Kenosha, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS)- A small Wisconsin college reaches a big milestone. Carthage College has been ranked the top college in the midwest for military veteran students. This is according to the U.S. News and World Report’s 2020 Best Colleges Rankings.
Junior Cody Pearson says he agrees with that status. He’s now pursuing a pre-med degree and wants to become a doctor. Cody is also a navy veteran.
“My time overseas was the most rewarding for me,” says Cody.
He’s been all over the world and event his wife while on deployment in Japan.
“I met my wife in Okinawa,” says Cody. “I love her even more now than I did then.”
Cody’s second love is what brought him back to college.
“I went back to school for my love for medicine,” he says.
Pursuing his dream, however, has posed challenges. Cody says this is true for many veterans who decide to become students again.
“A lot of the problems I‘ve had was being the adult student in a room full of 18, 19 ,20 year olds,” Cody reflects. “You sort of feel out of place.”
The average age of veteran students at Carthage is 27. The college has 31 self-identified student vets.
Carthage College received a $15,000 grant this year that Cody hopes will help he and his fellow vets. The Green Zone Grant will develop a training curriculum this spring to teach staff how to best support these students.
Pioneered at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2010, Green Zone training is now being offered at more than 100 universities and organizations nationwide.
“Seeing these grants show up at colleges, getting new staff especially for veterans, it will only increase the benefit that we have,” Cody says.
Theater Professor Martin McClendon helped write the grant. McClendon is part of the campus committee called the Military Support and Services Initiative (MSSI). It’s composed of about 15 faculty, staff, and community members focused on increasing veteran student services on campus.
“There’s a wide spectrum of student veterans and challenges they’re facing just like regular students, but it helps if we have some background in military culture,” Martin says.
Martin has his own connections to the military.
“Not only my dad who served in Germany during the Vietnam war, but my wife’s dad is a career navy officer,” he says.
He and Cody know each other well and they both say resources for the student veteran population its critical.
“There’s always outreach for those students in need,” Cody says.
“The object of the Green Zone is so we can all get the same vocabulary and level the playing field about who these student veterans are and how we can best serve them,” Martin says.
In addition to the Green Zone grant, Carthage received a $3,000 grant from Just Live Inc.
The local non-profit provides community awareness about suicide and suicide prevention during the institution’s Veteran Night of the Arts program held in November.
Green Zone training rolls out this summer, ahead of the 2020 fall semester.