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GRADUATION GUIDE / THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
Wide range of options available for new graduates
BY CLAIRE MCINERNY editor@kansan.com
As some seniors are preparing for jobs and planning their lives after school, some students are experiencing a different scenario: the end of college.
Four vea degree knc
er. One opportunity that enables students to make that happen is through Teach for America. Teach For America is a program that allows recent college graduates to teach in public schools in low-income communities. The assignment lasts for two years.
Wiechman spent his two years in Saint Lucia doing community development. He helped a farmers' cooperative develop a grant proposal to get funding for a composting project from the United Nations and also taught reading and music at a school.
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a way to prolong having to find a job, but rather look at it as a way to find new opportunities and new ways for students to use their passions. She said a lot of politicians who now work in Congress were in the program and are now fighting for education rights.
The Peace Corps was an attraction for Wichman
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2011
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Hultman studies a textbook at Watson Library. Hultman is one of 300 U.S. veterans attending the University of Kansas. U.S. veterans face many challenges when making the adjustment from military life to civilian life.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Contributed photo
Boots and some left over gear is all remains from one student Wounded Warrior and the G.I. bill many veterans are turning to
Contributed photo
Cavalry Scout Taylor Hultman, a sophomore from Maize, stands in full uniform during his first tour of duty in Baghdad.
BY ALEC TILSON
actilson@kansan.com
WOUNDED WARRIORS
Taylor Hultman relaxed in the back of the Humvee, settled among fellow soldiers, as their four-vehicle convoy returned to base in the Baghdad night. Awaiting them were a warm meal and some much-needed sleep.
go to kan
A flash of light suddenly illuminated the rear view mirrors, shock waves rattled the two-and-a-half-ton truck and they grabbed their rifles. An improvised explosive device, killer of many U.S. soldiers in Iraq, had exploded a few yards away. Although shock up literally and figuratively, they were still alive.
Six months later, Hultman, now a KU student, steered his 2002 Hundai Sonata west on the Kansas Turnipke, heading for his home in Wichita. As he gazed through the windshield at ice roads and snow-covered ditches, a loud thud tuted and shook the car. He floored the accelerator, swerved across the other lane, and stopped on the shoulder, his knuckles white from squeezing the steering wheel.
knuckles white from squeezing me. For one panicked moment, he was back in Iraq escaping an IED kill zone the way he was trained. He checked each mirror, breathed deeply, and his heart rate calmed. There was no IED. A thick sheet of ice had dislodged from his sunroof and slammed down on the trunk.
An increasing number of veterans are enrolling in universities around the nation. About 800,000 veterans used GI Bill benefits to attend school in an increase over the previous year.
down on the trunk.
Hultman, 23, is one of an estimated 300 veterans attending the University of Kansas who brought their combat experiences home with them. Some didn't escape roadside IEDs or sniper bullets and were left with physical disabilities. Others are afflicted with horrifying memories that scar them emotionally and reappear as nightmares, anxiety attacks and flashbacks similar to what Hultman experienced on the Kansas Turnpike.
2010, a 40 percent increase over the previous year,
according to Keith Wilson, director of education services for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Making the transition from soldier to student is a challenging quest to blend back into a society they once knew. Despite the significant number of service-connected disabilities, no veteran fights the same battle.
the battle. Hultman was lucky to return without significant physical injury, but Staff Sgt. Ethan Harris, 41, underwent spinal surgery and is medically retired from the Army. He deals with anxiety along with several other medical diagnoses as he works on a master's degree from the School of Education.
Sgt. Nathan Dehnke, who lost vision in his left eye and suffered nerve damage in his left leg, is also medically retired from the Army and graduated with his master's in political science this past May.
DETERMINING THE WOUNDED
The University's wounded warriors are here to earn degrees but also to assimilate back into normal lives after the chaos of combat.
including rost-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
For every one death on the battlefield, there are seven physically wounded service members, according to a landmark 2008 study by the Research and Development Corporation, an independent nonprofit institution that conducts research and analysis on domestic issues such as health, education and national security.
When he returned from Iraq in May 2008, military doctors discovered extensive damage to his spinal column and three months later performed a cervical fusion. Titanium rods now link four vertebrae in the upper region of his spine. Months before surgery, he was diagnosed with multiple service-connected behavioral health disorders as well, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Ethan Harris, retired combat medic and current KU student, suffered neck and spinal injuries resulting from repeated concussive blasts in combat coupled with hours spent carrying heavy equipment.
Dehnke's physical injuries can be traced to a single IED blast that left him blind in his left eye and with nerve damage in his left leg.
An estimated 300,000 veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD or major depression, according to RAND's study.
and with nerve damage in its herniage. In addition to physical disabilities, many veterans encounter behavioral health issues resulting from combat experience. Two of the most common are PTSD and depression. Having both conditions is common.
For years, mental health disorders went largely unrecognized in the military and many veterans faced with such issues remain undiagnosed. As
during an attack on his platoon in Baghdad. Dehnke underwent facial reconstructive surgery yet still has his visionless left eye, though it will likely need to be removed one day. As a graduate student at the University, Dehnke's injuries complicated the day-to-day demands of a college student.
dations is common. These ailments remain hidden from view but their prevalence is astoundingly evident.
Without the depth perception he once had, long reading assignments were more challenging. Both eyes grew tired, even ached, and reading on a computer screen or from digital presentations was straining so he preferred a hard copy of articles and assignments.
He still walked to class even though the nerve damage in his left leg was quite painful some days. On a busy sidewalk, he could unintentionally bump someone if they were walking on his blind side. It
AFTER THE FACT: LONG TERM EFFECTS
Sgt. Zedrick Gilsper
For those who experienced bodily harm in combat, physical limitations present a daily challenge.
"The anger, the bitterness of being a totally different person half the time from what I normally would be, trying to adjust and still not being able to would be the hardest part. Knowing what you were before and how you are now is totally different and you're wondering how you got to that stage."
health concerns. "Behavioral health is a huge thing now compared to when I first got in," Hultman said. "If you said you were depressed, they said drink some water and move on. Now they take it pretty seriously."
Dehnke, 36, has viewed the world through one functional right eye since early June 2007, when exploded shrapnel peppered the left side of his body.
awareness continues to increase, publicly and within the military, wounds once considered pseudoillnesses have become widely accepted as legitimate health concerns.
probably seemed rude, he said, but it's a part of the process.
He refused to make excuses for himself and insists he's just thankful to have all of his limbs.
"As long as I have persistence and am willing to work at things a little harder, I can do most everything," he said. "I just can't do it quite the same or adapt as quickly."
Dehike has a mild case of TBI, damage to the brain caused by a sudden trauma, and experiences lapses in memory as a result.
Some wounded veterans face arguably more debilitating, even terrifying head wounds.
Sporadic dreams about combat, but rarely about the actual incident he suffered injuries from, keep