"I don't think that it (Norwich) is a very vet-friendly campus but it is getting better over time and this class is really pushing all the issues that it can," Boudro said.

Pomeroy has had a different experience on the Norwich campus, but still wants to help veterans integrate better into the school. "I feel that all of the staff, the majority of the students and most of the faculty are extremely vet friendly," he said.

Estill hopes the class will be offered next year, and that the number of students will continue to increase.

"They really seem to make a difference when they're able to come together, and that's what this class allows," Mattson said.

The class will continue to strive to their common goal of making Norwich more vet friendly. "I know based on these students input we will be even better next year," Schneider said.