One of the important things experts consider when reintegrating veterans back into society is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The illness mainly affects this population due to their different experiences in their line of duty as soldiers. The enactment of the Post-9/11 Veterans' Educational Assistance Act of 2008 enabled student veterans to…

Non-traditional students disproportionately enroll in institutions with weaker graduation and earnings outcomes. One hypothesis is that these students would have made different choices had they been provided with better information or supports during the decision-making process. We conducted a large-scale, multi-arm field experiment with the U.S.…

U.S. military veterans attend college in increasing numbers, yet, often without a sense of attachment to their university. This mixed-methods exploratory study examined sense of belonging, happiness, and stress-coping outcomes for student veterans (N = 9) participating in a backpacking event. Results indicate the treatment group's happiness level…

Community colleges strive to fulfill the unique needs of military service members, veterans and their families, a mission harkening back to wartime and the decades in which the nation's fighters were off the battlefield. Educating the nation's servicemen and women has long been a core undertaking of many community colleges, particularly in regions…

An organization's ability to accomplish its mission is often contingent upon its collective capacity to execute projects and/or initiatives in a timely and organized manner. Project management has a critical role in the delivery of projects within designated timelines, budgets, and defined quality. Duke University, in its entirety, comprises both…

In this dissertation, I study the relationships between financial aid, student characteristics, persistence, and completion in three separate chapters. In all three chapters, I use detailed, student-level administrative data from the UNC System beginning in the Fall 2013 semester. The first chapter is entitled "Tuition Reduction and Student…

Over 2,000,000 servicemen and servicewomen returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will take advantage of the educational benefits of the Post-9/11 GI Bill and will enroll in community colleges. Despite over 70 years of education benefits for U.S. veterans, there has been little research into the availability and effectiveness of…

As postsecondary institutions seek ways to attract military veterans as students, they ostensibly grapple with how to best support these men and women once they arrive on campus. Although there are dozens of financial, academic, and emotional support systems available through the government, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations,…

This chartbook is the 14th version to be produced for the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). The Chartbook describes the diversity of the Appalachian Region on a host of demographic and economic measures and provides an important annual view of the area and its people. The data contained in the…

An influx of veterans is returning to the classroom; as many as a third are returning as wounded warriors with disabilities, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury which affect classroom success. Research indicates that although many colleges and universities strive to support veterans by assisting with the GI Bill and…

This report presents state- and county-level data for the Appalachian Region. The 12 chapters focus on: (1) Population Basics; (2) Age; (3) Race and Hispanic Origin; (4) Housing Occupancy, Tenure, and Type; (5) Education, Device Ownership, and Internet Access; (6) Labor Force, Employment, and Unemployment; (7) Transportation and Commuting…

This study examines state- and county-level data for the 13 Appalachian states from the 2013-2017 American Community Survey (ACS) and from U.S. Census Bureau population estimates on topics including population, age, race and ethnicity, housing occupancy and tenure, education, labor force, employment and unemployment, income and poverty, health…

Over two million service men and women, returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will take advantage of the educational benefits of the Post-9/11 GI Bill and will enroll in community colleges. Despite over 70 years of education benefits for U.S. veterans, there has been little research into the availability and effectiveness of…

This report presents state- and county-level data for the Appalachian Region. The 12 chapters focus on: (1) Population Basics; (2) Age; (3) Race and Hispanic Origin; (4) Housing Occupancy, Tenure, and Type; (5) Education, Device Ownership, and Internet Access; (6) Labor Force, Employment, and Unemployment; (7) Transportation and Commuting…

Purpose: Apprenticeships in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, which operate under the United Services Military Apprenticeship Program (USMAP), now account for about 20 percent of all registered apprentices in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to draw on interviews and focus groups to examine the strengths and limitations of USMAP,…