Malachi Lakey spent the last five years as a photographer on Navy ships in more than two dozen countries. He told his fellow sailor’s stories, took their portraits and did aerial photography for ships that were deemed “too small or too weird” to have a dedicated press officer, he said.
When he left the Navy last December, he was looking for a university that offered a wildlife program in a rural part of the country. He was deciding between a college in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the University of Maine.
Lakey chose UMaine because Fairbanks is home to an Air Force base, something he had already experienced in a way through his time in the Navy. But by coming to Orono, the former petty officer second class unknowingly joined a growing student-veteran population that, while not the size of an Air Force base, supports each other just the same.
There are a record 638 degree-seeking veterans and dependents studying at UMaine this semester, according to the university. These students have formed a veteran center that both engages them with each other and also helps them navigate the “culture shock” that transitioning from the military to college can create, Lakey said.
Students using veteran benefits have surged by 50% in the last five years, Tony Llerena, associate director for veterans education and transition services, said. With that has come a similar growth in how much the student-veteran center has been used compared with the previous 15 years that Llerena has been working there.
“I can easily say that this is probably the most vibrant and the busiest I’ve ever seen the veteran center,” Llerena said.
Lakey, 33, is one of the students that uses the center as a place to study, connect with other students and relax between classes. The center has study tables, a much-used coffee bar and a Nintendo Switch that’s the catalyst to Mario Kart tournaments.
Apart from the amenities, Lakey said the center is mostly helpful for students because of the group of veterans that use it and support each other.
“I mean, the military, regardless of branch, breeds that brothers and sisters in arms mentality. [Student veterans] are going to have that common factor initially, but everybody that is a frequenter of the veteran center now, they care about each other,” Lakey said.
Student veterans are non-traditional students, meaning they didn’t go directly to college out of high school. That can create a barrier between other students when veterans are trying to make connections on campus, Lakey said.
The veteran center is a space where student veterans can talk with each other about shared experiences while working toward their degrees.
“I think a lot of [student veterans] have difficulty immediately parsing what their place is as a student, because they’re going to be older, they’re going to have a different experience. So [the center] gives them a space that they can just be themselves,” Lakey said.
The students using the center have organized events from a hike up Mount Katahdin to weekly dinners and various gaming tournaments that have brought the community together, Lakey said.
Outside the center, student veterans created a green zone training that teaches staff and faculty about their experience as non-traditional students to foster communication between veteran and reservist students, and faculty, staff and administration.
The whole campus has supported student veterans, Llerena said. Not only do they have a space to interact with each other, but faculty foster a helpful environment too.
“I can’t tell you how many emails I get from faculty and staff who I’ve never met before, who said, ‘Hey, I have a veteran who needs some help. Would you be able to help them out?’ And really, that’s what we want, that connection that we can provide for anybody on campus,” Llerena said.
