From the Military to Yale: Yale Students and Faculty Discuss Their Own Transition Stories

Pod and Man at Yale

On the last episode of the spring semester, Pod and Man at Yale brought two military veteran students, Valerie Calderon-Meyer ’27 and Galen Jones MPH/MBA '26, to talk about post-military life at Yale:

• Calderon-Meyer: “Most of my friends are graduates or PhD students who are within my age group. I think I feel deeper connections in that way.”
• Jones: “The school of management, I’ve had a very, I think, easy time fitting in. 10% of the student body are veterans. So, it’s a very high percentage, and I think it’s increasing.”
• Jones: “People don’t know oftentimes how to handle the military experience but they’re very open to learning about it. And it doesn’t actually pose a barrier between friendships at all.”
• Calderon-Meyer: “I think in my experience, Yale College, for the most part, has been really accommodating, with student accessibility and accommodations for one. They welcome veterans. They understand that well…I think Yale’s making some big strides for veterans.”
• Jones: “I know also Yale has brought in not only new roles but a new office over by Mory’s, and have shown pretty real dedication to increasing the veterans support and community across campus.”
• Jones: “More often than not, we’re not in situations where (military experience) does add value. But when it does, I do try and make a concerted effort to go outside, I guess, my own comfort zone of saying these things, because it is another perspective that needs to be told and shared. And there are a lot of times that there is a large value add.”

Peter Dutton, military veteran and Senior Research Scholar in Law and Senior Fellow for the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School, joined the podcast to talk about his own transition from military to civilian life and to look at the China challenge:

• Dutton: “The transition from being active duty to civilian, you know, the strongest thing in it was the something I didn’t expect, was the sense of, I just wasn’t responsible for everything anymore. As a naval officer, it’s just sort of ingrained in you that you are responsible for the outcome of the mission of the organization that you are a part of. Period. End of discussion.”
• Dutton: “Probably the average student in the military is somewhat more conservative than the average student here at Yale or at NYU. But it may in part have to do with age and experiences. Because what you really see in the military is a pretty significant reflection of the diversity of American society.”
• Dutton: “A lot of people sort of stereotype Yale as leaning hard to the left and I find in the student body so far in my interactions, that’s an oversimplification.”
• Dutton: “There’s a lot of worry that China is becoming a global military power. I think it’s too soon to begin to seriously worry about that…America has a global military with global focuses. China has a very focused military, and yet China’s military is very strong.”
• Dutton: “America should be concerned about China and there are senses in which China can be a threat to the United States.”

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