A long road from the Marines to college
Marketplace’s Amy Scott has been reporting on how an expensive private college in New York has been trying to make its campus more inclusive. Vassar College has been working with a group called the Posse Foundation to bring military veterans to campus in supportive groups known as posses.
It’s safe to say those veterans often don’t match the typical profile of a Vassar student. Keith Kohlmann is now a sophomore. He’s 32 years old, engaged with two kids and served in the Marine Corps for five years.
He also spent years battling drug addiction after an injury from a fight toward the end of his service left him hooked on painkillers.
Within a year of leaving the Marines, “I had lost everything,” he says.
Now clean for almost five years and a sophomore at Vassar, Kohlmann is studying economics and hopes to work in banking.
“You have to be willing to sacrifice a lot, and if you’re not, don’t even bother,” he says of the academic demands. “My family is willing to sacrifice, because it’s better for all of our futures.”
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