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The 21st Century Student Veteran Support Center: Coordinating Mentors in Virtual and Interpersonal Space * *As Delivered, with Speaker comments in the notes area Professional Development Symposium: Council on College and Military Educators (CCME) Anaheim, CA, January 28, 2015 Barton Buechner, PhD, CAPT US Navy (Ret) *Dave Cass, CEO, UVIZE

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The Issues: Many veterans leave service without a clear idea of what they will do afterwards, and receive little guidance when separating more will be coming Schools and Universities were largely unprepared for the large numbers of veterans using Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits but a lot has been learned Most employers lack a coherent strategy of reaching Veterans when they are leaving service and while they are in school strategic points! More coordination is needed at all stages and mentors can fill in the gaps

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We All Serve Campus Structures are Fragmented Veteran Support Services Certifying Official Veterans Resource Center Student Veterans Organizations (SVA, others) Student Affairs Campus Life Diversity/Disabilities Student Success Career Services Work/Study and Service Learning Internships Campus Career Fairs Not usually in coordination May not be attuned to veteran culture Counseling Mental Health Spiritual Support Faculty Pedadogical Layered

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The Resourced Veteran We have veterans who are resourced now. To squander that resource, no, thats just wrong. So to get them here, and have them not be successful, would be such a tragedy. I learned so much by coming back to school, and most of it was about becoming part of something again that was significant. In the military what I did was significant. I was part of something great. Maybe you are just a little piece of it, but when you get here, you are part of something great again. - Ken

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Social Entrepreneurship Veterans leave service with paid education Employers should partner to leverage college campuses as integration points for recruitment in transition to mentor and prepare veterans as future employees Veterans are trained to look for mentors Integrate a mentoring approach to training, with focus on developing strengths Many veterans want to continue to serve Consider institutional attunement to a culture of personal development and higher purpose and context NEEDED : A business Case AND academic (empirical) Evicence!

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READJUSTMENT: Better than any other kind of experience, schooling can restore the veteran to the communicative system of society (Waller, 1944) HEALTH AND GROWTH: From the Harvard Grant Longitudinal study: Education was the single best predictor of overall future health (Vaillant, 2012) Developmental Mentoring Source: G. Vaillant (2014)

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Why Multiple Mentors Matter: Trust is is difficult, may be conditional, and can be developed over time in networks Encountering appropriate advisors is often a matter of chance especially in an unfamiliar landscape Communication skills can be a blind spot Veterans need multiple mentoring relationships or sources of advice to navigate complex change

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Identity formation and re-individuation

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9 Mentoring Domains SYSTEM AND CULTURE ADAPTATION Traditional Paving the Way mentoring Environmental Attunement Peer group mentoring DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH Making meaning from difficult Lived Experience Spiritual growth Motivational Drivers and Contexts Communication and networking competence

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(The Student Veterans Lounge is) the midpoint between collectivism and individualism. I think of this as the hub. They go to class and learn they get to have their own opinion about things that they are allowed to say out loud; and then they come back here and recharge. Then they go to another class where they learn to speak in public, in front of other people; and then they come back here where its safe. - Pat Culture Mentoring Bridging the gap

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Our Organizational Environments shape what we become - How can we structure our Institutions so they support the evolution of consciousness? - W. Barnett Pearce (2007)

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Dave Cass Towards a Veteran-Centric Context in Higher Education

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Dave Cass Strategic Student Veteran Concepts: Demystifying college academics prior to arriving on campus Scheduling time efficiently Utilizing on-campus resources Adopting effective study, test-taking, and classroom skills Managing stress Harnessing technology

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Mentoring Dynamics: Mentorship + Preparation = Persistence Creating a culture of trust and connectedness Keys to Success, #1

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Networks of Interdisciplinary mentors Contextual Mentoring Engages all four domains of human experience: Mind Brain Culture System Bridges Social Worlds Supports individuation and re-individuation Promotes personal growth Looks at (not through) communication Normalizes mental health as a positive construction

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MIND CULTURE SYSTEM BRAIN Coherence Coordination Mystery Interior Exterior Individual Student Veteran Organizations (MTMM) - Peer Mentoring Psychoeducation and Therapy (OTMM) Behavior Formation and Development (OTOM) Developmental Veterans Service Office Organizational Support (MTOM) - Advocacy Bridging Family Influence Social World Resources Engagement and quests Cognition and Neuroscience Phenomenological Lived Experience Adult Learning Affect and Emotion Observable Behavior Plasticity Collective Social Justice Somatics

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MTOMMany-to-one mentoring MTMMMany-to-many mentoring OTMMOne-to-many mentoring OTOM One-to-one mentoring PGMPeer group mentoring Group Mentoring types (Huizing, 2012) Significant Mentor influences included educators, peers, family members, military leaders and clinical counselors, across temporal boundaries

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Support and lead Embody values Dont sugar-coat Are true Mentors Few parallels outside of service An Essential Warrior Archetype Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs)

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How NCO Leadership is Made Coordinated System of the Inspector General Teach and Train Inspect Fact-finding Assist (Social Justice) Emergent Properties: Self-confidence Loyalty to each other Acountability Leadership by example Sharing the Moral Code

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Contextual Mentoring Coordinated effort, led by someone who gets veterans experience, and cares (empathic) at the personal level Builds bridges between military social and future worlds. Brokers loose-tie connections to others Integrates elements of Family values (primary socialization), Peer support, Formation, Mental Health, and role models Orchestrates existing lifeworld resources and aspects of advising, counseling, coaching, tutoring, social support - with intention Individual attention to help veteran find their own path or quest Re-builds moral codes through Mentor Communication

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Organizations can develop everyone every day. They can turn student and employee struggles into growth opportunities to create a new kind of competitive advantage. A new way of working that can be transformational for organizations and all of their people. Research and practice about understanding how such cultures work and making more of them possible. Towards Deliberately Developmental Communities: Robert Kegan, Lisa Lahey, Andy Fleming, and Claire Lee Shift in focus from performance to growth and capacity-building New ways to measure personal growth outcomes in Higher education?

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Super Integral - witness self, being-centric view, (emergent) Integral - holistic, autonomous, worldcentric, Cosmopolitan 4% of US pop, evolved 50 years ago Pluralistic - sensitive self, individualistic, idealistic, 10% of US pop, 100 years ago Rational - scientists, data-driven decision-making, logic, reason, 25% of pop, 300 years ago Mythical - hierarchical religions, conformist, good/bad, ethnocentric, 40% of US pop, 5000 years ago Egocentric - 'me'/'I want it now', evolved 10,000 years ago, 20% of US pop. Magic - tribes, clans, gangs, superstitious, safety/survival, 10% of US pop. Archaic - Basic survival,