On September 3, American Radio Works, the national documentary unit of American Public Media, aired the documentary “From Boots to Books” about the educational journey some veterans have taken after serving their country. The documentary features Columbia University’s School of General Studies as the premier school for veterans and highlights the stories of two GS students, Alex McCoy and Kevin Anderson.
Alex McCoy grew up on military bases and, after graduating from high school, joined the Marine Corps. He spent the next six years guarding U.S. embassies overseas. During his service for the Department of State, he realized he wanted to go to college. But as he applied to universities he found the application process frustrating: most colleges did not have a space on their application for him to explain the gap in his schooling or allow for letters of recommendation from someone other than a high school guidance counselor. These frustrations were alleviated when Alex learned about GS.
It is not merely a coincidence that veterans find an ideal school at GS. The undergraduate college was founded to serve veterans of World War II, many of whom used the original GI Bill, which was created to help returning troops transition back to civilian life. The money allotted by the GI Bill to the returning veterans educated millions who might not have been able to afford higher education. And thanks to the more recent Post-9/11 GI Bill, the numbers of veterans who want and are able to return to school are again surging.
Curtis Rodgers, Vice Dean of the School of General Studies, actively recruits veterans to attend GS, despite that even some military education officers have questioned whether veterans could succeed. “Those experiences inform the way you view the world,” Rodgers said. “They inform the way you think about problems. They inform your intellectual path—what you want to do in the future. And that’s what we’re seeking out. We want students who had those experiences because it changes the conversation. And you want a diverse student population because that makes the discourse that much deeper.”
Kevin Anderson, another GS student who was featured in the American Radio Works documentary, is a junior majoring in Middle Eastern studies. In the documentary, he says that during his first months at Columbia he was intimidated by how smart the students in the classrooms seemed, but then he realized that in many ways he had a greater understanding of the world than many of them. Anderson, who joined the Army because he did not want to go to college, now hopes to go on to law school after he graduates from Columbia.
“I really strongly believe that you shouldn’t just get one shot at life,” McCoy says at the end of the documentary. “And getting that second chance is something that I really value about the military and about Columbia for letting me be here.”
Listen online to the documentary “From Boots to Books.”
