Military Veterans' Perceptions of Campus Support Services, Levels of Adjustment, and Preparedness to Graduate from College PDF Download

Author: Janine Payton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Adult college students
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Author: Gladys Newbury
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 61

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Student veterans make up a unique non-traditional student demographic whose characteristics can pose challenges to achieving their academic goals regardless of financial benefits such as the GI bill educational aid. The decrease in education completion rates among student veterans over the past several decades has been drastic and requires more attention to ensure academic success. The focus of this study is to explore the perceptions of student veterans in regards to services and transitions upon graduation for college and the identification of that campus being identified as military friendly. Utilizing a cross-sectional method, surveys were distributed via email to student veterans at California State University San Marcos (CSUSM). Forty-nine student veterans responded to the survey, which ask questions relating to demographics, transitions, barriers to graduation, and satisfaction of services. More than 83% of students either agreed or slightly agreed that CSUSM is a military friendly campus. Many of the respondents believed that services such as a transitional class, student veteran orientation, mentorship programs, and internship programs assist with their transition in and out of school. In addition, a majority of the student veterans either agreed or slightly agreed 85.5% (N=41) to being confident that they will graduate as planned. Further research should study the efficacy of any one best practice such as student veteran orientation, transitional class, internship or mentorship program.

Author: Robert Ackerman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118184785
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 115

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Book Description
As the United States? wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue, increasing numbers of students who experienced combat will enroll in colleges and universities. There is mounting evidence that these veterans will require support unique to their needs beyond the processing of financial aid paperwork from the Veterans Administration. Obviously, combat frequently inflicts injuries, both physical and mental, that will require attention, but veterans are a unique population in other ways as well. Soldiers experience extraordinary bonding in wartime, and colleges can provide opportunities for that fellowship to be a source of support and connection. Female veterans will bring a new, nontraditional perspective to campus, and student service organizations should pay careful attention. There is also a significant group of students who leave for service and return?under the best of circumstances, they need accommodation to succeed. Institutions of higher education traditionally have responded to the needs of special student populations by developing programs and offering services. This volume contains information about programmatic initiatives that can help create a welcoming environment for veterans, one that encourages serious, creative involvement. The authors bring broad experience and deliberate consideration to bear on questions that are only becoming more important to the entire spectrum of American colleges and universities. This is the 126th volume of the Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly report series New Directions for Student Services, an indispensable resource for vice presidents of student affairs, deans of students, student counselors, and other student services professionals. Each issue of New Directions for Student Services offers guidelines and programs for aiding students in their total development: emotional, social, physical, and intellectual.

Author: Mario L. Vazquez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Author: Florence A. Hamrick
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118240146
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Called to Serve Over the past several years, veteran enrollment in universities, community colleges, and vocational programs has increased dramatically. Called to Serve offers academics and administrators a handbook highlighting the most current research, program initiatives, and recommendations for creating policies and services that can help student veterans and service members succeed, including: Strategies for organizing and staffing services for veterans and service members Suggestions for creating institutional infrastructures and policies related to enrollment, transfer, and degree completion Frameworks for working with service members with physical, emotional, and learning disabilities Praise for Called to Serve "An excellent resource tool for key university leadership who desire to support the success of incoming and current student veterans." —Renee T. Finnegan, colonel (retired), executive director, Military Initiatives and Partnerships, Office of the President, University of Louisville "One of the more compelling issues of our time is the integration of returning veterans and service members into our society following their service to our country. This handbook will be a critical tool in guiding higher education professionals in developing strategies to ensure their success in college." —Kevin Kruger, president, NASPA–Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education "This timely book explains and presents a new meaning of 'called to service.' The issues and vignettes bring to life real situations that will be facing all campuses. I highly recommend this valuable resource to those looking forward and not back." —Gregory Roberts, executive director, ACPA–College Student Educators International "I have waited over forty years for such a comprehensive handbook to be written about the challenges, opportunities, and rewards that are associated with providing higher education to America's veterans—our future leaders. Well done." —Robert E. Wallace, Vietnam veteran and executive director, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., Washington Office

Author: David DiRamio
Publisher: The National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience
ISBN: 1942072163
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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With the passage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill in 2008, more than 1.4 million service members and their families became eligible for higher education benefits, and veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan enrolled in colleges and universities in record numbers. The first wave of research about these new student veterans focused primarily on describing their characteristics and the transition from military service to civilian life and the college campus. This new edited collection presents findings from the second wave of research about student veterans, with a focus on data-driven evidence of academic success factors, including persistence, retention, degree completion, and employment after college. An invaluable resource for educators poised to enter the next phase of supporting military-connected college students.

Author: Bruce Kelley
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000974243
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
This book is intended for everyone in higher education – whether in the classroom, student affairs, administration, admissions, health services or faculty development – who is, or expects to be teaching, advising, or serving student veterans. This book is the outcome of a partnership between the Center for Teaching and Learning and the office of Disabilities Services at the University of South Dakota that led to the development of the Fides program whose goal was to establish high-quality, evidence-based development opportunities specifically designed to enable key university constituencies—the faculty, staff, and administration—to understand their role in providing extraordinary learning experiences for veterans. The program was funded through a congressionally directed FIPSE grant. Materials from Fides have been featured by prominent educational organizations, and are being used by the National Center for PTSD, colleges, universities, and boards of regents across the US.This book provides the background and guidelines you need to leverage the strengths that student veterans bring to your institution, to ease the challenges they face in transitioning into higher education, to facilitate their learning, and to ensure their successful graduation.Student veterans bring many strengths to your campus – maturity, significant life experiences, and cross-cultural awareness. They are highly motivated to serve others and value education. Student veterans may however face significant challenges. Student veterans have typically been out of high school for some time, where they may have earned average grades. Many are married with children and more than a few are single parents. They are approximately 20% less likely than non-veterans to attain a bachelor degree and slightly more likely to drop out of higher education without attaining a degree of any sort. Deployments extend their time to degree, and multiple deployments can significantly delay graduation.The challenges associated with transitioning from the military into higher education are heightened when a student has a disability – physical, psychological, or emotional. Common disabilities that are emerging from Iraq and Afghanistan include amputations, hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, and post-traumatic stress disorder.To enable student veterans to succeed, institutions need to develop holistic initiatives to mediate student veterans’ transition and persistence, and develop appropriate programs and services that recognize their skills, family responsibilities, and distinct needs. This book outlines best practices for student affairs; describes innovative approaches to administrative services and support; suggests streamlining policies and procedures to make the campus “veteran friendly”; proposes ideas for academic programs; looks at the implications for course structure and design; considers the classroom environment; and explores how classroom policies impact student veterans. One chapter examines the issue of student veteran success specifically from the point of view of two-year institutions. The authors stress the importance of collaborative approaches across divisions and functions providing all stakeholders on campus with a comprehensive view of how they can support each to ensure the success of their student veterans.

Author: Tamela Evans
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Student affairs services
Languages : en
Pages : 149

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Author's abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the nontraditional student veteran experience in higher education. The research question guiding this study was: How do nontraditional student veterans describe their experiences with support serves in higher education as they progress toward degree completion? Knowles (1984) Adult Learning Theory and the concepts of social and academic integration proposed by Bean and Metzner (1985) were used to conceptualize participant experience. I employed a design of Narrative Inquiry with interviews to explore the narratives of nine nontraditional student veterans enrolled in higher education. Five themes emerged from the thematic data analysis: (a) Nontraditional student veterans engage in purposeful pursuits, (b) Nontraditional student veterans experience "Military Gap" in higher education, (c) Institutional policies hinder degree completion for nontraditional student veterans, (d) Nontraditional student veterans are less likely to engage with student support services when perceived as ineffective from prior experience, and (e) Utilize tenets of Adult Learning Theory and Environmental Press as a guide in supporting nontraditional student veterans. These themes illustrate concerns and areas of support services that can be improved to support degree completion for these students. Concluding recommendations address providing supportive policy, programming, and services for nontraditional student veteran assistance in degree completion.

Author: Cynthia Louise Lawrence
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Veterans
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental, causal-comparative, ex post facto study was to examine the differences in perceptions between combat veterans and veterans’ adjustment to college based on the factors of belonging, social support, and student stress from the Veteran Adjustment to college scale. This study was important in order to determine how veterans adjust to college in order to attain degrees. This quantitative casual-comparative ex post facto design worked well due to the use of archival data, the variables could be organized into experimental groups; and the data was collected with a validated survey instrument. A MANOVA was used to analyze the data. The general population for the study was student veterans who attended college and universities in the United States (U.S.). The target population for this study is student veterans who completed the Veteran Adjustment to College Scale. The results of this study showed that there was a statistically significant difference between combat veterans’ and non-combat veterans’ perceptions of belonging as it pertains to adjustment to college. Future research should focus on determining the difference between academic belonging and campus belonging for combat veterans and non-combat veterans’ adjustment to college.

Author: Allison L. Newton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
Since 2001, more than five million veterans have used education benefits through either the Montgomery GI Bill or the Post-9/11 GI Bill to attend postsecondary institutions. Along with the unique perspective this group of students brings to a college campus also comes the need for intentional support services to help them be successful. Previous research shows that perception of an institution as a veteran friendly campus matters to student veterans. Research also shows a linkage between satisfaction and perception. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the relationship between satisfaction with support services and perception of an institution as a veteran friendly campus that can inform organizational change as needed. This study used quantitative survey research using the Student Veterans Needs Assessment Survey to answer four main research questions before and after implementation of a one-stop student veteran support services center. Participants answered questions to assess their levels of importance placed on and satisfaction with support services. Participants were also asked if they perceived the institution as a veteran friendly campus. The study was conducted at one institution with 248 student veterans participants. Descriptive statistics, comparisons, correlations, and linear regression analysis were used to answer the research questions. This study revealed four key conclusions: 1) student veterans placed the highest level of importance on financial aid and healthcare services; 2) student veterans were consistently satisfied with financial aid, degree retention/completion, and social acculturation services; 3) the perception of the campus as veteran friendly increased; and 4) there is a positive relationship between satisfaction and perception at the institution.