Student Veteran Services
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Transcript of Student Veteran Services
Working with Student Veterans: Creating a Military Inclusive Campus
LaToya Hill, Assistant DeanBen Armstrong, Coordinator
Student Veteran Services
Building a Military Friendly Campus
• Creating the Blueprint• Breaking ground• Laying the foundation and structure• Making it a home• Future improvements
Creating the Blueprint: Needs and Misconceptions
• Veteran Services Committee• Focus Groups– An individual to support them– A place on campus to call their own– A change in the perceived culture at the University
• VSIRP- Research Initiative/ VA Grant
Breaking Ground: University Initiatives
• Opening Center• Hiring Coordinator• Hiring VA Psychologist• Partnership TVC, SVA• Sponsorship to SVA• Outward bound
Laying the foundation:Student Veteran Services
• What is SVS?– Connect, Integrate, Develop student veterans – Assistance with the academic process– Explaining and accessing VA benefits– Veteran Counseling / Programming
• Statistics – Services provided so far– 200 veterans / 72 dependents serviced
62%
2%
8%
4%
4%
20%
Nov 2011 - Jan 2012 Services Provided
Education HealthcareMental Employment Family Financial Other
Making it a home:Working with Student Veterans
(Misconceptions)
• Veterans are all white males with combat experience• Women veterans experienced Military Sexual
Trauma(MST), and need to be handled differently • Veterans suffer from that PTSD thingy and the TBI stuff• Veterans do not want to integrate into the University
experience • Veterans are aggressive
Making it a home:Working with Student Veterans (The Truth)• While the percentages point to a
large amount of veterans being white males there is a great diversity in the student veteran population
• The VA reports on their website that in 1995 that 15% of Woman Veterans experienced MST, and the current data suggested 1 in 5 experience MST
• Yes veterans are experiencing TBI and PTSD, but the VA estimates that 11% of veterans suffer from PTS
• A majority of veterans want to integrate, but we just do not know how.
Making it a home:Working with Student Veterans
• Apply Social Justice to your work with student veterans• Collaborators not Consumers • Understand the need for structure – Student veterans come from a structured world where
everything is deliverable based, when they are removed from that world the attempt to find that in the civilian words
– They want to find that one person that can take care of that one thing for them. (Ben can solve X, LaToya can solve Y, etc.)
• Understand why they are so open with information
Making it a home:Working with Student Veterans
• Don’t be a “clearing house”• Developing deliverables you can give the student veteran
directly.• Quick victories will validate your service.
• Simplify your touch points and message.
Home Improvements- Future plans• Creating Veteran Orientation Session• Creating Veteran Transition class• Developing veteran programs (Welcome
Week, Graduation stoles, Theatre of War)
Questions and Answers