TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — 22,000 diplomas will be handed out to University of Alabama graduates on Saturday; 137 of them will be awarded to U.S. Military veterans.
According to rankings website Collegefactual.com, “The University of Alabama is a good choice if you are interested in a quality education coupled with factors we think are important to veterans.” Of the 30,752 undergraduate students at UA, 1,598 of them are Post-9/11 G.I. Bill recipients, as stated in the most recent Veterans Affairs report.
One of the UA students walking on Saturday told ABC 33/40 that his military service helped him succeed in college. “One of the lessons is that even when things are tough or you don’t want to do things, you find a purpose and you let that drive you forward,” said Tyler Hohbach, a graduating senior.
Graduating with degrees in Management Information Systems and Finance, Hohbach is a native of Ozark, Ala. who erved in Western Iraq with the U.S. Army. During his time at UA, he served as the president of the Campus Veterans Association and the Veterans in Business organization
“A lot of times when I got down or if a test didn’t go well or if I got really bogged down with work I thought about the guys who didn’t have the opportunity to come back or the guys who did come back but weren’t the same and didn’t have the opportunity I had to come to Alabama to pursue higher education,” he told 33/40 last week.
Through the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs, UA seeks “to ensure that The University of Alabama will be the ‘University of Choice’ for all student veterans, service members, dependents, and survivors by being recognized nationally as a Military and Veteran Friendly University.”
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