Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Kelly Capellas
Emily DeLarm
Justin Rosenblum
Abbey Sanderson
Chloe Tykal

Miami University
Doctor Robert Batchelor, Faculty Advisor

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Contents
Executive Summary

Situational Analysis

Secondary Research

Primary Research

Target Audiences

4-5

Key Messages

Goals and Objectives

Tactics

6-8

Appendix

9- 15

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Executive Summary
Student Veterans of America is a non-profit organization focused on addressing the needs and concerns of American military veterans in
higher education. Their mission is to provide military veterans with the resources, support, and advocacy needed to succeed in higher
education and following graduation.
SVA is a coalition of student veterans groups on college campuses across the globe. These member chapters are the boots on the
ground that help veterans reintegrate into campus life and succeed academically. Each chapter must be an officially recognized student
group by their university or college and networking, and generally provide a touchstone for student veterans in higher education. SVA is a
registered 51(C)(3) tax-exempt organization.

Situational Analysis
Veterans today face many issues when it comes to attending college. Often, they feel as if they are outsiders in a sea of traditional college
students as well as a feeling of misunderstanding by their professors. Each chapter is recognized by their college or university as a
student group, and is able to provide a network of peers for the students attending said school.
It is the goal of SVA to gain recognition for service men and women that the goal of a college degree is obtainable. The organization
provides support and resources through six major initiatives. It is their goal to help reintegrate student veterans into college campuses.

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Secondary Research
Post 9/11 GI Bill: Military Education Benefits
In 2008 Congress passed the Post-9/11 GI Bill that provides education benefits for veterans and servicemembers who served on 90 days or more of
active duty after September 10, 2001.
Despite the benefits that over 2.6 million veterans who have served with the armed forces can receive, there are many challenges this bill has faced.
Some of these challenges include, balancing studies and other responsibilities, being able to connect with non veteran students, and coping with
post-traumatic stress disorder. For these challenges it is important for the Veterans program administrators to be a source of communication and
support for students using their GI benefits.
Post 9/11 GI Bill: Servicemembers' and veterans' dependents
Servicemembers and veterans dependents have received little attention in the media. The program, Transfer of Education Benefits, provides service
members with the opportunity to transfer earned benefits to their families for future use. This feature requires additional military service, which is
why it is often used by the department of defense as a retention tool. Reports suggest that more than 20% of all GI benefits are used by family
members of servicemembers. Almost 450,000 service members have transferred at least some portion of their benefits to family members, with
their children being the most popular choice. These reportings show that there is a movement towards change on social mobility and postsecondary education attainment for the next generation.
After using their benefits for college, spouses' and children's employment and earning potential could be affected as well.The research found focuses
mainly on the outcomes of veterans. There's not that much information about how dependents access the education benefits left to them. It
depends what is left to children, oftentimes they might be more motivated and inclined to achieve a primary or secondary school if they have
enough scholarship, partial or total.

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Primary Research
Interviews
We will talk with local student veterans and interview them about their experience with reintegrating into society and college life.
Through these interviews we hope to gain an in depth perspective that will help us better assess our audiences and how to approach
raising awareness. These interviews will take place before our initial enactment of the plan so that we can make adjustments as we
go.
Personal quotes and experiences that we gain from these interviews will be used in advertisements to help us raise awareness.
Surveys
We will conduct three different surveys. The initial survey we will conduct at local community pillars such as grocery stores, town events,
high school football games.
We will also survey our secondary audience, college students to gain a better understanding of how veterans are being represented within
colleges and universities.
Starting on January 1st, 2016 we will enact the first surveying process to measure the level of awareness of the organization among
communities.
On February 28th, 2016 we will conduct a benchmark at the same locations as the initial survey to collect data on how much
awareness weve raised. From there we will use the information we've collected as a point of reference in which we can make changes
to our area of focus.
On March 25th, 2016 we will conduct our follow up survey after we have enacted and completed our plan. From this survey we hope to
gain an understanding of our plans effectiveness and the amount of awareness raised.

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Focus Groups
We will also conduct various focus groups that will create an open forum for veterans, families and college students to speak about
their opinions and experiences with the organization.

Participants are those who interact with veterans on a semi-regular basis

Participants are those who are directly influenced by the actions of the organization and its members

Participants are those who can provide insight into how the organization is advertised and made known.

Participants can openly discuss their experiences as veterans, or interacting with veterans

Target Audiences
We will sample from the greater Cincinnati area, generating our information from Butler, Hamilton, and Preble counties.
Primary Audience:
Our primary audience focuses on veterans, servicemembers and their family members, specifically family members who have benefited
from the Post- 9/11 GI Bill (since the programs inception in August 2009).
This audience has the most experience and knows the most about what veterans have gone through and understand the hardships
included in going into schooling after serving.
Family members who have benefitted from the Post- 9/11 GI Bill know the benefits of the bill and how it has changed their lives.

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Secondary
Employers, higher education institutions, veterans service organizations, veterans service agencies and legislative.
Institutions of higher learning include many possibilities such as universities, colleges, trade schools, graduate, undergraduate, 2 & 4
year, vocational and community college. These resources need to see the importance of adding student veterans to their classes.
Veterans service organizations include Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) American Legion, and Disabled American Veterans (DAV).
(Veterans Service Agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of
Education (DOE), Department of Labor (DOL), National Association of State Approving Agencies (NASAA).
Local politicians

Key Messages

For veterans taking classes post service, makes it an easier transition back into civilian life rather than going straight into the
workforce
With programs such as Student Veterans of America, it makes education possible for all, with no restraints on age, gender or race.
Veterans have been through alot and have dealt with many different circumstances, because of this they should not be ostracized in
their communities
Education offers many opportunities for students and because of this everybody should have a chance to earn an education.

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Goal
To raise awareness among college students about veterans and their families in order to understand the benefits of the GI bill and the
Student Veterans of America organization. Along with providing support from the community to the service men and women as they attend
college and graduate into the workplace.

Objectives

To increase veterans and their families awareness of the benefits provided by the GI Bill by 20% by March 15th, 2016.

Raise enrollment in Miami University's Student Veterans of America chapter by 10% by March 15th, 2016.

Raise campus and community awareness about Student Veterans of America and its programs by 25% by March 15th, 2016.

Tactics
Tactic 1: Create campaign advertisements
We will create advertisements that will be promoted throughout campus to raise awareness of the SVA organization to students.
These advertisements will also be promoted in areas that are commonly visited by our target audience of veterans and their
families, which include sharing these at the Hamilton Ohio VFW, department of veterans affairs in Hamilton Ohio and Kroger stores
throughout Butler County, Hamilton County and Preble Count.
Tactic 2: Flyer
We will create a flyer that we will hand out to people at local community pillars. On the flyer it will provide information about the SVA
organization and provide information on how SVA can help local veterans attain a college education.

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Tactic 3: Host a free food event in Uptown Park

In order to gain attention from college students about our mission we will host an event in Uptown park in Oxford Ohio that will
have booths of information about student veterans, along with providing free food to visitors who stop by. This is the most
efficient way to gain foot traffic from college students and increase the awareness of this secondary audience. It also will work
towards the goal of making student veterans of any age feel comfortable going to classes with college students.
Tactic 4: Host event at local high schools
To show the importance of the community supporting student veterans we will host events at local high schools where students
and parents will be present. During halftime at the basketball game on (get a date) we will host a t-shirt toss with the SVA logo
printed on the shirt to gain awareness of the recipients as well as gain awareness of people who see the t-shirts.
Tactic 5: Radio ad
On radio stations provided by Miami University, we will have an ad where we let veterans give their personal testimonies on
their experiences with SVA and on college campuses. At the end of the add we will provide information on how other veterans
can get connected with SVA.
Tactic 6: Have SVA information session at Local VFW (Hamilton Ohio)
We will sponsor an event for a current student veteran and a former student veteran. They will both be responsible for informing
veterans of their experiences going to school after serving and they will talk about the short term benefits and long term
benefits that they have received from going to school. They will also work to dispel the common belief that they stand out and
have a hard time fitting in. To work through this they will talk about making friends in classes and working on group projects
with younger students and how they felt in these situations.

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Tactic 7: Compete with a Marine Event
During (Date) afternoon, from 1-6 we will host an event in uptown Oxford where students and community members will have the
opportunity to compete against a marine in physical fitness activities to see if they can keep up with them. Through this students
and community members will have the opportunity to ask the marines questions about their service and what their plans for after
service entail, gain more insights as to what veterans have been through, defeat common misconceptions that students have about
veterans and overall work to make students more comfortable engaging with veterans to open up their minds about the possibilities
of having them in class. There will also be more infomation given out about student veterans to the students and community
members.
Tactic 8: Create a Youtube page for SVA
We will create a Youtube channel aimed towards students to show them more about veterans and their day to day life. We will have
a series of videos that will be a day in the life of a veteran, through this they will share their story then go on to show the hardships
that they face and how they live their life. This will work to open up the eyes of students and other viewers and continue to educate
them about veterans. Also we will have a series of videos called Minute with a Vet these movies will aim to educate people and
veterans will have an opportunity to share their story with others.
Tactic 9: Social Media
We plan to actively use social media to help raise awareness of the organization. The use of social media is important because it is
the best (and least expensive) way to meet a large audience. By using various social media outlets such as Twitter, Instagram, and
Facebook we can create a cohesive campaign among all of our tactics.
On Twitter and Instagram we can generate a hashtag that can be shared on Tweets, Instagrams, and videos (such as those on
the YouTube channel) to be sure to reach a larger audience
On Facebook and YouTube we can monitor the number of views or likes of the organization, allowing feedback from the
community to be facilitated through comments and posts.

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Appendix 1 (Surveys)
First Survey
1. Do you know what SVA stands for?
2. What are your plans after youre done serving?
3. If university, do you know if your campus has an SVA
chapter?
4.. How important is education to you?
1
2
3
4
5
Not Important
Very Important
5. What are some of your fears about education?
6. If you were to go to college, how would you pay for it?
7. What is your primary source of income?
Benchmark Survey
1. Have you heard of SVA?
2. Do you know the benefits of attending college?
3. Has SVA helped you?
4. Do you know veterans in your classes?
5. Are you more comfortable with attending classes?

Follow Up
1. Do you know more information about SVA?
2. Has SVA helped you?
3. Do you better understand the work SVA does on college
campuses?
4. Are you more comfortable attending schools?
5. Are you more likely to feel comfortable attending a school
if you do not already?

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Appendix 2 (Flyers)

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Appendix 3 (T-Shirt Design)

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Appendix 4 (Radio Ad Script)

Have you or someone you know served in the armed forces after 9/11?
Are you hoping to go to college, but feel like it just might not be the place for you?
Student Veterans of America believes it is,
and are working with veterans like yourself to create a better path by attending college.
It is the goal of SVA to help student veterans all across America define their own path to success!
Enter quick soundbite by student vet.
You can find out more at: studentveterans.org or on our Facebook page!

Helping Student Veterans Define Their Own Path to Success

Appendix 5 (YouTube)