MIAMI
Juan Ramos hunkers down in Army barracks just outside Saddam
Hussein’s hometown, hoping insurgent fire doesn’t interrupt his online biology
class.
He chats via computer with a professor at Miami
Dade College
and tells fellow students in an online posting, “Well, I am not your typical
guy or your typical Latino” before describing the gunshot in the head he
survived and the inspiration he finds when he “breathes” Pachelbel’s
Canon.
Ramos, 24, an Army specialist who is pursuing an engineering
degree online, connects the chaos of a combat zone in Iraq
with the normalcy of hometown life in ways not possible for soldiers even 16
years ago, during the first Gulf War. Online education may be the most striking
example; hundreds of colleges aggressively market to an audience of soldiers
who can sign up for classes instantly.
That led to a doubling in the amount the U.S. military spent
on tuition reimbursement between 2002 and 2006, according to The Chronicle of
Higher Education in Washington, D.C. Schools like Nova Southeastern University
in Davie, with large online programs, have been particularly active in
recruiting military members, with dozens of deployed soldiers taking classes in
a given semester.
But pursuing a degree is only part of Ramos’ motivation. The
classes he’s taking help “to combat the loneliness, boredom and
desperation that comes with life in this country,” he wrote in an e-mail
interview.
“I love these classes because it makes me think, it
helps me escape the detrimental effects of this world and makes me feel as if I
belong.”
