Veterans Cohort Camping Trip: Building Camaraderie, Easing the Transition to College Life

What happens when you put together more than a dozen Pasadena City College student-veterans – complete strangers to each other – and drive them off to a three-day camping trip some 100 miles away from Pasadena?

In a single word: camaraderie.

For these students, that was the word best used to describe PCC’s Veterans Cohort Camping trip, an integral component of the college’s highly successful “Boots to Books” personal development course.

Developed six years ago by Dr. Harold Martin, an adjunct assistant professor in the college’s Social Sciences department, “Boots to Books” (Counseling 12) is offered exclusively to PCC freshmen student-veterans and is meant to give them the tools and resources to help ease the transition from military to college life.

“I wanted to offer this transition course for veterans because I was once a veteran who had an awkward and difficult time adapting from wartime duty to being a civilian/student,” said Martin, a Vietnam War veteran and UCLA alumnus. “The camping trip is intended to create a safe environment where the students can regain a sense of solidarity, closeness, and social support that characterized much of their prior military service.”

“Boots to Books” is also a part of the Veterans Learning Collaborative, a component of PCC’s Pathways program in which students are placed in a cohort and take all of their first-semester classes together.

Over the past few years, Martin’s Veterans Cohort Camping trip has taken his students to popular California camping sites such as Pinnacles and Joshua Tree national parks.

This year’s fall excursion was held in Idyllwild Park in the San Jacinto Mountains.

“On the ride up, we didn’t know each other at all,” said Ray Garcia, a Marine Corps veteran who majors in Information Technology. “Coming back down, it was different. We were all together.”

Marshall Lewis, a Teacher’s Assistant to Martin and a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, echoed the sentiment.

“It was an amazing experience,” said Lewis, who also serves as PCC’s student trustee on the school district’s board. “I never knew any of these students, but after the trip, it felt like I had known them for years.

“Camaraderie and community were forged with this group. They facilitated conversations on their own and shared their experiences transitioning from the military and school,” he added.

While at Idyllwild, the group set up tents, went on hiking trips, managed the campsite, cooked for themselves, held campfire chats, and worked on class assignments.

For some veterans, the camping trip was an entirely new experience.

“It was awesome,” said Kelvin McNeal, an Air Force veteran and first-time camper. “It was cold the first night though.”

With fall evening temperatures in Idyllwild often dipping to as low as the 30s, McNeal found a peculiar way to deal with the cold. “I wrapped a towel around my face. I didn’t know if I was going to die it was so cold,” he jokingly said.

A highlight of the camping trip included the opportunity to serve as volunteers at ARF (Animal Rescue Friends), an animal shelter nestled within the park. While at ARF, the students helped clean around the facility and walked some of the dogs.

The group also painted a mural on one of the campsite’s sheds. “We got to laugh at each other’s artistic skills,” Dominique Carter, a psychology major and Navy veteran, said with a chuckle.

Added Garcia: “I wasn’t expecting much out of this trip going in because we didn’t know each other. Before, when somebody missed a class, we didn’t care. But now we do.”

Although this year’s group was able to develop a bond that many veterans believe will extend beyond Idyllwild, Martin said on past camping trips, that was not always the case.

“We’ve had some students in the past who were really not into the program or really weren’t ready for it,” he said. “But this year’s group was different. How often are you around people that are so comfortable, at-ease, and joyous?

“It’s generally accepted that the number one reason veterans won’t succeed in school is if they lack social support,” Martin added. “This trip is part of the effort to provide a social network where there is trust, appreciation, and support that is most needed early in the veteran’s educational career.”

For more information about PCC’s “Boots to Books” course, contact the Veterans Resource Center at (626) 585-5226 or visit the W Building in Room 108.