Hello PAVE Partners,
We hope you are finding your new normal as you settle back into life on campus. As we finish up our latest round of Campus Calls, I wanted to share some of what we're hearing from Partner Campuses!
All of our schools are now back to in-person operations, a welcome change that comes with excitement as well as some challenges. Engagement might be lower than pre-pandemic. Don't worry! Continue to offer opportunities for students to engage. Here are a few ideas:
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- Host a mid-terms pizza party for studying and commiserating before exams, or celebrating after!
- Get off campus with a trip to an arcade, axe-throwing, or even a virtual trivia night.
- Offer recurring drop-in events that students can attend regularly, like Coffee Hours or Veteran Luncheons.
Many Partner Campuses have also expressed interest in more opportunities to engage with one another. We shared the PAVE Partner Directory with you in the last newsletter, and encourage you to use that to reach out to other PAVE teams across the country. Additionally, I will be hosting open office hours on Wednesdays from 3:00-4:00pm EST starting in November. There will be no set agenda, just a dedicated space & time to ask questions, chat, and connect with me and other PAVE campuses! I will send more information about this shortly.
I look forward to seeing you all soon!
Riva Szostkowski, Program Coordinator
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Western Oregon University is this month’s Featured Campus! “The PAVE Team at WOU has come back strong! Most of the team members are new to PAVE, so they are re-building from the ground up, but with a great energy. Aside from the standard student veteran welcome events, they held a Super Smash Bros. Tournament during Welcome Week and they are collaborating with the Stonewall Center on campus to host an LGBT panel as part of Veterans Week,” says PAVE Program Coordinator Riva Szostkowski.
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WOU’s current PAVE team includes Peer Advisors Allen Nickelson, Jake Sutherby, and Taylor Litke, Team Leader Dennis Long, and Veteran Services Coordinator Logan Doerfler. They serve a community of about 105 student veterans and 35 military dependents.
For many newer student vets who started their studies while things were still virtual and remote, this return to in-person offerings is a welcome change. Allen was one such student: “When I started, it was kind of difficult just finding the resource because I was so new to everything.” After he had an issue with his GI Bill benefits, he reached out to Jake, who was able to quickly help him. "That was the deciding point for me to want to join PAVE and give back and pay that forward, because of all the help I got from them,” Allen adds.
Now that in-person instruction and student support has returned, the WOU PAVE team has many opportunities to interact with the students they support. “With our events and communications, we’ve had a lot of veterans come in [to the veteran resource center] and socialize throughout the week,” says Dennis. Taylor adds, “People really like to come to the office and ask for help. Some people seem to really like to spend time in-person.”
Giving back to others is a recurring theme for the WOU team. “I was considering not doing PAVE this year because it’s my final year of grad school and it’s a very busy year, but it was just one of the things I couldn’t let go of because I really like it and I just had to stick with PAVE. I’m trying to give back as much as I can to the student veteran population while I’m here,” says Jake.
Terrific work, WOU! Keep it up.
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Team Leader of the Month: Brandon Hovis, University of Oklahoma
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From Jennifer Trimmer, Veteran Student Services Director: “Brandon stepped up to be the Team Leader during the pandemic when our Team Leader at the time was called to Active Duty and finished out the year that was left. He brought new ideas to the table as we patiently waited for our campus to open back up this fall and he has successfully implemented a few of his ideas already. Our Peer Advisors have office hours every week in a reserved space in the center of campus. He helped in our expansion to offer the VA Work Study Program to our Peer Advisors. He connected with the Student Veterans Association Chapter for PAVE to join them for tailgates. Brandon has personally connected with corporate businesses for their interest in employing OU veterans and is looking to help SVA start a LinkedIn group. In addition to the PAVE Sooner Veteran Success course on Canvas, he shared ideas for and lead the fall orientation/cookout, and is working on a standard operations guide for the next Team Leader and Peer Advisors. When he is finished, they will have it to refer back to so it is faster to connect as a new team every year and they can be ready to mentor their assigned PAVE students sooner each semester.”
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From Brandon Hovis: “After fighting through the initial year of COVID, my team came out strong this semester. We've reestablished a presence in the veteran community at OU by hosting a joint PAVE and SVA tailgate during home football games. In addition, we were able to secure a place on campus to conduct weekly office hours for the Peer Advisors. I think that having that in-person presence has been huge to get more of the response we want for PAVE. My favorite part about being a Team Leader is being able to connect with all these amazing veterans at OU. Each veteran has such a unique story. It is really fun to get to interact, engage, and build community with the veteran community at OU.”
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Peer Advisor of the Month: Gregory Legister, Olympic College
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From Tatiane Simons, Military and Veteran Programs Transition Manager: “Gregory goes above and beyond to connect with his PAVE veteran students, sending frequent emails and text messages. He has also stepped up to offer front line support in our MVP Support Center by helping new, returning, and current students understand and navigate their VA Education Benefits. He consistently looks for opportunities to engage with students outside the scope of his work-study position.”
From Gregory Legister: “I think having people who are willing to be a source of information and assistance makes the college experience more manageable for students. I know when I first started, it was helpful to have people who were willing to be of help. So, I think extending the helping hand to new students will give them a sense of support that it is available to them if they should need it. My favorite part of being a Peer Advisor is finding helpful information and then passing that on to students. Sometimes you can be so focused on classes that you don’t have time to find all the resources that may be of help to you, and especially if you are just starting out and you don’t know where to look.”
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Featured Best Practice: Creating community on campus
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Eager to get back to campus and gather with other student veterans? We all love to be around other people with similar experiences as us, and it'd be easy to keep to ourselves in that group. But, just like our time in the military, we know that groups with varied backgrounds can come together to create an even stronger community. We encourage you to reach out to other student organizations and offices to create that community on campus. Interacting with other groups helps to build awareness and reduce misconceptions about others from different backgrounds, not to mention it can be a great way to try new things. |
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One of our Partner Campuses, Western Oregon University, recently hosted a video game tournament on campus with almost 100 attendees! (More info about their team can be found above.) Events that encourage the student community to interact helps create a stronger sense of belonging on campus, an important success factor for students.
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FAQ: How do we get student veterans to engage?
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If you're seeing low engagement right now, you're not alone. Although many people are excited to get back to in-person classes and on-campus events, there may still be some apprehension or local public health guidelines that limit gatherings. This is a great time to apply what we've learned over the last year and a half of virtual delivery of PAVE and "bridge the gap." Catch student veterans where you can—free coffee in the Veterans Lounge? Veteran study group?— but also provide hybrid opportunities to engage if you can. |
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Academic-focused events are great, but don't forget to make space for some fun, such as by hosting a virtual game night! And above all, be consistent, because you never know when a student veteran might need that regular engagement and connection. |
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October 14 All-Campus Call Notes & Materials |
Thank you to everyone who participated in the most recent All-Campus Call, which featured a presentation about the VA’s new Whole Health program, tips on logging and reporting, and discussion between participants and the National Team's Kali and Riva. Special thanks to Ronald Rutherford from the VA Office of Patient Centered Care & Cultural Transformation for sharing information with us!
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As promised, here are links to the materials from this call:
Save the date: Our third and final All-Campus Call for this term will take place on Tuesday, November 16, 3-4:30 pm EST. We will send out more information soon!
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Resource Highlight: Media Kit
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To help assist you and your team with any PAVE-related media and public relations work, we've updated our Media Kit. The month leading up to Veterans Day is typically the best time to work on getting stories produced about PAVE, so please use this updated resource to aid your efforts! To view and download the updated Media Kit, click here.
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Census Survey: The Student Veterans of America Census is an annual survey for student veterans and alumni, and it's critical to the work SVA does to support the more than 1,500 chapters in its network. If you are or were once a student veteran, take the survey today!
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Western Oregon University Peer Advisor Jake Sutherby (left) and Team Leader Dennis Long (right) posing with some of their school's swag |
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Western Oregon University Peer Advisors and student veterans hanging out in their Veterans Resource Center lounge |
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Casper College Peer Advisors and student veterans (and their dogs!) at their Dog Trek event |
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June, a PAVE Pup who recently bested five other weiner dogs in a "Weenie Race" at a local festival to win 1st place. June's mom is Merlin Solares, Team Leader at California State University - Fullerton. |
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University of Nevada - Las Vegas Team Leader Maddy Anderson at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta |
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