Among friends

IOWA CITY - Ted John, a former Marine who served in Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, has held 25 jobs in the past 18 years.

Seeing the Iraq War-based movie “The Hurt Locker” a few years ago triggered symptoms of his post-traumatic stress disorder, with which he still struggles. His return to college life as a non-traditional student at the University of Iowa is challenging at times, too.

Those are the kind of things John talks about with other student veterans in a UI class that only veterans may take.

“Other people just don't get it. Unless you're there, you don't understand,” John, 43, said about the benefits of the class for veterans. “It's tough because you're dealing with all these external but also internal conflicts you're trying to work out. For many people it's just overwhelming.”

John is working toward a second bachelor's degree in actuarial science; he earned his first degree in business administration after he ended his six-year stint in the Marines in 1992. He moved to Iowa City from Kansas City, Mo., in January to attend the UI, partly because he heard it was a veteran-friendly school.

The veterans-only class, Life After War: Post-Deployment Issues, is one example of that, John said.

The class meets Monday evenings. Students learn about biological responses to combat experience and how things such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, sleep problems and chronic pain are common reactions.

“By understanding those natural consequences of combat ... we can help decrease the stigma,” said Tamara Woods, a UI doctoral candidate in counseling psychology who teaches the class.

The UI has more than 500 students using veterans benefits this semester, a number that has doubled in the past five years. UI officials said they expect it could hit 1,000 in coming years.

The class, jointly supported by the UI and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City, also touches on academic readjustment. Students learn tips on studying, note-taking, online searches and reading for comprehension.

“A lot of veterans have been out of school for a while, and things may be new to them or they may need refreshing,” Woods said.

Limiting the class to veterans makes it easier to talk about your experiences, said Adam Connell, a sophomore in nursing who took the class last fall. Connell, 25, served in the Navy from 2005 to 2010 and enrolled at the UI in summer 2010. He thought the veterans class would be a good way for him to meet people in a new town.

“I could sit down and tell story after story to just about anybody, but it takes another veteran to actually realize what that's all about, what was going on behind the scenes, to actually know that lifestyle,” he said. “We're faced with so many more obstacles to actually overcome than the normal college student.”

Woods created the course with Michael Hall, a neuropsychologist at the VA Health Care System and UI adjunct assistant professor in psychiatry. Woods was serving a clinical practicum at the VA Health Care System under Hall's mentorship when they noted a pattern of veterans dropping out of college shortly after returning to school.

“We have a lot of people really dealing with some pretty difficult issues, and it comes out in the classroom,” Hall said.

This is the third semester the class has been offered at the UI. It also was offered at Kirkwood Community College for one semester as a noncredit, pilot class, before being added to the UI roster. The course has 12 students this semester, and it's capped at 15.

Colleges around the country have expressed interest in launching similar classes, Hall said, and he and Woods hope to write a textbook soon so other schools can use the model.

Some Kirkwood student veterans come to the UI to take the class, and Kirkwood would like to offer the class on its campus, said Vicki Terronez, Kirkwood's veterans affairs certifying officer. Kirkwood has 600 students using veterans benefits this semester, up from 200 eight years ago.

Hall and Woods are pursuing a grant they would use to also set up a model for helping veterans with deployment-related disabilities through school and into full-time employment, Hall said.

“We're working toward a comprehensive rehab model for all student veterans,” Hall said.