Anyone who works with military-affiliated students knows how daunting their academic journey can be. In addition to acclimating to everything that goes into being a successful student, many are navigating VA and military benefits, balancing a family, a full or part-time job, and making sure that they make time for some sort of self-care in between everything else.

As advocates, we know that one of the best ways to ensure the academic and personal success of these students is to get them connected. There are many resources out there and we pride ourselves as resource experts. We have contacts for every veteran and active military organization imaginable on and off campus. We work closely with the many resources in our community and do our best to facilitate those connections. Our one-on-one conversations with students often end with a business card, an email, or a phone call to create that connection.

Getting Students Connected

I have worked in the higher education military space for almost six years now and a common theme among myself and my colleagues is that even though we have numerous resources at our disposal it is still hard to get our students connected. It is hard to get them to participate and to meet the many advocates that want to be a part of that success. I think a question many of us ask ourselves is why aren't our students taking that information and using it to their advantage?

I have found that it is not enough to just pass the resource information along to our students in hopes that they will take action. I decided that if I was to truly live out our mission of breaking down barriers to success, I had to bring the resources to my students.

Bring the Resources to Campus

At Casper College we were lucky enough to open a brand-new Veteran Resource Center (VRC) at the start of the Fall 2022 semester. To coincide with the fall opening, we implemented office hours for four different community partners. These included a local veteran service officer, a readjustment counseling therapist from our VRC, a veteran outreach specialist from our state workforce center, and a soldier and family readiness specialist from the state military department. We strategically chose these four representatives because we felt they each played a key role in the soldier-to-student transition for our veterans and the balancing act of being a soldier and student for our active military members.

Establishing Consistent Connection

Each of these partners comes once per week in a four-hour block. The intent of having these folks in the center is to integrate them into our campus community and it has made an immediate impact. Our students have the ability to set up appointments with them during these office hours, but most of the connections they have been able to make come organically. Over the past semester, they have been able to get to know our students on a personal level by just being there and available. There is a level of trust that has been built that I would not have been able to replicate any other way.

Growing Community Interest

News has spread and we have had other organizations in our community reach out to see if they can hold office hours as well. This has been a balancing act and we are still working through that. If there have been any downfalls to these office hours, it is deciding which of those representatives fit in our mission of breaking down barriers for success. For the spring semester, we have decided to stick with the four representatives that we had last semester.

Overall, this has been a win-win situation for us and them. Our community partners have been able to connect with our students in a way that would not happen if they were in their office off campus, and our students have resources available to them on a weekly basis in a place they are comfortable.

Article Topics

Military Friendly Institutions Serving Military in HigherEd Veterans Academic Success Working as a Veteran in HigherEd

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