Return from Duty

Straight out of high school Oliver Chu joined the Army National Guard. The Nursing and Wharton senior never thought that he would end up spending nine months peace-keeping in Bosnia after his junior year at Penn.

"I wanted to do something a little more patriotic," he said. "At that time, I never thought I'd be activated."

However, Chu -- like other military veterans on campus -- said that he returned having gained a different perspective due to the time he spent overseas.

"Penn is a little bubble," Chu said, adding that students worry a lot about exams and grades.

Staff psychologist Janice Freeman of Counseling and Psychological Services said that a soldiers' experiences may change their values and perceptions.

Veterans "will need time to readjust to civilian ... and campus life," said Freeman, who estimated that acclimation usually takes several months.

"Military service accelerates your maturity," said Michael Stevko -- a 24-year-old junior in the College of General Studies -- who spent four years in the Navy before applying to Penn.

"When you're 13,000 miles away from home and it's Christmas ... things start to be put into perspective," he said.

Stevko described standing guard at a fence post at Misawa Air Base in Japan during lockdown conditions. He said that conditions on the base became especially intense after the bombing of the USS Cole, the collision of a Chinese fighter jet with a naval reconnaissance plane and the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

In reference to the trials and tribulations of daily college life, Stevko said, "You have no idea how easy you've got it."

However, Chu said that even after spending nine months peace-keeping in a war-torn country, it is easy for him to fall back into his old routine.

After almost two years back at school,"I have to consciously tell myself the experiences I've had [to realize] that the world is just so much bigger than school and grades."

Director of Veterans Upward Bound Diane Sandefur said that due to very specific training and uncommon experiences, veterans "need guidance in restructuring their life after they have left the military."

Although the Veterans Upward Bound program offers pre-college courses and counseling to low-income or first-generation veterans, it does not offer services for students like Chu who got called to duty during their years at Penn.

At 23, Chu is older than many of his classmates. He said that because of his age, this year has been "a little tough."

Due to spending a prolonged amount of time in a life-threatening situation, Freeman said that veterans "may feel out of sync with other people their age who have not had their experiences."

On the whole, however, Chu's return to campus "wasn't that bad" because "Penn was great" administratively.

"They jumped through hoops to make sure all my classes were set" so that graduation would not have to be delayed, he said.

Similar to Chu, Stevko said that being so much older than the majority of his peers makes him feel "a little out of place."

He added that friendships made in the military are different from those made during the college years.

"It's just a different world that you live in for that time," Stevko said. "You bond with people in an uncommon way."

Although Stevko's military service is behind him, many Penn students enrolled in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps have their service ahead of them.

College junior Andrew Petry -- a student in Penn's NROTC -- said that the media and the military constantly remind him of the war in Iraq.

And although he will probably participate in the war after graduating from Penn, he said he is "looking forward to his chance" to serve his country.

Petry said that he does not "focus his thoughts ... on the negative aspects of the war."

"If anything, I'm excited to do my part," he said.

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