Veteran Resource Center: The One Stop Welcome for Returning Veterans

Returning veterans are a growing underserved population at college campuses around the nation. Expanded educational benefits in the new GI Bill, are increasing enrollment at campuses around the country, and this is challenging colleges to meet the educational and support needs of this traditionally at-risk group. At Cerritos College, veteran students are currently provided with a number of programs and services through an established Veterans Resource Center (VRC). The VRC is an initiative to nurture a welcoming campus culture for veteran students. It is founded on the premise that the challenges faced by veterans may be addressed through a combination of services stressing academics, camaraderie, and wellness. Veterans need to have the opportunity to experience these essentials in a one-site stop staffed by those who empathize with the issues with which they struggle, and which they must address to help themselves thrive as no college student should ever state “I would rather go to war than college” (statement by a returning veteran).

Colleges Supporting Veteran Reintegration

The new Post-9/11 GI Bill which includes the two most prominent current wars Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), offers enhanced educational provisions, and has resulted in increases in college attendance among returning veterans. This influx challenges colleges to support veteran reintegration and provide them with the support they need to achieve their academic goals. California, with its vast military sector, is home to 2.5 million veterans, more than 10% of the national population #1. Approximately 25,000 – two-thirds of all California veterans enrolled on the GI bill - are enrolled at state’s 112 community college sites #2. Community colleges, with their “open door” enrollment policy, leadership in vocational/training programs, and Troops to College Initiative, are a logical first stop for returning veterans seeking to achieve a certificate or degree, or receive additional training #3. But for returning veterans, re-entering the education system is just one of many challenges to reintegrating to civilian life:

Key Transition Challenges	Comments
Physical and emotional health	Approximately 30% of recent veterans have some form of mental illness, including Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
Cultural disconnect from non-veterans	Transition and isolation were viewed as two of the biggest barriers to success of veterans.
Post-transition employment	A lack of non-military work experience or inability to transition military work experience to civilian level jobs; high level of unemployment among veterans.
A lack of awareness or information about benefit programs	California ranks 35th in the nation for securing federal benefits.
Systemic barriers to college admissions	Most college admissions are based on high school grade point averages and entrance exam scores.

All of these obstacles pose challenges to academic success for veterans, a traditionally “at-risk” population. Many have not attended college at all, or, if they have, have not attended for several years. Veterans, especially Latinos, also trend towards “nontraditional” learning styles – a high percentage are visual, graphic and kinesthetic learners. Also, for a large percentage of veterans, the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injuries (TBI) pose substantial barriers to academic success.

Condition	Rate	Effects on Learning
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder	30%	Flashbacks – Intrusive thoughts – Irritability – Attention deficits – Social withdrawal.
Traumatic Brain Injuries	20%	Impaired attention – Reduced working memory – Reduced information processing speed – Impaired long-term retention – Sequencing difficulties – Poor judgment/decision making skills.
Psycho-Social Problems	40%	Majority suffer from more than one psycho-social difficulty, generally related to PTSD or TBI effects.

(Rand Corporation, 2008)

In short, this is not a population for whom academic success comes easily, and, as their numbers increase on campuses nationwide, veterans are evolving into a major, underserved population at the postsecondary level.

Approximately 1,207,428 OEF/OIF Veterans have separated from the military from 2002 through 2010 with 49% (593,63) who have obtained VA health care since 2002 (VA Office of Public Health and Environmental Hazards, October 2010). The VA Health Care system is not only a huge health care system to navigate through it is also confusing and therefore does not greet its newest military members with open doors. Needless to say it is a system you must be educated in to adapt and utilize. Our returning military are arriving home with not only physical wounds of war but wounds that are often invisible to the eye.

Helping Veterans at Our College

Our VRC has adapted to the needs of the returning troops by surveying what their immediate needs are and addressing those needs along with academic goals. Immediate needs are addressed in the order they present such as those that are academic in nature by allowing veterans priority enrollment, certifying them through our certifying officials to assure they receive their monthly benefits for rent, and finally offering the support services that are all integrated into a single unified “one-stop” VRC area. The VRC provides student veterans with computer access, adaptive technologies, counseling including academic and mental health, support groups and other services.

We have collaborated with a large network of external veteran agencies such as AMVETS, who assist our military in accessing medical benefits and appointments in the healthcare system, and the Orange County Vet Center who sends out a mental health counselor to have support groups in our VRC weekly. We have also connected with a multitude of outside service organizations to improve coordination with existing campus services such as the Employment Development Department (EDD) to assist with writing resumes for veterans to make our center a more seamless experience again in a one-stop location. We offer daily tutoring in our VRC with computer access and tutors on site to assist those veterans that are struggling. The tutoring room is generally a quiet place and the veteran population has a sense of calm in this area.

Our VRC along with the assistance of our college President is reaching out to the four year college Presidents with an emphasis on the “Yellow Ribbon Schools” to allow a more rapid enrollment process for our veteran students. The transfer process can be tedious but when each college/University President understands the importance of this connection the process should be more organized and less stressful on the student.

The Need for Veteran Centers at Colleges

The need for a center that is specific for veterans is a must on any campus. It allows that camaraderie component to their environment which is vital to their academic success. Military troops relate to fellow military troops in a way that is like a sibling/sibling relationship. They find comfort in their fellow military members and can relate and share stories that allow them to experience camaraderie. Our faculty and staff have attended educational seminars provided by our VRC in how to best strengthen the veteran’s academic success in the classroom. Such items as where the veteran is seated in the classroom is important to their success, understanding deployment/training issues and allowing veteran students to essentially acclimate to civilian life in a constructive and organized manner.

Our military troops today are returning home with access to a new GI bill however they are returning with special needs. All college campuses must adapt and offer this deserving population an open door and address their needs. As I write we are assembling a group of staff on our campus to adapt new programs for veterans that will allow their training in the military to transition into an employable job such as electrical, wind turbine, plastics, and yet receive academic credit and not lose their benefits. We must adapt for our military as no college student should ever state “I would rather go to War than go to college”. Our world has changed since 9/11, and as our legislation has stated when adapting the new GI Bill “…our armed forces—for they have been compelled to make greater economic sacrifice and every other kind of sacrifice than the rest of us, and are entitled definite action to help take care of their special problems.” The VRC one-stop welcome at college campuses is the answer to addressing the veteran student needs.

REFERENCES CITED

1) Department of Veterans Affairs. The Post 9/11 GI-Bill. Downloaded September 11, 2011. www.va.gov.

2) Rand Corporation: The Center for Military Health Policy Research. Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery. Downloaded from the Internet September 10, 2011. www.rand.org.

3) Sewall, Michael. (2010, June, 13) “Veterans Use New GI Bill Largely at For-Profit and 2-Year Colleges,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. www.chronicle.com/article/Veterans-Use-Benefits-of-New-/65914/

4) Southern California Public Radio, (November, 2009)

5) "New GI Bill: Expanded Benefits Increase Education Options//Colleges reach out to Vets//Inland campuses expect ranks to swell soon," (2008, August 15) Riverside,The Press-Enterprise. www.pe.com

6) Church, T. (2009) Returning Veterans on Campus with war related injuries and the Long Road Back Home, Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 22, (1), (224-232).