{"id":40418,"date":"2015-11-13T16:37:25","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T23:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=40418"},"modified":"2015-11-13T16:37:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T23:37:25","slug":"au-student-veterans-build-camaraderie-campus-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/au-student-veterans-build-camaraderie-campus-center\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU student veterans build camaraderie in campus center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Military veterans looking to earn a college degree after active duty face unique challenges compared with\u00a0recent high school graduates. Northern Arizona University, which continually earns high rankings<\/a> for its efforts serving veterans, has a busy Veteran Success Center<\/a>, offering students a place to connect, study and get formal support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come here every spare moment I have throughout the day,\u201d said Ron Allen<\/strong>, a Marine veteran who discovered the center during his second semester at NAU.<\/p>\n

Impressed with initiatives for student veterans, Allen took a job as a mentor to his peers. \u201cI work one-on-one with all the veterans who transfer to NAU, making sure they have a smooth transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamie Murtagh<\/strong>, an Army reservist who worked in network operations during one of her two tours in Kuwait, spends time in the center because of the camaraderie she\u2019s found. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what kind of day I\u2019m having, coming here makes it better.\u201d Murtagh, who graduates next month, has accepted a job offer from General Motors in Austin.<\/p>\n

Former Marine Zach Hamilton\u00a0<\/strong>said the student veteran center was under construction when he first came to NAU and since it opened, his entire university experience changed. \u201cComing in here each day lightens my mood, helps me put things in perspective and has made me more open as a person in my classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton is a political science major studying Arabic. His experience as a soldier in Afghanistan influenced his desire to gain more cultural understanding and work to find ways to meld ideals of democracy with Middle Eastern culture.<\/p>\n

During this Veterans Day week, NAU\u2019s Veteran Success\u00a0Center was as busy as usual, with more discussion about what it means to be a veteran. \u201cHere, we\u2019re all family, brothers and sisters in arms,\u201d said Murtagh. \u201cOn Veterans Day, it’s a time for the rest of America to remember that freedom isn\u2019t always free.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Military veterans looking to earn a college degree after active duty face unique challenges compared with\u00a0recent high school graduates. Northern Arizona University, which continually earns high rankings for its efforts serving veterans, has a busy Veteran Success Center, offering students a place to connect, study and get formal support. \u201cI come here every spare moment…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":40419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}