Carin Anderson Feature Story
Student balances graduate studies, military commitments
Carin Anderson
By Megan Rocker
As the senior veterans’ coordinator for the University’s Veterans Services department, Carin Anderson understands what students who have served in the military go through when returning to school. But her professional life aside, she also has firsthand personal experience: when she was an undergraduate in 2003, she was deployed with her Wisconsin National Guard to Tikrit, Iraq.
When she returned to school nearly two years later, she realized she had become a non-traditional student. “While I didn’t feel ‘old’…I was a different person,” she says.
“Beyond that, even, all my friends had graduated, I felt out of place. I remember spending so much time picking out exactly what I’d wear that first day back…and then walking in the classroom seeing all these girls in their trendy clothes, and thinking, ‘there’s no way I can do this.’”
She continues, “In the military, so much of your life is regimented. You’re told what to wear, where to go, you’re given MREs [Meal, Ready-to-Eat]. You just don’t have all the choices civilians do. And of course, that’s the way it needs to be when you’re serving in a war. And then, you come back home…and it’s like you’re paralyzed trying to decide what restaurant to go to (let alone what to order), or what outfit to put on.”
After graduation, Anderson says she was ready to be done with school. But then, knowing she still had veteran education benefits available, she decided to begin her graduate school career. Because Anderson’s interests were so varied, a co-worker suggested she look into the MLS program to design her own master’s degree.
It was an idea Anderson took to readily, with a degree plan focusing on organizational wellness that was inspired by, in part, her military background. “The military style of being a supervisor is fairly well-defined…but even in that, there are variations. And in the civilian world, peoples’ leadership styles, the companies’ environments…they vary so much. So I wondered, ‘what makes a good environment? How do we, can we, motivate our employees?’”
This summer, Anderson received notice her unit was being redeployed. However, because of a medical issue, she is not yet sure if she will be going. Either way, though, she plans to work on finishing her degree. “If I DO go, I may not be able to work on writing [my thesis] yet, but will certainly be able to do a lot of reading and lit searches, as well as perhaps take a class or two via the Internet.”
