Thank you for watching our video about how military service may serve as an alternate pathway into STEM education and careers, especially for women. Having completed our initial statistical analyses, we are now conducting follow-up analyses related to G.I. Bill funding and other factors that may influence the military-STEM relationship. One challenge to this project has been locating datasets with substantial numbers of female veterans, so we would be particularly interested in hearing about the datasets employed by other researchers. We are also interested in hearing about university or human resources efforts targeted at recruiting military veterans into STEM programs and fields.

Hi, 

  Given your narrative about the relatively hgher proportion of veterans vs nonveterans engaging in the STEM workforce, I was surprised by the conclusion of the video, identifying the military as an "untapped resource."  What would tapping it look like?

Also, do you have data on whether there is a difference in which fields veterans vs nonveterans enter?  

Thanks!

Thanks for sharing-while I have mentored students in college about how to use their STEM degrees in the military, this is a new perspective.  Is there information on how these students are being recruited into four-year colleges after their military service

Thank you for sharing your work! This is such an important and timely study. It seems like much of the existing research focuses on four year institutions and alternative pathways have been largely overlooked. Could you point to some specific examples academic STEM disciplines can learn from the military in terms of recruiting and retaining women in STEM? 

Moving into civilian life/work after military service can be challenging, and so your description about this pathway into STEM careers was encouraging.  I was especially interested in your finding that women with military experience are 41% more likely to earn a STEM degree than civilian women.  This led me to wonder what else we might learn from this or similar groups.  For instance, were there common types of experiences or opportunities that these women had while in the military that shaped their decision to get a STEM degree?  What types of jobs in STEM did women obtain after military service, and did this differ in any substantial ways from the jobs that men obtained? Are there ways to help women transition into STEM careers?

Thank you for sharing your project research and statistics. 

Thank you, Christina, for your detailed response.  I saw a NSF report suggesting that women in STEM tend to enter health science fields (more than men), so it makes sense that might happen as well for women veterans.  Adding the STEM degree component to your analysis could definitely shed a more complex light on trends.  I'm glad to know that you are analyzing the data further, since there is more to learn.

Too bad there isn't more data about women's STEM experiences while in the military.  Knowing more about this might inform colleges about the skills, abilities, and needs of female veterans who are entering their programs following their military service.  Since it isn't available via public datasets, maybe a future study can include a research component where you collect survey and/or interview data from women who have recently completed their time in the military and entered STEM programs or jobs?  I'm only suggesting because I think that what you learn could really influence women's opportunities in STEM, which is especially important for those who don't have a college degree when they leave the service!

Best wishes with your project and study.

 Christina, thank you for sharing so many insights here along with the video on your intriguing project. I agree with Karen that there is a potential argument for an extension to your project in a survey of women who have recently completed their tour of duty. Is there a lot of exposure to high tech jobs and roles across military service assignments? In another project, Helping Today's Students Find Their Place, the PI mentions a difficulty for women is imagining what a computer professional does. In the military, there is likely lots of experience seeing computer professionals at work, or learning the skills as part of service. Perhaps simple exposure has a positive affect. Another possibility is how so much of military service is done as part of a team, and everyone counts on everyone else to do their job. Do you think that collaborative element is what makes the otherwise more "geeky" STEM work more meaningful for women who experience it in the military? Now I'm really curious! Having thought about it so much, what do you think is drawing that extra percentage of post-military women into STEM?  (I wish I had some datasets for you! Good luck in your quest.)

Sarah,

You are probably right -- we also suspect that both selection and exposure effects are creating these patterns. The ACS data do not speak directly to this issue, leaving us to speculate rather than test e.g., the relative impact of either selection (into the military) or exposure to SYTEM (while in the military). And if exposure -- what is the mechanism -- is it the team-based approach, is it the practical/hands-on aspects, is it the modelling by peers, is it the length of exposure or multiple types of exposure to STEM, is it the specific content of the STEM field to which they are exposed (e.g., medicine vs. CS or Eng)? Unfortunately, we can't provide a concrete answer to your final question based on these analyses.  We share your curiosity -- let us hope we can convince NSF to fund a follow-up project that helps identify the processes creating these patterns. :) Regina

I am glad you are doing this project.  I am both a chair of a chem and biochem dept and a veteran/first gen.  Joining the Army out of high school (enlisted MP) then eventually becoming an officer (NBC and INF Corps) was influential in gaining the skills nessesary for success as a chem major and in life.  

Do you find enlisted personnel (your officers will of course, already have college degrees) need some additional or retraining as they are a few years out from the math skills so critical for success in STEM? 

Joseph,

Great question, and the answer is probably yes.  In large part because enlisted personnel essentially are nontraditional students – older, often with families and jobs to juggle alongside college, while earning a BA.  The officers were fill-time students while being training and rather homogenous in terms of age and life course events.  Many of the interventions aimed at helping other nontraditional students (e.g., students with day care needs, or health problems or fist-gen) should help those who are veterans as well.  At the same time, we seem to see active-duty personnel in college (e.g., Nat Guard) struggle with a unique set of complications, including being deployed in the middle of a semester etc. The drawbacks of this practice go beyond an interrupted education (even if the GI funds are reimbursed), as many STEM degrees require courses to be taken in sequence. Flexibility on the part of academic institutions as well as the military would go a long way in re-acclimating students when they return. What suggestions do you have?

One of the issues (not specifically transition) is getting vets through a degree in the timeframe needed to remain eligible for the VA benefits.  Close advising and perhaps, like some universities do for athletes, preferred early registration helps.   

But I would think some sort of engagement in a research project that helps them refresh their study / cognitive skills the summer before they start would be really helpful.  The way we learn in the military is not always helpful for the civilian world.  So just an update on how to actively study, the learning skills needed to be successful is really good.

Joseph, these are great suggestions. I will make sure to share these with our Mil/Vet Success Center. Do you know of a go-to place (or institution) that provides a broad set of suggestions on how to do this well, both re recruitment and retention/graduation on time?