Veterans at CSUN
Hundreds of students at Cal State Northridge are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These students can face a difficult time making the transition from military life to campus life, but some statistics suggest they have a good chance of graduating on time because of GI Bill benefits such as tuition and housing allowances, as well as early registration dates for classes.
“I’m much more dedicated to school than I was before,” journalism major and Afghanistan veteran Brenden Nakamine said. “It’s easier to study and do my work…I have three more years of school. Then I mean to graduate and have a career.”
Iraq veteran Nic Koppert said he is motivated to study and learn by remembering his comrades who died while serving. “It’s bittersweet that they died while over there,” Koppert said. “But it is making me a better person… Everyday I wake up appreciating life.”
Nakamine said he interrupted his college experience to enlist in the U.S. Army. “It was something I wanted to do, to give back to my country.”
Nakamine said his tour in Afghanistan involved trying to help the people of that country. He said he did a lot of office work, but that he also went on missions to meet with village elders and local leaders, to try the improve the quality of life and to try to get the support of the Afghan people.
Koppert said his decision to enlist in the Army was a “rush of blood to the head.”
“You get there, and at the end of the day, you just want you and your comrades to get back alive, and that’s all that it’s about,” Koppert said.