Alexander Ly

The original GI Bill, the landmark legislation that made it possible for service members, veterans and their families to access higher education ― and the American Dream ― was passed more than 75 years ago.

Starting with the World War II-era GI Bill in 1944, admission to postsecondary education was opened to returning service members to aid their transition from the military to civilian life. Enrollment skyrocketed. Access to higher education continued through Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War eras, but the number of service members and veterans who enrolled gradually declined.

When the Post-9/11 GI Bill was passed by Congress in 2008, the number of military-associated students taking advantage of their VA education benefits increased significantly, and higher education renewed its commitment to supporting these students.

The University of Kansas and University of Kansas Medical Center are among those higher education institutions that have intensified efforts to recruit students who are military veterans or currently serving in the armed services ― and to make their educational experiences as positive as possible.

“We owe it to all students to create a welcoming and inclusive environment that enables them to reach their academic, professional and personal goals,” said April Blackmon Strange, program director for the Lt. Gen. William K. Jones Military-Affiliated Student Center at the University of Kansas. “Many students come with military education benefits with time limitations ― GI Bill benefits, military tuition assistance or other military-related funding ― and it’s important to provide support and assistance so students can maximize their benefits and achieve their goals in a timely manner.”

As of the fall of 2021, the University of Kansas had more than 1,500 military-affiliated students (5.7% of total enrollment) on its five campuses. That is more than double than the university’s student athlete population and comparable to KU’s international student population. About 6.5% of those military-affiliated students are enrolled at KU Medical Center.

One of those students is Amy Terry, a fourth-year student at the KU School of Medicine. Terry grew up in Hays, Kansas. In 2013, she enlisted as a geospatial intelligence analyst with the 184th Intelligence Wing in the Kansas Air National Guard. She trained in west Texas and spent the remainder of her service at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, where she analyzed imagery and full-motion video for intelligence criteria.

Terry continued her service in the National Guard when she enrolled in medical school at KU in 2018. She said juggling medical school and serving in the National Guard wasn’t always easy.

“I realized I had diverged from my peers and had a difficult time adjusting to the laid-back college lifestyle most other students had,” Terry said. “For the first three months of medical school I was going to classes in the morning and headed to the base and working until midnight or so. It wasn’t an ideal transition, but I was able to adapt to it and knew it was temporary.”
After those first three months of medical school, Terry went to a schedule where her National Guard duties took up just one weekend a month. In July 2020, she left the National Guard to concentrate solely on her studies.

Terry said while the transition from serving in the military to attending medical school was a challenge, the help she received from KU was invaluable.

Amy Terry

“KU Medical Center has been very accommodating, particularly when I had military obligations at the start of medical school,” Terry said. “They were willing to work with me when I had to show up late to a few activities and have always made sure I had the resources and support I need.”

At KU Medical Center, it is the registrar’s office that is primarily responsible for working with military-affiliated students to ensure their transition to higher education is smooth. Campus registrar Carrie Scala said assisting military-affiliated students is a charge the university takes seriously.

“Our programs here at KU Medical Center do an outstanding job of clearly outlining what students need to take to complete their degrees,” Scala said. “Our office works with our students and their respective academic programs to make sure the students are getting all the support they need to succeed.”

Scala said her office works with military-affiliated students on making them aware of what educational benefits and financing are available to them. She added that she and her staff work closely with students who are still serving to accommodate their military obligations.

“We have clear steps for students who are called back to active duty,” Scala said. “These steps outline exactly what the students need to do when they receive their military orders and who to contact when they are ready to return to KU Medical Center.”

Another student who has praise for the support that KU Medical Center has shown their military-affiliated scholars is Alexander Ly, an occupational therapy student in the KU School of Health Professions. Ly said he has seen firsthand the knowledge and empathy KU Medical Center has for its students with a military background and their families.

“I would imagine that an institution’s responsiveness could be too overbearing at times because as veterans, we have learned to be independent in many of our daily activities,” Ly said. “Many of us are used to switching between two different cultural mindsets and responsibilities on a daily basis.”

Ly, who grew up in Fort Scott, Kansas, joined the Kansas Army National Guard his freshman year at Kansas State University and is serving in the Army Reserves while he works toward his occupational therapy degree. Ly said his military experience has, for the most part, been an asset in his academic studies.

“In the military, I learned how to focus on what I can control instead of what I can’t control,” Ly said. “Of course, sometimes that has been easier said than done, but it has definitely given me a sense of calm that maybe some of my fellow students don’t always have.”

As higher education institutions continue to look for ways to better support their military-affiliated students, more research is being conducted into the needs of students coming from military backgrounds.

Vanessa Dudley-Miller, Ph.D., who earned her doctorate in therapeutic science from KU Medical Center, published a research study in exploring the experiences of military-affiliated students attending an academic medical center. Dudley-Miller said she became interested in the challenges veterans and active service military face when returning to school while she was working at a VA hospital.

"“The vast majority of research studies have focused on the experiences of military students attending community colleges and four-year universities. There has been much less attention directed toward those students’ experiences while attending health career programs at academic medical centers to earn advanced, terminal or professional degrees.”"

- Vanessa Dudley-Miller, Ph.D.

“I worked with veterans dealing with PTSD and a lot of younger veterans between 21-40 years of age who wanted to return to school to get their degrees,” Dudley-Miller said. “I had many conversations with veterans who were apprehensive about returning to school and it was obvious that many of them would need extra support when they enrolled in college.”

When Dudley-Miller came to KU to work on her doctorate, her thesis advisor was Jeff Radel, Ph.D., associate dean for academic and student affairs for the KU School of Health Professions and an associate professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy. She said she and Radel shared an interest in on improving outcomes for military students and realized there is limited research on how such students fared specifically at academic medical centers.

Of the approximately 3.7 million potential students with a military background, Dudley-Miller said more than 90,000 of them are studying for a degree in the health care field. She wanted to learn more about how those students are faring.

“The vast majority of research studies have focused on the experiences of military students attending community colleges and four-year universities,” Dudley-Miller said. “There has been much less attention directed toward those students’ experiences while attending health career programs at academic medical centers to earn advanced, terminal or professional degrees.”

Dudley-Miller worked with the registrar’s office and the Office of Student Life, faculty members and graduate students at KU Medical Center to develop the research survey. The survey’s questions centered on the participants’ demographics, military background and experience, program application process, admissions process, educational funding, the participant’s support system and interactions with other members of the campus community. The survey was sent online to the military-affiliated students enrolled at KU Medical Center.

Some of the survey’s findings included:

• The majority (82%) of participants believed that KU Medical Center was a military-friendly institution. Twenty-nine percent of the participants thought applying to school was easy and 47% responded it was as expected.
• Most participants strongly agreed they had a positive relationship with their faculty (71%) and with peers (59%). The respondents agreed that they felt welcome on campus; however, there were mixed responses on fitting into the university culture and social climate and finding meaningful activities or groups in which they can become involved.
• Participants believed they were more self-disciplined (76%) and of a team player (82%) as a result of being in the military. All participants attributed their leadership skills to prior military experience, while 65% believed they also developed a more serious demeanor because of their military background.
• Twenty-nine percent of those surveyed thought applying to KU Medical Center was an easy process, but 53% agreed it would be helpful if the university was more active in promoting information about education credits for military service, as well as establishing a mechanism for a mentoring program by faculty.
• Thirty percent of the participants found navigating the system of VA benefits to be challenging (41% as expected), and 47% found that understanding how to maximize VA benefits as challenging.
• A majority of respondents (83%) believed most people have a superficial or stereotyped view of veterans and people serving in the military.

Dudley-Miller said while the study found that most military-affiliated students at KU Medical Center were managing the transition from military service to higher education well, the responses suggest ways to further enhance academic and professional experiences offered to the students through opportunities to engage in teamwork and peer-supported activities in academic medical centers as well as other university settings.

Although most military-affiliated students surveyed felt that KU Medical Center has done a good job in serving them, Scala agreed that there is still work to be done. She said the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on implementing some of the institution’s proposals for assisting the students.

“In the past, we have celebrated the birthday of each branch of our military with a gathering on campus, and we have invited speakers on topics that might specifically interest our veterans,” Scala said. “We hope to restart those programs when the pandemic is more under control, and we continue to develop more programs to help our military students make the transition to civilian life easier and to provide mental health and other resources for our veterans.”

And military-affiliated students such as Amy Terry appreciate the efforts KU Medical Center makes to help them thrive in higher education.

“I feel like the faculty and staff have always made sure I had the resources and support I need to organize my financial situation or my schedule,” Terry said. “Luckily, I never needed to use any of the crisis support they also provide to service members. But it’s nice to know that service is there if I ever need it.”