This engineering education research project seeks to establish a support program for student veterans at San Diego State University in partnership with two local community colleges. A key element of the SERVICE project is to define a clear pathway for veterans to complete engineering degrees. The program seeks to engage industrial partners to offer internships to veterans throughout their college careers. By offering math courses to service members before they arrive at colleges, the project seeks to minimize some of the major hurdles to veterans' success in college.
The broader significance and importance of this project will be to develop a model for broad participation of veterans that recruits and retains them in college and transitions them to engineering careers. Should the project demonstrate the coalition of partner schools is able to successfully transition student veterans to graduation via the effective use of internship programs, this pilot will serve as a model that can be readily implemented by other university - community college partnerships.
Troops to Engineers SERVICE (Success in Engineering for Recent Veterans through Internship and Career Experience) In February, 2011, SDSU launched a highly successful pilot program called Troops to Engineers SERVICE (Success in Engineering for Recent Veterans through Internship and Career Experience). Premise: career-enhancing, paid internships are the key to a successful transition from military to civilian careers; and, the program presents a "win, win, win" solution to a local and national problem. A win for industry that needs highly qualified candidates for engineering jobs. A win for young veterans because they get jobs. A win for our region and the country because employed veterans pay taxes and give back to their communities in numerous ways. The program provides support for young veterans who have honorably served their country at a time when joblessness among young veterans is at an unprecedented high. Primary Outcomes: Goal #1: To place 100% of SDSU student-veterans seeking career assistance into paid internships and full time jobs upon graduation. (Results. GOAL ACCOMPLISHED! As of September 2012, 55 student-veterans were placed in internships or full time, salaried, jobs. All of the student veterans who had internships received full time jobs when they graduated, most stayed with the employers where they interned. Most of the veterans enrolled in the program are OIF or OEF veterans and one third are VA classified as Wounded Warriors (disability rating of 30% or greater.) The program accomplished this goal at a cost of $3,222 per veteran—far less than most programs that focus on veterans’ employment. In addition companies received tax incentives (between $2,400 and $9,600) for each veteran they employed full time through the national Vow to Hire a Hero’s Act passed by Congress in 2011. Goal #2: Increase the number of veterans pursuing degrees and careers in Engineering and other STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) majors. (Results. E-mail and phone inquiries from prospective student-veterans about the program have increased from one per week in May 2011 to two per day in September 2012. Most veterans are transfer students from Community Colleges, therefore it will take one to three years to evaluate the increase of veterans in the College of Engineering at SDSU. Interest in the program has increased steadily with 81 student veterans actively enrolled in the program in November 2012 as compared to 57 in May 2012, and 29 in May 2011.) Goal #3: Create a regional and national model of a program that will increase the number of veterans pursuing careers in engineering across the country. (Results. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted in September 2012 with student veterans returning from summer internships and some of their employers. The results were overwhelmingly positive from both students and employers.) Goal#4: Stabilize program funding through grants from industry and other organizations. (Results. The program has received funding from the following companies in 2011 and 2012: Northrop Grumman, Cubic, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and SDG&E.) Secondary Outcomes: Since the emphasis is on obtaining paid internships. The student veterans have an opportunity to augment their classroom education with practical training. Their education enhances their work performance and their on the job training enhances their education. Student veterans gain confidence and learn how their military skills translate to success in non military jobs. Through paid internships student veterans get the additional finances they need to support themselves, their families and complete their degrees without incurring debt. The "paid" aspect of internships are especially important for veterans since they are older, often have families, have been financially independent since they joined the military and often joined the military because they did not have the resources they needed to attend college directly after graduating from high school. The student veterans have the opportunity to demonstrate to employers that they are diligent, dependable, responsible, bright, creative, self starters and team players. (Since less than 1% of the population has served , is currently serving, or has a family member serving, in the military there is an understandable lack of understanding of who veterans are, the culture that has formed them and the value they can bring to an organization.) Programs like Troops to Engineers SERVICE and Troops to Geosciences help to make veterans feel that they are valued. Employment gives student veterans a feeling of self worth and purpose in life at a time when the veteran suicide rate and the veteran unemployment rate are at an all time high. Student veterans are mentored and coached in how to translate their military skills into language that civilian employers will understand in both resumes and interviews. Student veterans are provided with opportunities to network with professionals in their career fields and in a new initiative each student veteran will be assigned a professional mentor in their chosen field. Troops to Engineers Program
