and I served four years in the U.S. military where I directed helicopters.

I came back from the military feeling like I could do just about anything but it was

a really tough adjustment period for me. I just needed a place to give me the support

and the confidence to move forward.

No one else in my family has ever gone to college. I'm the first one.

I've been dreaming about this since I was a kid and finally, come June 13, it's gonna

happen. And I'm really proud. I'm really excited.

My name is Chester Curtis. I am a sophomore at Edmonds Community College and a combat

veteran. I just finished up my associates degree in energy management and I'm currently

working on my transfer degree to get accepted into Central Washington University.

I'm engaged and I'm expecting a baby boy and right now, I'm interning as a project engineer.

It definitely is a lot to juggle.

We have to ultimately decide what's best for our family and that may be stepping back from

school and going in to get a full-time employment elsewhere.

Chester is a perfect example of some of the barriers that are facing the student veteran

population. So, for example they're more likely to be married, more likely to have children,

more likely to have to work, and this generation of veterans makes the transition from military

to civilian life with disabilities at a rate unprecedented in U.S. history.

Much of our understanding of those issues is anecodtal. We don't have the scientifically

driven insights we need. The Google Global Impact Award positions us to go out and get

the data we need to empower and support veterans to succeed in higher education.

If you look back to the post-World War II generation of Veterans, more than 8 million

of them were educated as a consequence of the post-World War 2 GI Bill. From that group

came three Presidents, three Supreme Court Justices, 14 Nobel Prize winners and more

than 450,000 engineers

I think we have that opportunity again.

The goal of this project really is to position individuals like Chester and the many hundreds

and thousands of other veterans to ultimately become successful graduates like Ashley.