An Autoethnography of a Non-traditional Student Veteran: A Journey of Transition to the Present
Abstract
There is a lack of research on career military student veterans in higher education. I use a layered-account autoethnographic approach (Adams et al., 2011) to recount my experience as a career military student veteran. Having spent 30-years in uniform, I felt that my perspectives could help both student veterans and career military student veterans traverse through the world of higher education while providing staff and faculty a better understanding of how career military veterans see the world. In general, veterans have difficulty trying to keep their military identity separate from their student identity. Military identities are more engrained in veterans who have made the military a career. Career military personnel's transition is often more challenging due to their age and compromised physical and mental capabilities. My experience with higher education led me through depression, pain, and self-doubt. Education was my gateway to regaining my identity and, to a great extent, my sanity. Education has provided the structure and sense of mission that I longed for after retirement from the military.
Subject Area
Rhetoric|Higher education
Recommended Citation
Paquian, Ruben, "An Autoethnography of a Non-traditional Student Veteran: A Journey of Transition to the Present" (2020). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI28314708.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI28314708