Straight Talk for Veterans: A Guide to Success in College

Straight Talk for Veterans: A Guide to Success in College answers the call by veterans and practitioners to move away from academic volumes that don't resonate with the reader and frankly fall short of really helping veterans succeed in college. Veteran-friendliness is a straightforward concept that is, in most contexts, more lip-service than action and is rarely achieved. Conceptualizing veteran-friendliness is best done in plain language, the way veterans talk to each other, and is about improving the cultural competency of non-veterans. Too many volumes written by people that either aren't veterans or do not really understand veterans have left the field wanting for a text that can both inform practitioners who intend to help veterans succeed and speak in no-nonsense language that veterans prefer.

Straight Talk for Veterans is a straight-forward guide primarily intended for those transitioning from the military to higher education, but also for general veteran transitions to civilian life. Designed as a companion text aligned with veteran transition curricula, it serves the dual purpose of guiding veterans through the initial culture shock that can come with joining and academic community directly from the military and guiding practitioners to be able to support veterans through a more culturally competent lens. Straight talk's diverse chapter authors deliver a comprehensive array of accessible information that covers concepts of negotiating transitions, navigating higher education, skills assessment and translation, and a series of fresh perspectives on concepts frequently misunderstood or mischaracterized by civilians. This text is most valuable to the student veteran or the campus that wants to focus their energies on the real success of student veterans: graduating and finding a job. Written in a style that speaks directly to the student, this is not an attempt to over analyze student veterans with anecdotal observations and small-scale research.

Expert chapter authors come from positions of extensive experience as either veterans, those who have served veterans for a long time, those who have conducted meaningful research on the experiences of student veterans, or a combination of these. These elite scholars include Kevin Jones, Janine Wert, Aynsley Diamond, Adam Fullerton, Sharon Young, Michael Kirchner, Sarah Minnis, Glenn Phillips, and Sosanya Jones. The end-state of attending college for veterans is not simply to earn a degree, but to improve prospects for a career that will move a veteran forward to increasing economic prosperity. As such, the book takes a progressive approach from transitioning out of the military, into and through higher education and out into the work world. The reader's time is not spent rehashing the original GI Bill and its history, or education benefits - topics that have been well-trodden in the field. This book combines proven research, best practices and first-hand experience to deliver on what every student veteran needs: solid advice on how to succeed in the transition through college to the workplace.

Dr. David Vacchi is the editor of this volume and is a US Army veteran of 20 years with deployments for Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom in the early 2000s. He earned a PhD in Higher Education Administration from UMass-Amherst as a student veteran using the Post 9/11 GI Bill in which his dissertation research focused on explaining student veteran success. An unapologetic advocate for viewing veterans through strengths perspectives, David critiques research and models that take a negative view of veterans, while leveraging his own scholarly and professional background to demonstrate how veterans succeed despite numerous obstacles to their success. Dr. Vacchi has been a faculty member or administrator in higher education at the undergraduate or graduate level since 2005. David earned a master's degree in Administration from Central Michigan University while on active duty and a bachelor's degree in Organizational Leadership and Supervision from Purdue University. David has been a national leader in the scholarship of veterans in higher education and has enjoyed numerous positions from which to advocate for improving the plight of student veterans, including serving as the Chair of NASPA's Veterans Knowledge Community and the Region I and Research and Publications representative for the same, a board member of the Southeast Council on Military Education, and has spoken at numerous local, regional, and national conferences about his scholarly work and research on veterans. David was the lead author on the definitive chapter on student veterans in the Higher Education Handbook of Theory and Research with his mentor Dr. Joe Berger.Kevin Jones, PhD is a two-service infantry veteran, having served on active duty in the Marine Corps in Operation Desert Storm and an additional decade in the Army National Guard. He subsequently earned a master of fine arts degree from Queens University of Charlotte and a doctorate in Higher Education Administration and Policy at the University of Florida where his dissertation focused on the lived experiences of combat veterans transitioning into community colleges. He is the author of the book Collateral Damage: Stories, and his peer-reviewed research on student veterans has appeared in The Community College Journal of Research and Practice, The Qualitative Report, and a special issue of New Directions for Institutional Research, which he co-edited, on student veterans. He has presented nationally on student veteran issues and is a fellow of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society and sits on the advisory counsel for the MilSpeak Military Community Arts Foundation. His higher education experience includes both faculty and senior administrative positions.Janine Wert, MA, LICSW, is the Director of Veterans Services at UMass Lowell. She has been a military family member for most of her life - as a military child, military spouse, and military parent. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Florida, a Masters of Social Work from The Ohio State University, and is a doctoral candidate in the Executive Leadership program at the University of Charleston. Her clinical expertise includes the diagnosis and treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, and military transitional and family issues. She previously served returning combat Veterans in the Veterans Administration (VA) and founded the Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom Program (OEF/OIF) at the Dayton, OH VA Medical Center and significantly expanded the OEF/OIF program at the Manchester, NH VA Medical Center as an OEF/OIF Program Manager and Case Manager. She served at the Lowell, MA Vet Center as a Readjustment Counselor and Family Therapist and implemented an outreach program to three local colleges so that student veterans could access assessment and treatment. Certified in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, and Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy, Janine demonstrates deep expertise in support of combat veterans and those facing MST trauma. Janine is active in professional organizations serving military and veterans through higher education including The Council of College and Military Educators (CCME), and is the Mental Health representative of the NASPA Veterans Knowledge Community.Aynsley Diamond, EdD is the Director of Faculty Development Programs for the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning at the University of Connecticut. The sister of an Army aviator, and daughter of a Vietnam veteran, Aynsley has been supporting veterans and service members in the classroom since 2008 when she began the work of bridging the gap between abstract research and real classroom learning. Aynsley is the author of The Adaptive Military Transition Theory and its representative arc model of veteran's transition.Adam Fullerton, MA, is a doctoral candidate at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, in the higher education administration program. Adam has served in the Marine Corps for thirteen years, having served as an enlisted military police officer and as a commissioned officer in the field of logistics. As a scholar, he has presented at national and regional conferences primarily on student veterans and focuses his research on student veterans that have served in, or are currently in, the National Guard or Reserves. As a civilian, he has been an adjunct faculty member for the Marine Corps University for three years, where he teaches multiple undergraduate courses each year for senior enlisted servicemember professional development.Sharon L. Young, PhD, LCSW is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Western Connecticut State University. Sharon has developed a Veterans Adjustment to College scale and has written chapters and articles about veteran adjustment to college and social work with veterans. She has also worked as an embedded clinician with an infantry battalion in the Connecticut Army National Guard to support Soldiers in crisis and to work with Soldier teams to promote support that extends beyond military service.Michael Kirchner, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Leadership at Purdue University-Fort Wayne, teaching courses in the field of human resource development. Previously, Mike was the first director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Military and Veterans Resource Center where he oversaw programming for the campus' 1,000+ student veterans. Under his leadership (2014-2016), the campus built a nationally-recognized program for student veterans, highlighted by a 'military-college-career' framework. He is a US Army veteran, having served in Baghdad, Iraq from 2004-2005, and is co-founder of UW-Milwaukee's Student Veterans of America Chapter. Dr. Kirchner earned his Ph.D. in Human Resource Development from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and currently serves as the NASPA (student affairs professionals' organization) Region IV-East Veterans Knowledge Community Representative and is the Faculty-Member-at-Large of the Academy of Human Resource Development's Leadership Special Interest Group. Mike frequently presents at national and international conferences and his research on veteran career transitions, applications of military leader development in non-military contexts, and alternative leadership development strategies has appeared in numerous journals including Human Resource Development Quarterly, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Industrial and Commercial Training, Journal of Military Learning, Journal of Veterans Studies, and Adult Learning Journal.Sarah E. Minnis, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Master of Science in Human Resources program at Western Carolina University. She has over 25 years of higher education administration, career advising, and organization development experience with more than 12 years specifically addressing veterans' reintegration, career development, and sustainable employment. Sarah's ongoing research and practice is in helping higher education and employment communities better understand the value of and more effectively utilize the talents of veterans. Dr. Minnis has published and presented nationally and internationally on her research and practice. Sarah currently serves as Co-Chair of the Scholar Practitioner Special Interest Group within the Academy of Human Resource Development. Sarah is Co-Editor of the International Journal of HRD Policy, Practice & Research as well as an Editorial Board member for both the Journal of Veterans Studies and Advances in Developing Human Resources. Dr. Minnis holds a PhD in Human Resource Development from Texas A&M University, a Master's degree in student affairs from Western Kentucky University, and a Bachelor's degree in psychology from Central Washington University.Glenn Allen Phillips, PhD is the Director of Institutional Assessment at Howard University and has worked in higher education since 2004 as a faculty member and administrator. Teaching developmental mathematics at a two-year college, Glenn first started working with veterans, and eventually focused his doctoral work on creating a new critical lens through which to view student veteran matters. Dr. Phillips devotes personal and professional time to critique the policies, practices, and procedures that may unfairly disadvantage student veterans.Sosanya M. Jones, EdD is an Assistant Professor in the Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies program at Howard University. She teaches courses on governance, policy, diversity, and qualitative research. Dr. Jones has almost twenty years of experience as an administrator, researcher, and educator in higher education. Her research interests focus on the nexus between policy and practice for diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education.