MEETING VETERANS
“ It can be hard to relate to other students because 18-year-old freshmen do not understand what it’ s like to be in military service.” students during drop-in appointments and at job fairs, he’ s distributed it to the general community, including other colleges, workforce development centers, one-stop centers, and homeless shelters.
When he talks to Stevenson’ s veteran students, he speaks from experience.“ I give them a little bit of guidance and say,‘ As a veteran to a veteran, here are the problems I ran into, here’ s how I solved them.’ I try to help them set themselves up for success so that when they’ re done here, they don’ t jump right into the void again like when they left the military.” learning here and that is something that I had never experienced before. My teachers, tutors, advisors, and coaches helped push me to succeed. I cannot tell you how much fear I had concerning science classes and math classes before coming to Stevenson, but I worked with the teachers and with the help of tutors. At the end of the semesters, I could feel that the teachers really wanted me to succeed.”
The combination of his military service and Stevenson education have led him to set his sights higher.“ In the military, a quality that is instilled on everyone is leadership. My ultimate goal is to earn graduate degrees and pursue a career in higher education. It could be in student activities, maybe a program of study— who knows, maybe I could be a dean of students one day.”
While earning his degree, Morris works in Career Services as a Peer Advisor, helping students with their cover letters and resumes. He also reaches out to the veteran community, he says, to try and smooth the process of their seeking jobs after college by working with the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Economic Workforce and Development. In addition, he has talked with the heads of veterans clubs at Towson and the University of Maryland to see how they support their students.
“ I’ m trying to evangelize the importance of working with veterans. With each institution trying to do its own thing, you’ re missing a lot of that teamwork that can help reach a similar goal.”
One way Morris has been trying to help both the Stevenson and larger veteran community has been through the Veterans Career Resource Guide created by Career Services.( EXPLORE the guide at stevenson. edu / ventures.) In addition to giving it to the University’ s veteran
Growing the Veteran Community
That Stevenson will continue to support its veteran students is being physically manifested. Hergan says“ We’ ve found that they need their own space, so we’ re looking forward to building a Veteran Resource Center on the first floor of Garrison Hall this summer.”
The center makes both Manning and Morris feel optimistic about the future for veterans.
“ As a prospective student who would see the Veterans Resource Center, I would be excited to come to Stevenson,” says Manning.“ I think that as the school continues to grow, so too will the military community within the university. I have heard President Manning and Mark Hergan speak about attracting veterans, and their primary objective is providing a positive environment with top academic programs. Stevenson wants to give veterans their best opportunity to succeed.”
Morris agrees.“ A Veteran’ s Resource Center will help provide more awareness to other veterans on campus that there is the opportunity to make face-to-face contact with each other and get the support they need. This center will really help us meet our student veterans where they are. It’ s important to make sure that we reach out to them, that we can identify them, that they’ re getting the best education possible. It can sometimes be hard for a veteran to pluck up the courage to be a self-starter, but when every single part of your day is scripted and now you’ re suddenly scripting it for yourself, it can be difficult to adjust.”
For these reasons and more, Manning says,“ As an alumnus, I believe that Stevenson is an amazing place to get an education. The graduates that we produce are prepped and ready for the real world, and for a person who is getting out of the military, it’ s an excellent choice.”
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