KGUN 9News

Actions

U of A hosts academic boot camp aimed to help military veterans succeed in college

Posted at 3:55 PM, Aug 12, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-12 21:23:01-04

Warrior-Scholar Project is offered all over the country and now it is in our own backyard at University of Arizona.

The free project is an intense college preparatory program for military veterans to transition out of active duty service and back into society. 

In Arizona 80 applicants applied for a spot and only 15 made the cut.

"It's an overload in the best way possible," said Noah Southworth, a veteran participating in the program.

"I just retired from the Marine Corps after 20 years so last time I was in a school environment was back in the mid 90's," said Steven Lefevre, another veteran.

Lefevre went straight to boot camp after graduating high school. He deployed eight times and traveled to 37 countries. Now he is starting his next mission -- to go to college. 

"I was in the infantry for 20 years so I put everything into perspective," he said. "You can either be in a classroom with air conditioning or I can be sleeping on the ground somewhere getting shot at so this is a much better alternative."

Classes begin at 9 am and go until 10 pm. 

Students live on the campus for a week and are immersed in college life.

The program has been around since 2012 and holds a 98 percent retention rate.

For more information about how you can apply to enroll in the program at one of the 12 campuses across the country clickhere