Leadership Exchange

Innovative Programs Ease Transition for Veterans

The best way to provide a supportive campus environ- ment for student veterans is an institution-by-institution decision. However, several themes emerge as campuses welcome student veterans.

The following list of programs, while not inclusive, demonstrates a diversity in higher education programs that support student veterans. As colleges and universities continue to develop student services, innovative programs will continue to grow.

➤ The U.S. Department of Education TRIO program offers Veterans Upward Bound (VUB). Arizona State University and South Carolina’s Trident Technical College, along with 46 other campuses, participate in VUB, which is “dedicated to fully develop the personal potential of all U.S. military veterans.”

➤ George Mason University participates in the Department of Education Troops to Teachers federally funded initiative to help veterans, guard and reserve members, and military retirees become certified teachers.

➤ The University of Arizona’s Disabled Veterans Reintegration and Education Project includes a research and outreach component to assist in the educational advancement and reintegration of disabled veterans.

➤ Arkansas State University, through the Beck PRIDE Center for America’s Wounded Warrior, focuses on providing educational programs and services to combat wounded veterans.

➤ Mississippi State University takes a different approach through the G. V. “Sonny” Montgomery Center for America’s Veterans. This program includes academic and career goal support utilizing mentorships, career counseling, and job placement assistance to support student veterans.

➤ UCLA’s Boots-to-Bruins program offers a one-credit seminar for returning Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans and post-deployment military members. The seminar provides the opportunity for student veterans to use personal experiences to transition from military service to civilian and college life.

➤ Cleveland State University designed its own veterans-only program, Supportive Education for Returning Veterans (SERV). First-year student veterans can benefit from SERV classes, designed to aid in the student transition.

➤ Lane College in Oregon uses Title III grant funds for its Lane’s Integration of Veterans in Education (LIVE) initiative, providing a first-year experience for student veterans.

➤ Madison Area Technical College offers the College Success for Veteran Students project consisting of orientation and a college success class specifically for student veterans.

➤ Glendora, California-based Citrus College offers a Boots to Books program, a required orientation for student veterans and a curriculum to help the student veteran succeed in academics, work, family, and other social settings.

➤ Park University’s Success for Veterans Program is designed to provide a smooth and comprehensive transition to college for veteran students. The program includes five online transition courses using faculty that “are academically and culturally prepared to provide high quality services for veteran students.”

➤ The University of California, Santa Cruz, offers the Services for Transfer and Reentry Students (STARS) approach. STARS invites students who are military veterans to participate in a wide variety of academic and personal support services and programs.

➤ The City University of New York Hunter College School of Social Work offers the Project for Return and Opportunity In Veterans Education (P.R.O.V.E.) program organized by the Hunter College Student Veterans Club to focus on “the special skills veterans bring to their college environment, as well as their specific concerns.”

➤ Ramapo College of New Jersey is creating online veteran-specific orientation programs, expanding on-campus veterans’ service centers, enhancing prospective student outreach efforts, and increasing capacity for counseling and psychological services.

➤ The University of Maine at Augusta Military Achievement Project (U-MAP) was created to “…establish and sustain a veteran community within the university by systematically developing social, classroom, and professional networks. U-MAP includes the creation of a student veteran organization, online social network, veteran peer mentors, designated course sections, and entrepreneurial training.”

➤ Farleigh Dickenson University is developing the Veterans Launching Ventures (VLV) concept. VLP “…will provide the skills and support for veterans to seize entrepreneurial opportunities and launch small businesses that will help them achieve personal success that also helps the community and regional economy.”

➤ Bristol Community College in Massachusetts focuses on collaborating with other higher education institutions, state government, and business and industry to find employment for its student veterans.

➤ Since the 1940s, the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, has assisted veterans in obtaining a college education. The institution uses the University Veterans Services department to deliver one-stop services to student veterans.

➤ The Empire State College, State University of New York, Office of Veteran and Military Education provides one-stop services for student veterans and resources for faculty to gain a greater understanding of the unique skills and experiences of student veterans.