By Andrew Danielson
Monday. May 26, 2025.
That’s the day when America will take a brief pause in the hustle and bustle of daily living to thank the countless men and women of the United States armed forces for their service in protecting and defending the freedoms we all enjoy.
Some of those men and women are still alive to receive our thanks. Others paid the ultimate price and will never see their loved ones again except in eternity.
After Memorial Day comes May 27, a Tuesday, with life returning back to “normal.”
But the veterans are still there. And they still need support.
The US Department of Labor reports on the webpage of their Transition Assistance Program that, every year, roughly 200,000 men and women depart from the US armed forces and re-enter the civilian world.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs reports that in 2018 alone, 669,922 US military veterans took advantage of the benefits the VA offers to advance their education.
But there’s a lot of drastic life changes that accompany a military veteran’s switch from military life to civilian life.
Dr. Michael Kirchner, a professor of Organizational Leadership at PFW and one of four faculty members recognized with a 2025 featured faculty award, knows what it’s like to transition from the military into college life.
He’s done that. He’s a veteran.
Currently, Kirchner is an associate professor and the graduate program director for PFW’s Department of Organizational Leadership. But his journey to becoming a professor and working with military veterans began with his own military service in the early 2000s.
Kirchner joined the army national guard in 2001, right before the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon building. Three years later, in 2004, Kirchner’s unit was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq.
At the time, Kirchner was enrolled in college at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. However, his deployment delayed his college work by a year.
Returning home, Kirchner needed some time to recuperate from his experience.
“When you’re serving in a combat zone, you’re always ‘on’,” Kirchner said.
He explained that, when you’re deployed, you really don’t relax or goof off much. It’s strictly business, and a deadly one at that.
“We’re about 7-8 months into the deployment, and I’m going, ‘I can’t think of a day in the last 4 months where I haven’t at least heard explosions or gunfire’,” Kirchner reminisced.
Returning home from that experience, Kirchner said the biggest challenge was simply shutting down his deployment mindset.
“To return home and all of a sudden be expected to just shut down and return to normal, that’s a tall-ask,” he said.
Kirchner’s life eventually found him working with other military veterans who were transitioning from military to civilian life, particularly that of the college world. During Kirchner’s time as a student at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, he was tapped to help create a veterans’ student organization at the university. In three months, over 50 vets had signed up for the organization, and that was what really began Kirchner’s passion for working with veterans in the collegiate world.
Kirchner detailed some of the challenges that veterans face when they transition from a military life to the civilian life found on college campuses like PFW.
Some vets that enroll in college are still coming to terms with their experiences in combat zones and deployments. Others face a major cultural shift as they leave the camaraderie of the military and enter a new, strange civilian world devoid initially of that military companionship.
“They lose that brotherhood and that community that they built in the military,” Nicole Welsh said.
She is the Senior Compliance Officer for PFW’s Office of Military Student Services. Although not a veteran herself, Welsh grew up with much of her family having served in the military, so she has familiarity with what the military veteran experience is like.
Welsh expanded on the concept of lost military companionship for military veteran students.
“They come in here as non-traditional students who have already had a full career,” she said. “[They] have already lived a very different life than most people on this campus.”
But it’s not just the military culture that student vets miss when they come to PFW. They also have to deal with a lost sense of purpose.
“When you serve, you have a very clear understanding of your job,” Professor Kirchner said.
He explained that, when someone serves in the military, the goals of the job are very clearly laid out. The outcome of a job and its impact on the overall unit are equally understood. However, when a person leaves the military and becomes a civilian, they can face a crisis of trying to establish their new identity.
“When you lose that, you lose part of your identity and your purpose, Kirchner reiterated.
One parallel Kirchner used to explain this loss of identity is to that of someone who retires from a career in the civilian world. That person’s career can become a big part of who they are and how they define themselves as a person. When they retire, they undergo a similar experience to that of military veterans in trying to re-establish what their identity in life is.
In spite of all the challenges that military veterans may face when shifting to a civilian lifestyle after the miliary, there are many resources which can help smooth the transition.
One of those resources is PFW’s Military Student Services. Welsh mentioned that her office helps military vet students work through all of the various benefits offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (frequently called the “VA), as well as tuition assistance.
“We go through those benefits and help them get through some of those loops and red tape that they see with the VA and with tuition assistance,” Welsh explained. “And we help guide them through that process just to make it easier.”
Welsh mentioned that the Office of Military Student Services is quite small. The entire staff for the office consists of only herself, her immediate supervisor, and six student employees, most of whom are military vets themselves.
Together, that small team serves the needs of nearly 200 military veteran students on the PFW campus.
What those military veterans want to pursue as a career or field of study following their military service varies by the individual. One of the student workers at the Military Student Services is Bryce Evans, a history major.
Evans spent eight years in the US Navy, serving aboard submarines. When he completed his military service, he was ready to tackle a new life challenge.
“When I tapped out, I was done as far as military services goes,” Evans mentioned. “I wanted to come back to civilian life and focus on that and start a new chapter.”
Evans explained that his transition to civilian life was relatively easy, since he spent the latter portion of his military service on shore duty, allowing him to re-integrate with the civilian world gradually. He began his college career by taking classes online at PFW in August of 2023, right before he officially completed his military service in October of that year.
However, as Evans mentioned, the transition from military to civilian life can vary depending on the individual. One student worker at the Military Student Services office is a current, active-duty soldier, Christian Long.
Long is serving in the army national guard, as well as the PFW US Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program offered on campus. He is in a unique place in life, as he takes on the challenges of being both a soldier and a full-time student.
“So, it feels like I’m always around army or military stuff, but then I go home at night and it’s not,” Long said. He explained that serving as a soldier and studying as a full-time student was like having two personalities that he switched between depending on what was being asked of him.
“You have two different information sets in your mind,” Long said.
Students Long and Evans, and Professor Kirchner took different routes in the military and tread various pathways to enter college. However, they all agreed that the Military Student Services office at PFW is a great resource to help all military veterans succeed in their transition to a civilian life.
“PFW’s military student services and our financial aid offices are great starting points to help military-affiliated students including their dependents understand the programs that might be available,” Kirchner pointed out.
But even with offices like the Military Student Services, PFW’s student veterans still face some challenges.
One challenge is that the office suite of Military Student Services is simply hard to find. Tucked away in one of the farthest corners of the oldest classroom building on campus, Kettler Hall, the office feels very removed and remote from the rest of the campus.
“If more people knew where our office was, it would be great,” Long said. “You have to walk past all these people getting back here.”
Long isn’t kidding. To get to Military Student Services, one has to follow a lengthy hallway that feels miles long as it wends its way in serpentine fashion past countless administrative offices. A few signs point out the direction where the Office is located, but one feels as if they were violating a university policy to walk back so far into the warren of office suites.
The isolated location of the Office of Military Student Services isn’t the only challenge Welsh and her team face.
The office suite for Military Student Services is quite small. Although there is a little bit of room for students to come back and study or relax, the quarters are a bit cramped. A few tiny rooms serve as spots where students can come and study or hold consultations, but large gatherings are not really possible.
The remoteness and small area of the Military Student Services office also impact efforts to network military veteran students with civilian students.
Student workers Long and Evans both explained that even though the office suite is the Military Student Services area, they are very open to talking and interacting with veteran and non-veteran students like.
“Anybody can come hang out or ask questions or just chat,” Long mentioned.
Evans commented that it would be great if there could be a military lounge or area in a more publicly visible space that would allow both military veterans and civilian students to stop by and interact freely.
Professor Kirchner agreed that a bigger lounge area would be helpful to military veterans transitioning to the civilian life.
“One of those big aspects of veterans’ transition experience that is a challenge is that lost camaraderie,” Kirchner explained. “Well, without a social lounge, it’s difficult to regain that.”
Senior Compliance Officer Welsh, the student veterans who work at Military Student Services, and Professor Kirchner, are quite appreciative of having a space dedicated to serving the needs of student veterans. However, a bigger space in a more well-trafficked area of campus would give Welsh and her team a double opportunity.
A larger area with a bigger social lounge would help provide a space for student military vets to rebuild their social camaraderie that they left when retiring from the military. Additionally, a large space would give the new PFW chapter of the Student Veterans of America organzation a more accessible place to meet and welcome civilian and military students.
Although challenges remain for military veterans transitioning to civilian life at universities, PFW, under the careful mentorship and guidance of Professor Kirchner and Nicole Welsh, is positioned to reach out and help a variety of military veterans and their dependents.
But perhaps most importantly, the Military Student Services and their activities are helping to bridge the gap between the life experiences of military veterans and civilian students. Thanks to Welsh and her team, efforts are now in place to help establish networks and friendships for students of both military and civilian background.
May 26, 2025, will come and go. But PFW’s military veteran students will continue to be remembered and supported.
