Term

Fall 11-28-2016

Capstone

Thesis

Degree Name

MAEd

Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair

Shelley Orr

Secondary Advisor/Reader One

Julie Bach

Peer-Reviewer/Reader Two

Renae Stinar

Abstract

The United States Armed Services has produced some of the finest men and women soldiers in history. After their service, some pursue institutions of higher learning to meet the needs of their continued excellence. Some colleges and universities have failed to meet the slightest requirements of the veteran student: understanding, compassion, respect and college credits for military training and experiential learning. The chapters inside this capstone confirms that veterans must be accepted as a very important part of the campus population. When veteran’s complete college and graduate, they have strategically and successfully completed another important undertaking. To look at a veteran-friendly college or university campus would be to see the support and the ideas of the men and women who have served the United States during time of war and in peace. This should be one of the many essential focuses of campus administrators, staff, faculty and other students. We know that college has long been a place where young people develop an identity and a purpose in life. Students (non-veterans), start to develop their identity during college, but for older students, like veterans, with lifetime and wartime experience, those lessons have already been learned amid a procession of struggle and sacrifice that's impossible to reproduce in a classroom or an internship. Veterans are natural leaders with the leadership-chip inherently built inside them. For a college or university campus to overlook this important social feature would be a tragic loss for the veterans and the community. If veterans are not recognized on college campuses, then how can a college or university begin to build community towards being veteran-friendly?

Research Methodology

Action Research, Field Study, Interview, Program Evaluation

Keywords

Adult Education, Community Building, Grades/ Student Performance, Leadership

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