Before starting at Wichita State a few semesters ago, Jerald Ashton hadn’t set foot in school since finishing high school nearly 20 years ago, and it wasn’t easy for him.

“I pretty much got on and off campus as quickly as possible,” he said, “because I did not want to deal with anyone else. They didn’t understand where I was coming from.”

Ashton belongs to a small but quiet minority at WSU that most students don’t think about. He’s a 14-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, the Kansas Air National Guard and the U.S. Army, and he only came to WSU after an injury ended his military career.

Now a senior studying forensic science, Ashton bears artifacts denoting his service — a formidable leather jacket with military badges and symbols — but most of his peers show little outward sign of their veteran status.

Life experience is one thing that sets veterans apart from other students, but they’re also bound by an oath to defend the United States, sometimes at great personal cost.

“We have a brotherhood,” Ashton said. “Whether we were in combat or not, all of us made that choice to serve. In doing that, we watch out for each other. We talk to each other. We help each other out. There is nothing we won’t do for each other.”

For the past three semesters, Ashton has manned the front desk at the Military and Veteran Student Center, located on the first floor of Lindquist Hall. Last year, more than 7,000 veterans from every branch — including dependents — utilized the center for study and decompression.

When the center was created two years ago, Ashton said, “it gave the veterans a community to belong to again. It gave us the brotherhood that we were used to, so now we’re actually staying on campus.”

That’s what the center was designed to do: give veteran and active-duty students a place to support one another and get help from actual peers. The center also has a mentorship program in the works where established veterans provide back-to-school guidance for incoming vets.

Shane Carr is one of those new students.

Carr spent four years in the U.S. Air Force doing aircraft structural maintenance. Now he’s in his first semester at WSU studying engineering. Carr goes to the veteran center twice a week to get help with chemistry homework and with computers. For him, the center is much more valuable than going to the library or a regular tutor.

“It’s just easier to talk to people that share the same kind of background,” Carr said. “We’re all veterans, so we all connect a little easier than with other people around campus.”

Historically, college hasn’t always been the most inviting atmosphere for veterans, and for many, going back to school is a frightening prospect. During the Vietnam era, veterans returned home from overseas to face disregard and scorn, but since the wars in Iraq, Americans have begun to honor their vets once more.

“If you just look at the sheer number of programs now available for veterans returning from deployments, I think that is indicative of the cultural shift that has been made,” said Sarah Sell, director of Veteran Student Services and co-chair of the Veterans Advisory Board at WSU.

The services Sell oversees are evidence of that shift taking place at Wichita State to recognize the value of veterans on campus.

“Oftentimes, veterans have been out of the classroom for a period of time,” she said. “They need some assistance in adjusting while also balancing jobs, families and sometimes disabilities derived from their military service.”

Ashton experienced that trepidation as well.

“It is difficult, but the good thing about the military is we have the drive to complete what we see as our mission,” he said.

Sell, who is also a First Sergeant in the Kansas Air National Guard, said veterans are inherently valuable because of their personal discipline, hard work and leadership qualities, and that civilian students could learn a great deal from their experiences.

That’s something aeronautical engineering student Brandon Orebaugh is particularly proud of — his ability to help his fellow students.

“I enjoy sharing my experiences with classmates,” Orebaugh said, “because I believe it helps describe the processes we are learning to real-world actions. As an engineer, I am able to explain what we do and how it affects the aircraft and the missions they support.”

Orebaugh doesn’t use the veteran center’s services himself; he’s the product of another program that focuses on veterans.

Veterans Upward Bound is a TRIO program that serves approximately 120 WSU students and their family members through federal and state grants. The goal of the program is to help veterans graduate from college, offering people like Orebaugh academic counseling, tutoring and other services.

Orebaugh wasn’t originally planning to attend college. He graduated from Wichita North High School and spent 11 years as an Air Force avionics mechanic in support of military operations in the Middle East. Upon entering civilian life, he decided that being a mechanic wasn’t enough — he needed a degree.

Besides Veterans Upward Bound and the Military and Veteran Student Center, WSU has a Student Veterans Organization, Veterans Preference in Employment and other programs to serve the veteran community.

As with most issues of diversity, if there’s something veterans want to communicate to other students, it’s that they shouldn’t be afraid to talk to them.

“I encourage anyone that does not know about military culture to just ask questions,” Sell said. “That is the best way to expand your knowledge.”