Special session - Attracting and supporting military veterans in engineering programs

The Post-9/11 GI Bill overhauled the educational benefits available to military veterans. Additionally, the Yellow Ribbon Program makes private institutions more affordable to veterans. Consequently, more veterans are seeking undergraduate degrees, and many schools are seeing significant numbers of veterans for the first time. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recognized that veteran engineers may address shortages in the engineering workforce and has funded projects to develop models for helping veterans make the transition from active duty to successful student. This special session provides a forum for several awardees to describe their work and to engage a larger audience in discussions about engineering education for veterans. The goals for this session are to raise awareness in the engineering education community about the issues facing veteran engineering students, identify issues commonly encountered as veterans transition from service to the classroom, promote the dissemination of results from NSF-supported efforts to support veterans in engineering programs, provide a forum for sharing best practices related to the successful transition of a veteran from the military to engineering programs, and establish relationships between schools with the shared interest of serving military veteran students. Index Terms – Military Veterans, Post-9/11 GI Bill, Yellow Ribbon Program, Engineering Education.