Feature photo by Shawn Jones
By Kirin Stewart
Long before he stepped into a college classroom, Alex Garcia dedicated nearly half his life to serving his country in the United States Army.
Garcia enlisted in 2002 at 18 years old, and served for 19 years before medically retiring from the Army as a Master Sargent in July 2021. During his career, Garcia was stationed at bases such as Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he spent the final nine years of his service. Now, at 37, he is an English major at William Peace University.
Garcia’s experience joining the military at such a young age gave him new perspectives on life.
“When I joined, I was 18, and I saw a lot being in combat… I matured a lot, and it gave me an appreciation for life,” he said.
That experience wasn’t without its hardships, especially being on active duty all the time.
“It gave me new lifelong friendships, but then I lost a lot of friends too… it matured me as a person,” he said.
Despite any experiences Garcia went through, he still encourages people to join the military.
“I would recommend it, but I would try to push them towards a different path than I chose, whether that’s going the officer route, not being enlisted, and going to get your degree, or picking a branch of service that provides you a job and helps obtain a civilian job,” he said.
Finding purpose after service
When Garcia retired, he was 37 years old and unsure what was next for him, but he used his Veteran Affairs benefits and decided school was the next step.
“School gave me a purpose again, kind of like the military,” he said.
He acknowledges school as part of his life now, but still also acknowledges his military past, as do others.
“It’s the discounts you can get… it lets me know the country acknowledges us veterans, and that’s the biggest thing I get from it,” he said.
Garcia hopes to bring attention to a serious issue affecting veterans.
“I would like to bring to light veteran suicide rates in our country, I feel like that’s a key thing to highlight to open up awareness to other people,” he said.
He encourages people to support veterans and support nonprofits or organizations that help veterans and their lives post-service.
“That was my project proposal in Dr. Duncan’s class to start a program to help veterans that are struggling with depression, alcoholism, and PTSD to help them heal,” he said.
Transitioning back to civilian life
According to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute and National University, 16.9% of veteran students who went back to school during the 2011-2012 school year earned a bachelor’s degree by 2017.
The transition to civilian life is never easy, but according to Abound College, some veterans agree that attending classes and being on campus around other civilians softens the transition. Higher education also allows veterans to receive degrees, get jobs, and start careers to sustain living in civilian life.
According to James Hatch, a recent 2024 graduate of Yale and a 57-year-old veteran, the transition had its challenges; the campus often made him feel “alienated,” and the skills he learned in the field didn’t always apply to the classroom, and the lack of structure was challenging.
Still, he persevered.
“The transformation to academic life involves navigating a new identity, overcoming unique challenges, and embracing the opportunities higher education offers,” Hatch said in his blog.
He knew that this degree would set him on the path of a career and make it easier for him to rejoin civilian life, so he overcame these challenges and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2024.
As challenging as it may seem to become a student after serving in the military and rejoining society at a later age in life, stories like Garcia’s and Hatch’s show that the odds aren’t against it, and success is possible.