Adapting to College Life: What We can do to Assist the

1. Adapting to College Life: What We can do to Assist the Returning Veteran Florida Atlantic University's 5th Annual Forum on Student Veterans

2. Supporting Veterans Through College

3. Understand the veteran • Use institutional strengths • Look for opportunities to improve services • Use veteran positive traits and skills to good advantage

4. Veterans are not all created equal

5. Some veterans may not relate very well to the average "peer"

6. Pre-Forum Survey ReviewQuestion 1 Other: Work with FAU student Veterans and Disabled American Veterans State of FL

7. Survey Review: Questions 2 & 3

8. Survey Review: Question 4 In the context of Veteran issues that most closely surround transitioning to college, please rank these issues in order of importance, with 1 being the highest and 8 being the lowest importance • Military Credit Transfer • Education Benefits • On Campus Veteran Services • On-Campus Sensitivity toward/from veterans • Program Portability between colleges for Active Duty students • Veteran College Attainment • Career Development • Military friendly curriculum

9. Survey Review: Question 5In the context of Veteran issues that surround their Health and Welfare, please rank these issues in order of importance, with 1 being the highest and 8 being the lowest importance • Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) • Mental Health Counseling • Veteran Disabilities • Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) • Housing/Homelessness • Women Veterans issues • Minority Veterans issues • LGBT Veteran Issues

10. Survey Review: Question 6Of the areas listed above, you have expertise in (list all that apply):

11. Survey Review: Question 7Agree or Disagree We should see more Vets returning to school and possibly they will be the largest sub-population entering universities. If so we will encounter more students with visible physical disabilities and unseen health issues and generally a new unique set of needs versus past populations-say in the past 20-30 years.

12. Survey Review: Question 8Agree or Disagree 1. We are just beginning to address serving this population to a greater extent too early to tell 2. I think above options aren't valid options for myself. For instance some VA & University programs are exceptional while others are terribly inadequate...So maybe I should select "disagree".

13. Survey Review: Question 9If you could synthesize two or three of the most important issues facing veterans into a single, coherent message for people to consider, what would that message be? • …It is the government's responsibility to provide [veterans] with the best medical care, mental health counseling, educational and career opportunities on their return to ensure a smooth transition... • Even though many veterans have experienced difficult and/or traumatic events, they're people just like you & me. • ...[veterans have] limited access to overall health services, including mental health… "acceptable" providers are limited and waiting lists are long. • …education promises need to be kept. Training to help skills won in the military transfer into civilian life is important. • Issues that are not on the surface such as TBI and PTSD • Do not focus on PTSD... Smothering is not helping. • …a strong academic foundation and … a timely graduation. • Sensitivity to their needs…facilitate the enrollment process and orientation and course selection as it begins before they set foot on the college campus • There are skills and knowledge that veterans possess that are not considered transferable - nor are they being properly merited... • Be prepared for culture shock and new challenges! • The difficulty coming out of a regimented environment where everything follows a very streamlined format to an environment of individualism… • …help[ing] Vets transition or reintegrate to where they want to be … means making non-Vets aware/sensitive to that population's needs and how to assist them...

14. Survey Review: Question 10 Do you think society and institutions are doing a good job or a bad job at fulfilling the terms of your message? What should be done to improve this? • … provide Empathy Training. • Improvement can be made through promoting awareness in the community. • I think an adequate job is being done by society and a good job is being done by FAU (or at least we are headed in that direction). We need to continue working on improving our services. • Offer the help, if vets want it they will come. • Society is reactive rather than proactive… • A unified message needs to be created and advocated across institutions, organizations and communities... • Little known about challenges facing veterans returning to colleges and few services available presently • They are trying to do and are doing a fairly good job but need to be educated in how to do it better. • …we are not providing veterans … with adequate resources. For example, the VA is underfunded. • During new employee orientation is any time spent addressing the needs of …vets or FAU's Mission as it relates to them? Is the issue addressed in departmental "retreats" or staff meetings?

15. Adapting to College Life: What We can do to Assist the Returning Veteran Florida Atlantic University's 5th Annual Forum on Student Veterans