Veterans transition from war zone to classroom

By Sally Holland, CNN

San Diego (CNN) - "When I got out of the Army, I did not want to talk about my war experience," said Angela Kozak, currently a speech pathology student at San Diego State University.

The transition from war zone to classroom was not easy for the 30-something-year-old veteran.

"The first semester I came here, I was kind of stand-offish. I didn't get involved in anything. I wasn't really clicking with the people in my classes. They were 19, 20, 21 years old," she said.

Things changed when she discovered the SDSU Veterans Center, where she met men and women with similar life experiences.

"It's made my college experience a hundred times better," she said.

San Diego State University is one of the first in the country to provide a single location on campus where veterans can access their benefits, meet others with common military backgrounds, and even relax and play Xbox. The staff at the Joan and Art Barron Veterans Center does everything from helping coordinate psychological counseling for veterans who might need it, to managing the nation's first on-campus housing reserved exclusively for veterans.

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