MAKING LAS VEGAS A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE

From the battlefield to the classroom, UNLV welcomes vets

By Beth Fisher

CREATED Nov. 8, 2012

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  • A special service to help military students at UNLV is making Las Vegas a better place to live. Video by ktnv.com

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Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- For the third straight year, University of Nevada, Las Vegas has been named a military-friendly school by G.I. Jobs magazine.  That was no accident.  The university has made big moves to help veterans get into, stay into, and graduate from UNLV with a job waiting. It's making Las Vegas a better place to live.

Most students on a college campus are straight out of high school, not straight off the battlefield.  Student veteran Dustin Cather says that difference is huge. He left the Navy on a medical discharge. He's one of a growing number of soldiers turned students at UNLV.

Dustin says, "I do have a number of vets that always talk about how hard it is to get back into the pace of being in school and not having that structure like we used to."

UNLV recognized this challenge and opened a veteran services office.  It's run by a retired combat army guy. So when it comes to vets, Ross Bryant speaks their language.

Bryant says, "These freshman are 18. They were 8 when 9-11 happened. Now a veteran coming back at 26 or 27, they have a hard time connecting with someone five years younger just because of their life experience."

Ross Bryant helps veterans through the entire life cycle of their academic careers.  Everything from helping them get in to UNLV to helping them succeed once they are there.  He even helps find his vets jobs upon graduation.

Bryant says, "If you take care of these vets on the front end. There is going to be a million of them in the next decade. A million of them. And if you help them go to school, they have a stronger opportunity to have a new career field and great success so that 30 years from now we don't have another generation of a large homelessness problem."

Across campus, Dustin says the Veteran Services office makes all the difference to students like him. "I wanted to be on campus. I had other people to talk to.  I fit in more."