How Military Service Affects Student Veteran Success at Community Colleges

How Military Service Affects Student Veteran Success at Community Colleges PDF Author: Patrick C. O'Rourke
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781303765551
Category : Academic achievement
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Abstract: Increasingly more service members are separating from the military as the United States draws down the force and moves towards a post-war era. Tens of thousands of these veterans will leverage their GI Bill tuition and housing benefits in an attempt to access Southern California community colleges and bolster their transition into mainstream society. Some of these men and women have served multiple tours in combat zones and carry with them the burden of physical and mental injuries. After 4 years of GI Bill benefits costing over $20 billion and supporting 750,000 veterans or their dependents, it is unclear whether these veterans have been successful in higher education. This study starts the dialogue for further quantitative research on this diverse population. Using quantitative methodologies based on a nontraditional student attrition model, 261 student veterans at three Southern California community colleges were surveyed to determine how military service affects their persistence. Background variables, academic and social integration, psychological outcomes, and military service perspective as related to student veterans' intent to persist, college GPA, and rate of attendance formed the framework for research. Findings show that student veterans' intent to continue their educational goals is affected by their military service perspective. Military service is a significant intervening variable that distinguishes veterans from other nontraditional students at community colleges. Military GPA was found to have a stronger association with college GPA than high school GPA. Although academic integration was the strongest predictor of college GPA, the most successful student veterans balance their work, family, and academic lives. Although some findings relate closely to existing higher education literature, the experience and perspective of military service produces both advantages and disadvantages for veterans in college. Accounting for veterans' persistence and acknowledging their diversity are measures which will strengthen their chances for academic success. Recommendations for policy, practice, and future research are addressed in this study.

How Military Service Affects Student Veteran Success at Community Colleges

How Military Service Affects Student Veteran Success at Community Colleges PDF Author: Patrick C. O'Rourke
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781303765551
Category : Academic achievement
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Get Book Here

Book Description
Abstract: Increasingly more service members are separating from the military as the United States draws down the force and moves towards a post-war era. Tens of thousands of these veterans will leverage their GI Bill tuition and housing benefits in an attempt to access Southern California community colleges and bolster their transition into mainstream society. Some of these men and women have served multiple tours in combat zones and carry with them the burden of physical and mental injuries. After 4 years of GI Bill benefits costing over $20 billion and supporting 750,000 veterans or their dependents, it is unclear whether these veterans have been successful in higher education. This study starts the dialogue for further quantitative research on this diverse population. Using quantitative methodologies based on a nontraditional student attrition model, 261 student veterans at three Southern California community colleges were surveyed to determine how military service affects their persistence. Background variables, academic and social integration, psychological outcomes, and military service perspective as related to student veterans' intent to persist, college GPA, and rate of attendance formed the framework for research. Findings show that student veterans' intent to continue their educational goals is affected by their military service perspective. Military service is a significant intervening variable that distinguishes veterans from other nontraditional students at community colleges. Military GPA was found to have a stronger association with college GPA than high school GPA. Although academic integration was the strongest predictor of college GPA, the most successful student veterans balance their work, family, and academic lives. Although some findings relate closely to existing higher education literature, the experience and perspective of military service produces both advantages and disadvantages for veterans in college. Accounting for veterans' persistence and acknowledging their diversity are measures which will strengthen their chances for academic success. Recommendations for policy, practice, and future research are addressed in this study.

Student Veterans and Service Members in Higher Education

Student Veterans and Service Members in Higher Education PDF Author: Jan Arminio
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317810562
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Student Veterans and Service Members in Higher Education bridges theory to practice in order to better prepare practitioners in their efforts to increase the success of veteran and military service members in higher education. Bringing together perspectives from a researcher, practitioner, and student veteran, this unique author team provides a comprehensive but manageable text reviewing relevant research literature and presenting accessible strategies for working with students. This book explores the facilitators and barriers of student veteran learning and engagement, how culture informs the current student veteran experience, and best practices for creating and maintaining a campus that allows for the success of these students. The latest to publish in the Key Issues on Diverse College Students series, this volume is a valuable resource for student affairs and higher education professionals to better serve veteran and military service members in higher education.

Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

Improvise, Adapt, Overcome PDF Author: Carlos Antonio Garanzuay
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The purpose of this study is to identify non-cognitive attributes learned from enlisted military service that can guide student-veterans to success in higher education. Community colleges are showing poor completion rates for all the efforts toward student success and completion. Non-traditional students persist to completion and student success using a predominant set of non-cognitive attributes to overcome academic and cultural deficiencies typical of their demographic. As a niche subset of the non-traditional population, student-veterans are equipped with various non-cognitive attributes gained during their enlisted military service which they use to face unique challenges related to transitioning out of the military culture and into the culture of higher education. This study sought to capture and ascertain the lived experiences of successfully completed student-veterans that managed to effectively transition out of the military culture and into the culture of higher education utilizing a primarily grounded theory approach. The researcher performed a qualitative study to identify and understand the types of non-cognitive attributes student-veterans obtained during enlisted military service which were later used to earn academic success and program completion in a community college, or postsecondary education. Eighteen successfully completed student-veterans were gathered through snowball-sampling, which represented a diverse, intersected crosscutting of demographics. The researcher conducted interviews implementing a semi-structured, open-ended interview protocol. This flexible interview decorum supported the process of data gathering as veterans shared their personal experiences transitioning from the military culture into the culture of higher education, earning a completion credential and academic success. The guiding research questions of this study included: 1) What attributes learned through enlisted military experience translate to student success in higher education?; 2) What attributes learned through enlisted military experience correlate with the non-cognitive skills exhibited by non-traditional students that lead to success in higher education?; 3) How can student-veterans effectively apply their enlisted military experience as it relates to their student experience in higher education? This study identified eleven themes which surfaced from interviews with research participants: Commitment/Discipline, Communication/Self-Advocacy, Leadership/Team-building/Military Core values, Goal-setting and Planning, Adaptability, Responsibility/Accountability, Self-awareness, Confidence in self/ability, Time Management, Perspective of risk/consequence, and Caution. The three predominant non-cognitive attributes characteristic of the larger non-traditional student population were present among student-veterans, although only two were identified as among the predominant attributes in this study. The following themes emerged from interviews as opportunities student-veterans can best apply their non-cognitive attributes: Identify scenarios which military attributes are appropriate and applicable, Network/Seek guidance, Establish personal habits/routines, Plan/prepare for transition before separation, Adapt rather than impose, Exercise cultural awareness/understanding, and Identify parallel structures that exist in both military and higher education worlds. The emergent themes led to recommendations for community college and higher education leaders to develop cultural competencies on campus which validate the experiences and identities of student-veterans, build cultural acclimation bridges that allow student-veterans to wholly transfer their identity and attributes to their postsecondary experience, and manufacture an integration process that elevates student-veteran completion rates that may also positively impact other non-traditional student demographics for greater overall completion rates and student success.

Preparing Your Campus for Veterans' Success

Preparing Your Campus for Veterans' Success PDF 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.

What’s Next for Student Veterans?

What’s Next for Student Veterans? PDF 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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Book Description
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.

Called to Serve

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

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Book Description
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

Assessing Student Success Efforts for Military Students in a California Community College

Assessing Student Success Efforts for Military Students in a California Community College PDF Author: Bob Kratochvil
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Veterans
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
Two million U.S. military veterans live in California, a number that is expected to increase as military personnel in the Afghanistan (OEF) and Iraq (OIF) conflicts complete their service. Statewide statistics indicate that scores of returning veterans will be attending California community colleges. Many colleges have attempted to address the influx of returning veterans by developing appropriate support services for them. The college participating in this research established such services and is considered a model program. This exploratory mixed methods study evaluated those services and programs and assessed their effect on student success. This study was guided by Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, and Whitt's theoretical framework on student engagement and two research questions: (a) How do OEF/OIF student veterans at the participating college define "student success" and (b) To what extent and how do the OEF/OIF student veterans at the college attribute their success to the specialized veterans' programs and services provided by the college? The study consisted of a review of the college's veterans program, interviews of OEF/OIF military veterans at the school, and a survey of over 300 student veterans. The objective was to gain the veterans' perspectives of and satisfaction with the services provided. The findings indicated that the veterans' definition of success was based on grades, transfer opportunities, goal completion, and job obtainment. Additionally, most participants viewed the programs and services as contributing to their success. The findings will help college administrators to gain a more comprehensive understanding of student veterans' classroom needs and to model these programs and services as they attempt to meet student veterans' educational goals.

Defining and Improving Success for Student Veterans

Defining and Improving Success for Student Veterans PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic achievement
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description


Veterans in Higher Education: When Johnny and Jane Come Marching to Campus

Veterans in Higher Education: When Johnny and Jane Come Marching to Campus PDF Author: David DiRamio
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118173112
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
It's estimated that, in the coming decade, as many as 2 million students with military experience will take advantage of their education benefits and attend institutions in all sectors of higher education. This monograph provides useful information about students with military experience who attending college by blending the theoretical, practical and empirical. The authors assemble some of the best-known theories and research in the literature of the field to provide starting points from which to investigate the phenomenon of today's veteran attending college. Other frameworks and theories, particularly from the literature on college student development, from recognizable names such as Baxter Magolda, Braxton, Chickering, Schlossberg, and Tinto, are used--sometimes directly in their own words. New issues to our generation, such as the unique subpopulation of women veterans and the challenges they face, are explored. This volume equips higher education professional with a fundamental understanding of the issues faced by the student veteran population and aims to enable them in their roles of providing sorely needed assistance in the transition to college, persistence at the institution, and degree attainment. This is the third issue in the 37th volume of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph in the series is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education problem, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.

Factors Leading to Student Veteran Achievement in Community College

Factors Leading to Student Veteran Achievement in Community College PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
Student veteran achievement in community college has received increased attention this past decade with the surge in enrollment by returning military personnel and retired veterans. Similar to previous eras, today’s student veterans seek post-war educational opportunities at postsecondary institutions. Yet unlike previous student veteran enrollment surges, colleges and universities currently lack adequate understanding of student veterans and how to effectively enable their success. This study adapted De La Garza’s (2015) Conceptual Model of Student Veteran Achievement into three separate path models with latent constructs. The intrinsic interest, college GPA, and credits earned models were each geared for predicting student veteran success and were analyzed using factor analysis and a series of multiple regression analyses. Additionally, two new factor constructs related to student veteran sense of belonging were added to each of the models in support of previous research citing the benefits of sense of belonging on postsecondary achievement. The Community College Survey of Men (CCSM) provided a student veteran dataset of 481 respondents and the study also employed a subset of 250 student veterans of color respondents from the same dataset for analysis across the three models. The findings indicated that using the intrinsic interest and college GPA models in tandem, provided a comprehensive analysis versus employing a cognitive or noncognitive model alone. The dual-model approach significantly predicted student veteran and student veterans of color achievement while the credits earned model provided weak predictions. Sense of belonging was critical in predicting student veteran achievement and further reversed or dampened negative effects influencing the ultimate endogenous variable in each of the three models. Compared to the student veteran achievement models, the student veterans of color models were significantly affected by stressful events and also less impacted by noncognitive variables than the traditional cognitive measures of postsecondary success. Future research using the intrinsic interest and college GPA models will help define programs and policies for other student veteran subgroups including student veteran women, student veterans with disabilities or impairments, and specific student veteran military branches or duty statuses. Current programs and policies should leverage and encourage sense of belonging and strive to increase veteran representation among postsecondary faculty and administrators. Dedicated support of Student Veterans Associations and likeminded organizations are considered vehicles for increasing and enhancing student veteran sense of belonging.