At a typical graduation ceremony, parents cheer for their children.

For many of the 194 local University of Phoenix students graduating today, it’s their children who will be cheering them on.

“When they get to walk across the stage, it’s a very big day for all of us at University of Phoenix,” said Brittany Nielson, director of the Colorado Springs campus. “We get calls all the time (from students) – ‘My kids need help, I’m busy at work’ – and we try to walk them through it.”

The graduates studied at one of the university’s two local campuses, or through its online programs. This year’s class includes 23 associate’s, 104 bachelor’s and 67 master’s graduates. The university’s online and evening classes are popular with midcareer students, most in their 30s or 40s.

Graduates Ken Van Holbeck and Debbie Mussack, who each overcame challenges on their path to a college education, are speaking at today’s ceremony.

Aftermath of Sept. 11

Van Holbeck will never forget Sept. 13, 2001.

As a top Air Force commander, Van Holbeck was one of few allowed to fly two days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. His destination was Dover Air Force Base, where the bodies of victims from the Pentagon were being flown by helicopter.

Van Holbeck and his crew marched to the helicopters and carried out the body bags. Next came the boxes with body parts. Inside a building the size of a small factory, he watched as medical technicians and dental specialists, some only 18, identified the bodies and conducted autopsies. The stench was horrific.

“If there was ever a time to be there, to support the men and women, it was that day,” said Van Holbeck, 56, his usually friendly face clouding over. “It’s just a god-awful place to see.”

“That was one of those days that you couldn’t do enough to help people.”

When Van Holbeck walks across the stage at today’s graduation ceremony, he’ll be a step closer to helping people such as those poised young men and women at Dover. With a master’s degree in counseling, he hopes to serve veterans who are struggling like he once did.

“For me to keep doing good things for people required me to go back to school,” he said.

During his 30-year career, Van Holbeck loved advising and counseling his troops. He rose to the rank of chief master sergeant, one of the top enlisted positions, and oversaw 145,000 men and women.

In 2002, he retired, moved to Colorado Springs and found work as a military contractor. It was unfulfilling work, he said, but it wasn’t until the death of his brother a few years later that he decided to alter his path.

On Jan. 30, 2006, his birthday, he quit his job and enrolled at the University of Phoenix. Apprehensive of going back to school, he knew he was in the right place after his first class.

Van Holbeck is especially concerned about the growing number of troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which he was diagnosed with himself a month after retiring. After a year of therapy and medication, the nightmares and thrashing in bed finally subsided. He knows he is one of the lucky ones.

“There are a lot of people, probably like me, that don’t even know about it, running around with PTSD,” he said. “It’ll come crashing down on them someday, and we need to help these people.”

Real-life experience

Like many of University of Phoenix’s older students, 43-year-old Debbie Mussack brought a wealth of experiences to her education. Waiting more than two decades after her marriage before going back to get a bachelor’s degree in psychology made her studies more worthwhile, she said.

“Raising kids and home-schooling them for 15 years gave me some insight into how people behave,” said Mussack, a mother of three grown children. “Twenty-one years as a military wife, that’s a lot of experience.”

Another experience is driving her to get a master’s degree in special education: her struggle to relearn basic daily functions after a life-threatening bout of bacterial meningitis.

In 2002, while living in Virginia with her husband, a military helicopter mechanic, she suffered repeated sinus infections, then infections in both ears. One morning, she woke up with a headache, and her sister rushed her to the emergency room. Mussack went into a coma, and her doctor feared she wouldn’t survive.

“When I woke up, I thought I had a stroke, because that’s what it felt like,” said Mussack, who had been unconscious for three days.

After the coma, she could think clearly, but it was difficult for her speak. Walking was a challenge, especially keeping her balance. An avid piano player, she had to concentrate as she slowly learned to play again with both hands.

Eventually, she recovered, but she still notices things that she can’t do anymore. Dealing with two problems at once can be almost impossible, such as the time she was frying something in a skillet that started to burn while water in a pot started boiling over. Other times, she’ll confuse right and left.

Sometimes, she thinks her brain is rewiring, a process she was fascinated to study in her undergraduate psychology classes at the University of Phoenix.

“That’s what made me want to go and get my degree in special education,” Mussack said.

“I know what it’s like to be there, how to overcome these problems.”

Mussack will be the first in her family to graduate from college, but she won’t be the only one for long. Mussack recruited her sister to enroll at the University of Phoenix, who is now on her way to a bachelor’s degree.

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Contact the writer at 636-0368.

Joseph Best played bass during a jazz jam at the Ancient Mariner last Sunday. After a house-band set, anyone can sign up to jam at the weekly event. Photo by JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE