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Supporting Veteran Students Transitioning to Engineering

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Conference

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Salt Lake City, Utah

Publication Date

June 23, 2018

Start Date

June 23, 2018

End Date

July 27, 2018

Conference Session

Military and Veterans Division Technical Session 1: Academic Transition

Tagged Division

Military and Veterans

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--31037

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/31037

Download Count

421

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Paper Authors

biography

Colleen Janeiro East Carolina University

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Dr. Colleen Janeiro teaches engineering fundamentals such as Introduction to Engineering, Materials and Processes, and Statics. Her teaching interests include development of solid communication skills and enhancing laboratory skills.

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Teresa Ryan East Carolina University

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Dr. Teresa Ryan teaches mechanical engineering fundamentals such as Dynamics, Mechanics of Materials, Acoustics and Vibrations. She also focuses on technical communication skills within an engineering context. Her research interests include acoustics, the dynamics of complex structures, and the use of laser Doppler vibrometry for characterization of such structures including percussion instruments, landmines/IED, and coupled resonator arrays.

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Jeff Foeller East Carolina University

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Melissa Ann Hall

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Melissa Hall is a graduate student in engineering.

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Abstract

As an engineering department in a historically military friendly state, and at a noted military friendly institution, we desire a broader understanding of our veteran population. We would like to develop this institutional understanding so that we may achieve a number of desired goals. These goals include attracting veterans as students to (Name Redacted), increasing the veteran population within engineering, easing the transition from the structured military atmosphere to the freedom associated with the collegiate environment, and ensuring the success of veteran students both during school and after graduation. Anecdotally, veteran students have been strong contributors to the engineering program. The students excel in both classroom and extracurricular activities, including participating in undergraduate research experiences. Gaining a deeper understanding of the characteristics of the veteran population within the engineering department, as well as the (Name Redacted)’s veteran population at large, will allow the faculty to be in tune to the needs of veterans. These characteristics may include information such as branch of service, length of service, military occupational specialty, and their last duty station. Data collection will occur by surveys and informal interviews. Ultimately, the aim of this work is to facilitate an increase in recruitment and retention from the veteran population into our engineering department. In general, we want to understand the potential barriers recently separated veterans have to choosing engineering as a profession and selecting (Name Redacted) as their preferred school of choice. Their military experience (i.e. perseverance, discipline) makes engineering a feasible and appropriate choice after their service. An increased veteran population within the engineering department at (Name Redacted) is a win-win situation for both the student veterans and the department.

Janeiro, C., & Ryan, T., & Foeller, J., & Hall, M. A. (2018, June), Supporting Veteran Students Transitioning to Engineering Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--31037

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