thedrifter
09-05-08, 07:35 PM
19 Columbia Freshmen Jump to the Ivy League From the Armed Forces
By Bari Weiss, Special to the Sun | September 5, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/19-columbia-freshmen-jump-to-the-ivy-league-from/85270/
It is freshman Stephen D'Alessio's first week of classes at Columbia University, and he can't find his Spanish class. The maze of buildings is a far cry from the battlefields of Iraq, where the 31-year-old spent a large part of the past eight years as a sergeant in the Marines.
Mr. D'Alessio is one of 19 incoming freshmen who have served in the Armed Forces.
Ten years ago, he says he couldn't have imagined that one day he'd be in the Ivy League. "I did so poorly in high school. I just scratched by," Mr. D'Alessio said. His stint as a Marine, he said, turned his life around. "It changed everything for me. I couldn't add a fraction, now I'm finding the area of a curve." He researched colleges using an Internet connection on a military ship, where "each page took 10 minutes to load."
Another freshman, Ben Feibleman, 25, an Army veteran who protected the American Embassy in Baghdad, said he's confident his experience in the military will give him an advantage at Columbia this fall. "You sit down next to these girls who are 18 years old and they've got plastic jewelry from Claire's and they're trying to understand the rise and fall of the USSR. They can do it; but we've seen dictators rise and fall," Mr. Feibleman said. He said he was a high school failure, and that "going to Columbia boggles the mind."
Historically, Columbia has been instrumental in the education of American servicemen. Prior to World War II, it was one of 131 public and private colleges that participated in the V-12 program, which trained more than 100,000 young Americans to join the Armed Forces. The School of General Studies, where all 19 veterans are enrolled, was founded in 1947 specifically to assimilate the high number of GIs coming home from World War II.
Today, Columbia does not allow ROTC to recruit on campus, but all the veterans interviewed by The New York Sun said they felt at home on campus. "I've received a much warmer welcome than I anticipated," Charles Fletcher, 26, said. He joined the Marines directly after September 11, 2001, serving two tours of duty in Iraq. "In Falluja, you wonder if you're going to make it to the next day. If you'll have arms and legs. If you'll be suicidal when you get back," Mr. Fletcher said. "The Marines gave me a sense of appreciation. They helped to understand how to take advantage of something," the Queens native, who intends to major in fine arts, said. "I'm just happy to be alive. I'm ecstatic here," he said.
Still, the veterans said the transition can be strange. "There are two different worlds: the civilian world and the 'real' world,'" Mr. D'Alessio said.
According to Eric Vinceslio, 29, who served as a firefighter in Iraq and Afghanistan, being back in the civilian world, "you can lose sight of where you came from." To keep perspective, Mr. Vinceslio said he stays in touch with his friends still enlisted. He is planning to attend medical school with the goal of re-enlisting, next time as an Army doctor.
Paying for Columbia, where tuition can cost up to $38,964 at the School of General Studies, is a whole other story. Messrs. D'Alessio, Fletcher, Vinceslio, and Feibleman are all doing it through loans and the GI Bill. The current GI Bill covers $1,321 a month for full-time students, with no living stipend. "There are few places in the U.S. more expensive than New York," Mr. Feibleman, who is living at 173rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue, said. Under the new GI Bill, which goes into effect in 2009, veterans will receive money for living costs. Because the GI Bill now covers only 36 months, "a lot of guys are going to forfeit using the GI Bill until 2009, when the new one kicks in," Mr. Feibleman said.
For some veterans, the stress of going into debt is a major obstacle. Veteran Jason Gustavson, 25, studied for the SATs in his bunk in Iraq and managed to score a 2,300, nearly perfect. He started Columbia last semester, but "the amount of debt I was incurring was making me lose my ability to do things. I wanted to be able to envision whatever life I wanted when I graduated," Mr. Gustavson said. He decided to take this year off and make some money back home in Santa Rosa, Calif.
His grandfather, a World War II veteran, went to Columbia through the V-12 program. "He remembers the GI Bill paying everything for him and not having any debt. No matter what school he went to — Columbia, or Stanford, or Berkeley," Mr. Gustavson said.
Generally, the veterans are hesitant to talk about politics. One expressed support for Senator McCain, one for Senator Obama, and the others declined to comment. All said they were aware of Columbia's reputation as a left-leaning campus when they applied. "My family doctor joked that I was going to have to sign allegiance to the Communist Party, Mr. Feibleman, who supports Mr. Obama, said.
"Being in other cultures where they don't have free speech — you can't really appreciate that idea until you've seen the absence of it," Mr. Vinceslio said. They're all planning on entering the lottery for tickets to a joint Obama-McCain appearance next week at Columbia.
The veterans say they can pick each other out of a crowd. "We find each other really quick," Mr. Feibleman said.
"You have a bond, even if you don't know their name," Mr. D'Alessio said.
Ellie
By Bari Weiss, Special to the Sun | September 5, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/19-columbia-freshmen-jump-to-the-ivy-league-from/85270/
It is freshman Stephen D'Alessio's first week of classes at Columbia University, and he can't find his Spanish class. The maze of buildings is a far cry from the battlefields of Iraq, where the 31-year-old spent a large part of the past eight years as a sergeant in the Marines.
Mr. D'Alessio is one of 19 incoming freshmen who have served in the Armed Forces.
Ten years ago, he says he couldn't have imagined that one day he'd be in the Ivy League. "I did so poorly in high school. I just scratched by," Mr. D'Alessio said. His stint as a Marine, he said, turned his life around. "It changed everything for me. I couldn't add a fraction, now I'm finding the area of a curve." He researched colleges using an Internet connection on a military ship, where "each page took 10 minutes to load."
Another freshman, Ben Feibleman, 25, an Army veteran who protected the American Embassy in Baghdad, said he's confident his experience in the military will give him an advantage at Columbia this fall. "You sit down next to these girls who are 18 years old and they've got plastic jewelry from Claire's and they're trying to understand the rise and fall of the USSR. They can do it; but we've seen dictators rise and fall," Mr. Feibleman said. He said he was a high school failure, and that "going to Columbia boggles the mind."
Historically, Columbia has been instrumental in the education of American servicemen. Prior to World War II, it was one of 131 public and private colleges that participated in the V-12 program, which trained more than 100,000 young Americans to join the Armed Forces. The School of General Studies, where all 19 veterans are enrolled, was founded in 1947 specifically to assimilate the high number of GIs coming home from World War II.
Today, Columbia does not allow ROTC to recruit on campus, but all the veterans interviewed by The New York Sun said they felt at home on campus. "I've received a much warmer welcome than I anticipated," Charles Fletcher, 26, said. He joined the Marines directly after September 11, 2001, serving two tours of duty in Iraq. "In Falluja, you wonder if you're going to make it to the next day. If you'll have arms and legs. If you'll be suicidal when you get back," Mr. Fletcher said. "The Marines gave me a sense of appreciation. They helped to understand how to take advantage of something," the Queens native, who intends to major in fine arts, said. "I'm just happy to be alive. I'm ecstatic here," he said.
Still, the veterans said the transition can be strange. "There are two different worlds: the civilian world and the 'real' world,'" Mr. D'Alessio said.
According to Eric Vinceslio, 29, who served as a firefighter in Iraq and Afghanistan, being back in the civilian world, "you can lose sight of where you came from." To keep perspective, Mr. Vinceslio said he stays in touch with his friends still enlisted. He is planning to attend medical school with the goal of re-enlisting, next time as an Army doctor.
Paying for Columbia, where tuition can cost up to $38,964 at the School of General Studies, is a whole other story. Messrs. D'Alessio, Fletcher, Vinceslio, and Feibleman are all doing it through loans and the GI Bill. The current GI Bill covers $1,321 a month for full-time students, with no living stipend. "There are few places in the U.S. more expensive than New York," Mr. Feibleman, who is living at 173rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue, said. Under the new GI Bill, which goes into effect in 2009, veterans will receive money for living costs. Because the GI Bill now covers only 36 months, "a lot of guys are going to forfeit using the GI Bill until 2009, when the new one kicks in," Mr. Feibleman said.
For some veterans, the stress of going into debt is a major obstacle. Veteran Jason Gustavson, 25, studied for the SATs in his bunk in Iraq and managed to score a 2,300, nearly perfect. He started Columbia last semester, but "the amount of debt I was incurring was making me lose my ability to do things. I wanted to be able to envision whatever life I wanted when I graduated," Mr. Gustavson said. He decided to take this year off and make some money back home in Santa Rosa, Calif.
His grandfather, a World War II veteran, went to Columbia through the V-12 program. "He remembers the GI Bill paying everything for him and not having any debt. No matter what school he went to — Columbia, or Stanford, or Berkeley," Mr. Gustavson said.
Generally, the veterans are hesitant to talk about politics. One expressed support for Senator McCain, one for Senator Obama, and the others declined to comment. All said they were aware of Columbia's reputation as a left-leaning campus when they applied. "My family doctor joked that I was going to have to sign allegiance to the Communist Party, Mr. Feibleman, who supports Mr. Obama, said.
"Being in other cultures where they don't have free speech — you can't really appreciate that idea until you've seen the absence of it," Mr. Vinceslio said. They're all planning on entering the lottery for tickets to a joint Obama-McCain appearance next week at Columbia.
The veterans say they can pick each other out of a crowd. "We find each other really quick," Mr. Feibleman said.
"You have a bond, even if you don't know their name," Mr. D'Alessio said.
Ellie