City College offers many English courses on campus for students to take, including an English 110 class that was created by and for veterans. To engage the students, each assignment is military related. The class is taught by Professor Bonny Bryan, who comes from a military background herself. 

Bryan’s father was a colonel in the Air Force, and her husband was in the Army with her son in the Army and stationed in Germany. Her personal connection to the military is what compelled her to serve the student veteran community. 

“I also just had a good report with student veterans in my class and my classes over the years, so I just kind of appreciate the mindset where they’re coming from,” Bryan said. “They had this huge experience, and they’re just great students. I want to learn more and what I can do to create a class that would appeal to that particular group.”

The class first opened during the spring semester of 2023 on City College’s West Campus after Bryan noticed many student veterans enrolling in English 110, a required course for most transfer plans and majors. Bryan also designed this course when she noticed a lack of representation for veterans on campus.

Bryan’s English 110 syllabus is geared towards veteran students, but Bryan noticed lots of her veteran students were not interested in a class that was dedicated to fully talking about the military. Her goal was for the class to be more inclusive for veterans by making the workload relatable to veterans and their life experiences. As a result, most class assignments are based on books written by veterans. Despite her course material, Bryan says that about half of the students in her class are not military affiliated at all.

Bryan recalled a student who took the class last semester, whose father was an army veteran. Students were assigned to read a book about veteran experience from the Vietnam war, granting this particular student a deeper understanding of his father’s experience in the military. The student did not have the best relationship with his father, and his father refrained from discussing his experiences in an effort to protect his son. After reading the book in class, the student gained a new perspective on what the military was truly like.  

According to Bryan, a lot of her students feel a sense of community in her class as they can relate to their peers.

“I have a much better understanding now of the veteran experience in general,” Bryan said. “Before, I had my family ties and understanding based on my relationships and my childhood, but since I did the project, I learned a lot more of the challenges and objects they face, some of the strategies that might happen in a classroom setting, and some of the weights to native and survive this group on campus level.” 

The class meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the West Campus Center Building.