If college is not easy for a regular student, just imagine how difficult it would be for student veterans. Military veterans face tough challenges in school compared to their non-vet peers.
According to the American Council on Education, 4% of undergrad student vets across the country have expressed their difficulty in connecting in their campus and is one of the major reasons behind the increasing dropout rates, USA Today College reported. There is also a lower percentage of student vets who finished their college compared to the non-veteran students.
In order to address these issues, a number colleges and universities have initiated support programs to provide help and support to these military students. According to EqualEd, one school, Texas A & M University, San Antonio,became the first one in conducting a training that gives faculty and staff the insights when it comes addressing the challenges faced by both the veterans and non-traditional students.
Karen Kalmbach, who runs the program said that military vets are more likely to drop out of college because they are older, and they work during college. They are also the ones with family responsibilities and have acquired medical conditions during the service. They are not the ones who feel the normal college life like everybody else.
At Binghamton University, Zach DuBord, assistant director of student veteran services, helped Binghamton adopt a training program called the Vet Net Ally. This program is designed to train faculty and staff with the goal of reducing misunderstandings and biases that student vets encounter. DuBord said that the program intends to make sure that military students will be able to find someone in every office who is not going to make them feel uncomfortable. DuBord wants to increase the number of student veterans who stay in college by making sure that they feel valued.
