HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. — Northern Kentucky University is enlisting faculty and staff into basic training in military understanding to ensure graduation rates for veterans and other military affiliated students rise.
“We have about 7% of our adult learner population that identify as military-affiliated,” said Sara Conwell, assistant director for Adult Learner Programs and Services at NKU.
NKU’s military-affiliated students' backgrounds range from military veterans and those who’ve served and are now no longer serving to National Guard and Reserve members who are actively participating in military service.
One issue identified is a lack of background for staff and faculty to understand the specific needs for these types of students.
“They also don't understand the struggles that we go through as veterans when we first get out of the services,” said Rusty Mardis. “We transition back into civilian life, and that the academia training is totally different than military training.”
Mardis, an Air Force combat veteran who now serves as the Coordinator of NKU’s Veterans Resource Station, is teaching a class known as the Green Zone for educators on campus, so they better understand where military-affiliated students are coming from when they engage with them.
“They need to understand that so they can be champions of success for veteran students,” Mardis said.
Those who go through the Green Zone training become part of the growing Green Zone Brigade on campus.
“It's actually been a wealth of information," Conwell said. "We've been able to kind of tailor our assessment needs to our students based off of understanding which terminology to use to those students.”
For adjunct professor Kevin Eagles, the information obtained while attending the Green Zone military training has opened his eyes to something he didn’t think about before.
“One of the eye-opening things was that we have a lower percentage of servicemembers complete graduation. And many of them find that they withdraw from this from the university when they feel like their needs aren't being met and they're not being understood,” he said.
The goal of growing the Green Zone Brigade is to ensure more members of the faculty not only better understand this particular group of students, but adapt teachings that lean toward success.
“Any barrier that we can remove to make it make them opportunities for success, we want to make sure we do that,” Mardis said.
There’s another side to all of this according to Mardis — an impact on veteran suicide. He cites a study by American Warrior Partnership showing engagement with veterans leads to an increase in well-being and the ease transitional process.
“We do programming and services to focus on engagement,” he said. “The faculty and staff engage with military-affiliated and veteran students on a daily at least normal basis. So, training them how to engage, and giving them military culture background is so important. This is also a key in reducing, hopefully eliminating veteran suicides.”
The on campus food pantry FUEL is also focused on making sure food insecurity and hygiene aren’t issues inhibiting military affiliated student’s learning.
As for the future, NKU is launching an impact crowdfunding campaign to create a scholarship fund to support veterans and military affiliated students. If you’d like to find out more details you can visit NKU’s website.
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