@inproceedings{6f8afc658ac04421ac338d8a2162a1a9,
title = "Veterans in STEM: Supporting the transition from military culture to the culture of college",
abstract = "Colleges have seen an increase in the number of military veterans returning to college or entering college for the first time. With this increase has been greater attention to ways colleges can be welcoming and supportive learning environments for veterans, who are in many cases non-traditional students. This paper presents the results of a recent think tank and follow-up study exploring the intersection of military and college cultures for veterans pursuing degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).",
keywords = "Post-secondary education, STEM, Veterans",
author = "Ronda Jenson and Alexis Petri and Arden Day",
note = "Funding Information: This research was supported in full by the National Science Foundation under NSF Award #0929212 and #1246221. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation. Funding Information: Beginning 2009, the National Science Foundation invested funding in Kansas City-Building an Alliance for New Careers in STEM (KC-BANCS award #0929212) as a project designed to support military veterans with service-connected disabilities in their pursuit of a STEM degree leading to STEM employment. At that time, the disconnect between the needs and perspective of veterans with the college academic environment and available supports was apparent. To better understand the disconnection, as well as gaps and opportunities for improved systems and support, Transition STEM: A Wounded Warrior Think Tank was convened. The Transition STEM event was designed to elicit collective inquiry and response. Eighty individuals, representing 22 states, with both professional and personal expertise relevant to the issues, met for 2 days to discuss the transition from military to college to careers in STEM. The results of Transition STEM highlighted the roles of higher education, veteran services, and STEM industry in reaching out to veterans as a valuable, STEM-ready workforce. The results also identified research gaps. While the conversations and perceptions were highly valuable, there remained a lack of research showing the effects and impact of supports and policies. Building on the work of KC-BANCS, the National Science Foundation awarded Veterans in STEM: Critical Analysis of the Factors Affecting Pathways to STEM Careers (award #1246221) as a research study investigating the critical factors affecting learning, participation, persistence, and graduation for veterans with disabilities pursuing undergraduate STEM degrees. Similarly, with national representation, the Veterans in STEM study resulted in a model for decision-making and design for improving the success of veterans in the pursuit of a STEM education leading into STEM employment. This paper describes the results of the Transition STEM event, how it led into the research design of Veterans in STEM, and the research findings from Veterans in STEM. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Springer International Publishing AG 2018.; AHFE 2017 International Conference on Cross-Cultural Decision Making, 2017 ; Conference date: 17-07-2017 Through 21-07-2017",
year = "2018",
doi = "10.1007/978-3-319-60747-4_5",
language = "English (US)",
isbn = "9783319607467",
series = "Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing",
publisher = "Springer-Verlag",
pages = "43--53",
editor = "Mark Hoffman",
booktitle = "Advances in Cross-Cultural Decision Making - Proceedings of the AHFE 2017 International Conference on Cross-Cultural Decision Making, 2017",
}