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DAILYWILDCAT.COM Wednesday, May 3, 2017 VOLUME 110 ISSUE 89

EXTRA! | INSIDE 100 DAYS OF TRUMP FROM POLICY TO POSTURING, THE DAILY WILDCAT LOOKS AT HOW THE 45TH PRESIDENT HAS IMPACTED THE UA AND ARIZONA IN HIS FIRST 100 DAYS

SELENA QUINTANILLA/THE DAILY WILDCAT

KYLE JAMES, A MICROBIOLOGY student and veteran, poses at the VETS center at the Student Union Memorial Center. James is a peer advocacy liasion to help other veterans make the transition to academic life.

From combat medic to student: Kyle James helps vets transition to UA life BY JESSICA BLACKBURN @hotbread33

Army veteran Kyle James, 29, served as a combat medic for eight years and is now a Veterans Educations and Transition Services peer advocacy liaison, tasked with the responsibility of easing veterans’ transition from military service to academic life. “I wish I’d had something like

that when I first came to the UA,” he said. “I was this 28-year-old guy in a room full of 19-year-olds, and I felt out of place.” James’ own transition as a student began in 2014 after he got out of the military and went through a divorce, an apparently extremely common occurrence for veterans. Young people going into the military are better able to provide for families, so the idea of getting

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married and having children is attractive to them, James explained. “They don’t realize the trade-off is having to get married too early,” he said. James spent two years studying at a community college in Chandler, Arizona and made the switch to the UA when he heard about the science department. At the UA, he studies microbiology with a minor in biochemistry.

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“The fascination with biology happened when I took Bio 181,” he said. “I had a lot of clinical experience in the army and was fascinated by viruses.” James had always known he wanted to go to college to study medicine but didn’t know how he would pay for it. His parents were both in the military during his childhood, and this familiarity led

JAMES, A4

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05.03.17 by Arizona Daily Wildcat - Issuu