Military Veterans Engineering Education Initiative Planning Grant

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The Center for the Study of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State University will assess data available and identify if more is needed to design programs to ease the transition of military veterans into engineering disciplines. The results will help postsecondary institutions meet the unique needs of military veterans returning to or enrolling in college for the first time. Intellectual merit: The new Montgomery GI Bill for post-9/11 veterans is expected to bring an influx of former military personnel to the nation's college campuses. Many of these veterans will bring technical skills and expertise, and an interest in continuing their education in those fields. The proposed planning grant will catalog examples of programs already developed on some college campuses to serve veterans. It will also assess the data that are available from military and other sources to assist in implementing efforts to recruit and serve veterans. The project will also suggest designs for appropriate evaluation methodology for such program to serve veterans who study engineering. Broader impacts: While the primary focus of this planning grant is on data and evaluation of programs for veterans, the results will have implications for other populations of non-traditional students. Most military veterans returning to college have characteristics that are quite different from traditional students transitioning directly from high school to postsecondary education. Adult students returning to college to complete a first degree, or enrolling for the first time, share many of the characteristics of military veterans. Many have spouses or partners as well as dependent children, and juggle family responsibilities while enrolled in college. All bring with them to the campus skills and talents learned in the labor force, and are looking for ways to build on that existing expertise.