Staff Voices - Halfofus.com - A Veterans at School Resource Site

Staff Voices - Halfofus.com - A Veterans at School Resource Site

By Ted C. Bonar, Psy.D.
Oct. 3, 2012

www.halfofus.com

For those looking to understand the first-person experience of a veteran returning to college, the website Half of Us is an outstanding resource containing dozens of video snippets of interviews of returning vets at school. The website, funded and designed in collaboration by the JED Foundation and MTV U, aims to educate and enlighten students on campus regarding subjects as diverse as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and sexual orientation. Included in the Half of Us web site is an extensive area devoted to veterans on campus.

The Support Our Veterans page includes several videos and public service messages, and it is recommended to watch the quick videos of Aubrey and Randi. Not only do the videos capture many of the challenges of a returning veteran, they also educate non-veterans on campus (friends and faculty) about what some appropriate questions are as opposed to questions that can be insensitive and rude. Some of these ideas are described in the Acclimate link from that page: this is one of the most succinct and appropriate lists that would be helpful for friends and family of all veterans, and CDP blog readers are encouraged to pass along this page to anyone who might be struggling with how best to communicate with a veteran once they come home. Several other resources and areas of advice are available from that page.

It’s also worth taking the time to look through the overall Half of Us video archives, which include several important snippets of videos featuring veterans and their concerns on campus. In addition to videos, there are several “enactment” videos that present some complex ideas about reintegration on campus in a very easy-to-digest format. The Voices of Vets video presents eight different veterans sharing their first-person account of returning to school – age difference, gender, feeling isolated and misunderstood, struggling to stay in class with PTSD, and ways to succeed in school – each are presented concisely and sensitively.

The website is an important resource for the university community, and it should be commended on how well it includes veterans returning to school in its content. Student veteran issues are presented with the seriousness they deserve while also stopping short of stigmatizing or victimizing veterans. The approach educates veterans who may be struggling, but also validates and explains the experience. Just as importantly, the content on this website sends a powerful message to non-veterans and successfully depicts ways to support, understand, and connect with the veterans on campus.

This is a website worth sending to friends and colleagues…a few quick views of these videos over a lunch hour really could make a difference to a veteran on campus.