They range in age from the early 20s to at least 60. Their career goals vary from cooking in a hauet-cuisine restaurant to directing Hollywood movies to driving the beat as a Denver cop. But whatever they have in mind, more than 200 of the students at Elgin Community College this fall will be veterans of the Armed Services. And on Tuesday and Wednesday they were invited to learn the ropes of college life in a series of seminars called “Boots to Books.”
Most of the vets enrolled in the community college more or less directly after leaving the service. But Michael Brotzman of Elgin said he served as a boiler technician in the Navy long enough ago to say that he fought in what he describes as “the final battle of the Vietnam War” — when an American task force landed in Cambodia and freed the merchant ship Mayaguez from communist Khmer Rouge troops in 1975, at the cost of 18 Americans killed.
Between then and 2012, Brotzman said, he did “about every possible job you can imagine.”
“I worked for three factories for about seven years each and every one went out of business,” he said. “I installed cable TV. I tried to be a cold-call salesman. I tried selling cars, but there they told me I wasn’t a very good car salesman. That’s probably the best thing anybody ever said to me.”
Finally, unemployed at the age of 57, he “came to ECC on a wing and a prayer,” Brotzman said. He said he had heard about a federal program, which has since expired, that provided up to $1,500 a month for older veterans to train for new jobs. Since he had always been interested in cooking, he said, he enrolled in ECC’s culinary arts program.
Robert Williams of Elgin followed a more common life course. He said he enlisted in the Army in 1999 at the age of 18 and served until 2008. Twice he was deployed to Iraq. But working as an electrician, he never saw combat.
Emerging from the service, Williams at first went to work for a business. “But I got to the point where I couldn’t advance anymore, so I decided I had to go back to school,” he told the younger vets Wednesday. “For me, adjusting to ECC was easy. One of the guys in my unit was already a student here and he helped me through the process.
Now 34, Williams is majoring in criminal justice. He said he hopes after graduating in December to move to Denver, Colo. – “I fell in love with that area while I was stationed nearby” — and get a job with the Denver Police Department.
The topics covered by the Boots to Books sessions ranged from the humorous to the practical.
In a discussion of military terminology, the attendees learned that asking “Where’s your head?” or saying that “when I was promoted to petty officer first class, my husband frocked me” can be seriously misunderstood by a civilian listener.
Anitra King, ECC’s veterans and student success specialist, read a magazine article naming “five associate degrees with a great return on investment.” She noted four of the five skillsets are taught at ECC — dental hygienist, radiologic technologist, registered nurse and electrical and electronics engineering technician. The only one the college does not offer is aircraft equipment mechanics.
King said the college has 201 students receiving veterans benefits and an estimated 25 more not getting benefits. She said a post-9-11 law provides free tuition, a book-cost stipend of up to $500 a semester plus a housing allowance of up to $1,800 a month for a veteran attending ECC, depending on the student’s length of service and/or disability.
ECC Internship Coordinator Kathy Meisinger urged the students to apply for internships in the business world because “employers want education plus experience.” Moreover, she noted, landing that first job often requires personal connections that can be forged by working as an intern.
The college will hold a Veterans Resource and Job Fair on Oct. 30 in the ECC Events Center. But Brotzman is pessimistic about finding a restaurant job.
“Not too many people want to hire someone who’s 60 years old,” he said. “Besides, some of the best chefs in the country are right here on the faculty at ECC.”
One student vet who Meisinger said might especially benefit from an internship is 27-year-old Neal Zirbes of Hanover Park. Zirbes said he worked as a cook while serving in the Marine Corps from 2008-2012. But now he’s majoring in film and his ideal career would be directing Hollywood movies. And that’s an industry, Meisinger noted, where who you know can be as important as what you know.
