They are the stories of University of Wisconsin Oshkosh student veterans told by student journalists.
Featured in War: Through Their Eyes, Warriors & Students are the works of 10 UW Oshkosh journalism students who have produced an 100-page book, 300 online journal entries and 30 audio podcasts that highlight the stories of 10 student veterans. The student reporters also wrote 1000-word first-personal essays giving readers the story behind the story.
“This series allowed our student veterans to tell their stories of war, the way they saw it. It allowed them to verbalize what drove them to sign up for a volunteer military during a time of war,” said Grace Lim, journalism instructor who oversaw the War: Through Their Eyes projects. “Those of us not in the military have an idealistic picture of the U.S. military, colored by Hollywood and special effects. The stories of our student-veterans come unfiltered. They are not always patriotic or heroic. They are raw and real, and that’s what the War: Through Their Eyes series is all about.”
War: Through Their Eyes, Warriors & Students is the third of the War: Through Their Eyes series. The most recent volume will be unveiled Nov. 8. An event featuring the multimedia series will be held in the Reeve Memorial Union Ballroom on the UW Oshkosh campus. The photo gallery and exhibit open to the public at 5:30 p.m. and the program begins at 6 p.m.
The first volume of the War: Through Their Eyes project, which was launched in 2009, gave 16 student soldiers and Marines a forum to tell the world why they enlisted, what they did and what they felt at the front lines of war. Their stories, which were told in an 80-page book, a series of podcasts and a photo gallery, gave a glimpse into a world that most will never see.
The second in the series, Warriors & Nurses, continued that tradition of giving veterans a name, a face and a voice. That project, which was produced fall of 2012, featured five current students or alumni of the College of Nursing who had left the battlefields and entered into a field of healing. All projects were produced by Lim, her UW Oshkosh journalism students and art director Shawn McAfee, of the University’s Learning Technologies, among others in the UW Oshkosh campus community.
To learn more and view online multimedia components, visit uwosh.edu/beyond/war.