Half-fulfilled Promises: Creating a Veteran-friendly Space in Engineering Graduate Programs
- Conference
- Location
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Minneapolis, MN
- Publication Date
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August 23, 2022
- Start Date
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June 26, 2022
- End Date
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June 29, 2022
- Conference Session
- Page Count
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15
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--41506
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/41506
- Download Count
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365
Paper Authors
Jae Hoon Lim University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Dr. Jae Hoon Lim’ is a Professor of Educational Research at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research explores the dialogical process of identity construction among students of color and examines the impact of sociocultural factors on their academic experiences. She has served as a co-PI for multiple federal grant projects, including a 1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Her research has been published in several premier journals, including the Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Higher Education, and Race, Ethnicity, and Education. She is a contributing author to several books published by Oxford University Press and University of California Press. She served as President for the Korean American Educational Researchers Association, including President in 2013-2014, and Chair of the KAERA Board of Directors in 2019-2020.
Jerry Dahlberg University of Tennessee, Space Institute
Jerry Dahlberg is the Associate Director for Aerospace and Defense at the University of Tennessee Space Institute. Prior to joining UTSI, he was an Assistant Teaching Professor and Senior Design Committee Chair at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering Science in 2014, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2016 and PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Brittany Hunt
Brittany D. Hunt is a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She is a postdoctoral research associate at Duke University. Her research centers they ways that Indigenous peoples are made invisible or stereotyped in the classroom and in media and the effects of this erasure and distortion.
Arna Erega
Peter Tkacik University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Abstract
This qualitative study explored essential components of veteran-friendly community development in an engineering graduate program. Through the analysis of faculty mentors’ and student veterans’ in-depth interview data, we identified four themes: (1) Mentors’ empathetic understanding, (2) Celebrating and utilizing military assets (3) Creating a military-safe space with multiple layers of support, and (4) Half-fulfilled promises. Findings from this study illuminate significant challenges in creating a veteran-friendly space inclusive of all veterans, especially historically minoritized student veterans. We highlighted the critical role of faculty mentors in serving as a protective buffer for student veterans of color. The results from this study provide pragmatic implications for university stakeholders committed to developing a genuinely veteran-friendly community in STEM graduate programs.
Lim, J. H., & Dahlberg, J., & Hunt, B., & Erega, A., & Tkacik, P. (2022, August), Half-fulfilled Promises: Creating a Veteran-friendly Space in Engineering Graduate Programs Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41506
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