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…

This article outlines a three-phase, team-based approach used to analyze qualitative data from a nation-wide needs assessment of access to Veteran Health Administration services for rural-dwelling veterans. The method described here was used to develop the trustworthiness of findings from analysis of a large qualitative data set, without the use…

Veterans Readiness and Employment (VR&E) is an entitlement program that provides job training and related services "to enable veterans with service-connected disabilities to achieve maximum independence in daily living and, to the maximum extent feasible, to become employable and to obtain and maintain suitable employment." The…

The purpose of the qualitative exploratory case study is to examine student veterans' perceptions of the utility of the 8 Keys to Veterans' Success (8 Keys) during their pursuit of associate degrees from a community college in Georgia, post-military service. The study explored the student veteran perspective by answering three research questions:…

This chapter explores the lack of data about student veterans and reasons this lack of data raises particular concerns about for-profit institutions, which enroll a large percentage of student veterans.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the homecoming and college transition narratives constructed by student veterans in order to help college clinicians a) to more holistically understand these veterans and their experiences, b) to more fully enter their phenomenological worlds, and c) to form more genuine and effective…

The "Annual Disability Statistics Supplement" is a companion report to the "Annual Disability Statistics Compendium" (ED628628). The "Supplement" presents statistics on the same topics as the Compendium with additional categorizations by demographic characteristics including age, gender and race/ethnicity. In addition…

Objective: This study investigated supports and barriers to academic success and wellness for college student service members and veterans (SSM/V) attending a metropolitan university. Participants and Methods: Two student service members/veterans took three-five photographs depicting their daily experiences over one-three weeks across two academic…

Supported by considerable public investment through post-9/11 higher education benefits, student military service members/veterans (SSM/ Vs) have been one of the fastest-growing groups of nontraditional students in American universities in recent years. Despite their increased numbers and potential to diversify science, technology, engineering,…

Military veterans make up a growing proportion of students attending community colleges. Current research shows that some veterans do not transition easily from the service into a higher education setting. One possible reason for this is that the military purposefully creates and sustains its service members' culture. This culture can be retained…

In recent years, policymakers, industry stakeholders, and educational institutions have shown an interest in the federal government increasing financial support to individuals who pursue training and postsecondary education in non-degree instructional and work-based learning programs. This report provides an overview of existing federal programs…

Soldiers have returned from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and have enrolled in post-secondary education in large numbers, especially at community colleges because of flexible course scheduling. The problem explored in this study was the need for 1 community college to…

The Post-9/11 GI Bill provides educational benefits to service members and veterans who served on active duty on or after September 11, 2001. This GI Bill (officially the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008), which covers tuition, fees, housing, and related educational expenses, is managed by the Veterans Benefits Administration…

Military and veteran students face many challenges when navigating their journey in higher education. These non-traditional students have varied support needs when attending institutions of higher education that are different than the traditional student today. The purpose of this study is to determine the level of their satisfaction with the…

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…