This engineering education research project will both provide fundamental knowledge about veterans' beliefs of engineering and the difference between those beliefs and the actuality of the field, as well as develop interventional classes focused on leadership to help veterans succeed in engineering degree programs. To fill in the knowledge gap about veterans' beliefs, the team will interview focus groups of veterans. The data collected will be used to develop and deploy three interventions: a transportable curriculum for career fairs, choosing scholar-mentors as on campus leaders in veteran integration activities, and a leadership seminar.
The broader significance and importance of this project are to provide data on veterans' beliefs about engineering to those who administer programs to pipeline veterans to engineering, and develop research tools that can be used in planning for the influx of veterans into higher education. Such data can reinvigorate engineering and provide life-long opportunities for veterans. The broad focus of the proposal on creating networks and partnerships in New York may serve as a case study for other states, groups, and the Federal government wishing to address veteran to university transition issues.
The major goals of the project were to learn more about the post-service educational aspirations and needs of the untapped technical talent pool for military service members, and to develop programmatic approaches to strengthen meaningful pathways for service members into engineering disciplines. Of particular interest was developing approaches to curriculum which employ the leadership skills of GI’s. We learned that: (1.) Leadership skills that focus on leading during times of tremondous pressure will differentiate military leadership from the type of leadership skills usually taught to civilians; this training could be useful in teaching students how to respond when crisis management is necessary, although may be overkill for other types of civilian leadership challenges. (2.) Veterans are eager to continue to develop their leadership skills and feel this is a key skill they have developed as a result of their time in the military. (3.) Ethics guides military leadership; emphasizing a sense of a moral compass will be key to leadership courses taught with the help of veterans. (4.) ROTC leadership training curriculum is an excellent starting point for creating leadership curriculum with veterans. (5.) The merged teaching of civilian leadership practice with military leadership practices is likely to yield a highly interactive classroom experience for the students. (6.) Veterans postsecondary academic success requires an interdisciplinary and research-based approach to the various supports and needs that veterans express: social scientists to develop data-driven models to understand, assess, and support veterans educational needs; education scholars to contemplate best learning contexts and styles; health, disabilities, and PTSD expertise from psychologists, academic medicine ,social work, and human ecology; policy and public affairs professionals to move the conversation on veterans educational needs to a national-policy level discussion with implications for the Post 9/11 GI Bill and public-university partnerships; engineering and STEM faculty to aid in the process of customizing STEM programming and internships to meet the unique experiences and training background many veterans possess. (7.) Veterans support services provided by the regional Veterans Affairs and VA Medical Center, as well as advocacy organizations (Student Veterans of America, Red, White, and Blue, ClearPath, etc.) have an important collaborative role to play in the educational success of veterans at universities. (8.) There is a missing literacy about higher education, the STEM fields, and engineering among US military servicepersons. There is also a hunger amongst veterans and service members to learn more about career opportunities that await them, including those in the STEM field. (9.) There is a "disconnect" between service members’ training—their military experience, occupational specialty, and skill-sets—and their knowledge of possible degree programs and career pathways that build upon the assets and professional expertise that veterans already possess. (10.) There is confusion and lack of information about the value of a university degree, academic disciplines and subfields, and the relationship between a given area of study and professional career opportunities. (11.) Despite the influx of more than 2.6 million post-9/11 veterans into civilian life, the rich education benefit provided by the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and the talent of the "all volunteer force," few pathways exist to help link this impressive, technically-trained, and disciplined cohort with post-service training, educational, and career programs (in and beyond higher education). A better understanding of how to build post-service pathways for veterans depends upon the following: o Civilian institutions, especially universities, are on the 'frontlines' of the transition process. Thus, institutions that do education, training, professionalization well—universities, among others—should be part of building veterans’ transition, education, and career pathways. This requires: o Recognizing that service members are a highly heterogeneous and segmented population. o Actively seeking out veterans input and perspectives. o Given this heterogeneous population, there need not be one pathway: but there must be mechanisms to link veterans with meaningful educational and professional pathways based on their perspectives and needs. o Without a sound evidentiary basis for understanding veterans’ post-service goals and needs, it is difficult to develop or implement successful programs, ensure veterans' successful transitions
