Determining What Support Student Veterans Need and How to Offer It
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After learning about student veterans and the enrollment challenges surrounding this student population, the next step is to figure out how your academic institution can support them better. The veterans who attend your institution may have slightly different needs than those enrolled elsewhere, but many of them are the same. By taking the time to determine what support student veterans need and how to offer it to them, you'll be laying the groundwork for easier recruitment, retention, and overall student success.
How to determine what support student veterans need?
Identifying the support student veterans require can be challenging at times. It isn't enough to ask a student veteran what your institution can offer to improve their college experience. One of the best ways to get a solid answer is to encourage peer-led groups to discuss and present their solutions to student services or the administration. You could also try exit surveys, social media polls or targeted questionnaires.
Previous research and peer groups have clarified some of the ways veterans need support. These known needs are a great place to start when looking to tackle the obstacles the student veterans you serve are facing.
Affordability
The average four-year college education costs between $10,000 and $40,000 per year in the United States, making it an expensive investment.1 Even with 36 months of the Post-9/11 GI Bill®️, most student veterans will still have to pay out of pocket for their education. Institutions that can offer affordable programs to student veterans will find themselves gaining more interest from military-connected students. Scholarships are a great way for student veterans to offset expenses when their educational benefits run out. If your institution has any of these specifically for student veterans, ensure they are prominently displayed on your website and pushed out to veterans regularly.
Transferring prior credits
One hurdle student veterans face is transferring credits – not just credits from a previous institution but from military training. This can be an overwhelming process for students as they often work, enroll in classes, balance family life and try to figure out what of their previous training applies to their degree program. Connecting students with the right person within your institution is paramount in supporting them through this journey. You can also reference the American Council on Education on how military training can transfer to college credits, the Community College of the Air Force and the Joint Services Transcript website.
Career Services
When student veterans begin looking to life after completing their degree, they face different challenges than non-military-connected students. Keep student veterans in mind when evaluating what your career services currently offer. Remember, they are usually older than your traditional students, they have career and life experience, and some have families. All these characteristics will make resume writing, interview preparation and the job search look different. Veterans usually need help with translating their military skills into terms non-military companies will be able to understand.
Tutoring assistance
Student veterans may require academic assistance in the form of tutoring. The VA allows and compensates for tutoring assistance, up to $100 per month and a lifetime max of $1,200.2 Another option for veteran students is the free or discounted tutoring offered by StudyEdge.com and Tutor.com. Are these resources advertised in your institution's peer tutoring location, writing lab or other study resources? Do they list additional resources available to all of your students? If not, making help easier to find is a simple way to make a huge difference.
VA Benefits Assistance
As you can imagine, student veterans often find the VA challenging to navigate, especially regarding their educational benefits. Organizations and government offices can help with this, but having help available on campus can make a difference.
How to Offer Support Well
Offering support to veterans and military-connected students is crucial to retention and recruitment, but it can also take a lot of work. Offering support is not enough; the support needs to be authentic and helpful.
There are a few consistencies among the colleges and universities that do this well. Institutions and academic communities that listen to their veteran population, learn from them, employ veterans within their organizations and adopt policies to support veterans are successful. Here are some of the ways they do that.
Create environments for veterans to gather – both physically and virtually.
Encourage student veterans to communicate group needs with student services.
Offer a variety of learning environments that embrace flexibility.
Make it easy for student veterans to fit into the community.
Student veterans bring diversity and fresh ideas to your academic community. By listening to and learning from them, you'll be able to determine what support this group of students needs. And, more specifically, how to offer it to them.
Virtual Veterans Communities exists for one reason, to support institutions serving the students who serve our country. Whether you need a proven approach to on-base marketing, a turnkey online community, one-on-one coaching for military-connected students or team development, VVC stands ready.