Helping vets go from battlefield to classroom

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- A group of Yale students and alumni this week are helping some veterans make the transition from combat to a college classroom.

It's called the Warrior Scholar Project. Ten veterans are at Yale this week for a week-long workshop.

"They've been going about 14, 15 hours a day," said Chris Howell, Director of the project.

To military personnel that's not unusual. it's what they've been doing this week of long days that's the hard part.

"They're taking a very, very intensive introduction to academic reading and writing, as well as a number of discussions on the transition to university itself," Howell said.

The "Warrior-Scholar Project," a very unique program preparing servicemen and women for the college of their choice, and everything that goes with it.

"A full-time study environment, where you are around 18-to-22-year-olds all day long, is very different from a professional standing military," Howell added.

Thursday morning, a chance for the inaugural Warrior-Scholar 'class' to unwind with current and alumni Yale football players on a different kind of battlefield.

"This is way more laid back than what we've been doing," said David Carrell of the U.S. Army. "It's been very fun."

It might be easy to overlook the challenge of transitioning from the military to college life, but make no mistake, participants say it is helping them get their academic feet wet.

"The military tries to help with getting out of the military, but everybody in the military, none of them's ever gotten out, so it's hard to tell you what to do or how to do it when they've stayed in the military their whole lives," Carrell explained.

"It's not intimidating anymore," said Onyekachi Udeinya, E-4 Senior Airman of the U.S.A.F.  "You kind of have a same mentality as you have in the military, like, 'Alright, I got this, bring it on. I can do this!'"

As for the football game, no one was keeping - let alone running up - the score, unless you count the laughs.

More information: http://www.operationopportunity.org