Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a conversation with Meg O’Grady on the Illumination Podcast. To hear the full discussion, listen to the episode here.
Across the country, colleges and universities are grappling with one of the most important and overlooked opportunities in higher education: designing clear, empowering pathways for active-duty service members, veterans, and military families. This community arrives with extraordinary strengths—deep leadership experience, advanced technical skills, discipline, and a proven commitment to lifelong learning. Yet too many institutions fail to translate those strengths into stackable credentials and career-aligned programs that accelerate post-service success.
The reality is simple: military-affiliated learners are not “non-traditional.” They are modern learners—balancing work, family, mobility, and transition while seeking purposeful, flexible, high-ROI education. And institutions that embrace that truth can build transformational learner-to-earner experiences that drive enrollment, completion, and long-term alumni engagement.
Translating Military Learning Into Meaningful Credit
Service members receive exceptional training throughout their careers, from power skills like leadership and team coordination to advanced competencies in cybersecurity, logistics, IT, aviation, engineering, and more. When institutions deeply understand military education pathways, they can award credit for that experience in ways that shorten time to completion and reduce unnecessary duplication.
But this requires more than a surface-level credit articulation table. Institutions need intentional partnerships with the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard; faculty who understand military training curricula; and academic evaluation processes that treat military education with rigor and respect. When done well, the impact is enormous—adult learners accelerate credential attainment, reduce costs, and stay engaged because they see their service honored as part of their academic identity.
Designing a Military-Centered Engagement Model
Veteran success is not a single moment at enrollment. It is a lifecycle. Institutions that excel in serving military-affiliated learners build wraparound engagement models that extend from first contact through alumnihood.
This includes:
- Dedicated benefits and tuition assistance experts who help navigate the GI Bill®, DoD tuition assistance, SkillBridge, and vocational rehabilitation.
- Specialized enrollment teams trained to understand the complexities military families juggle—from PCS moves to deployment cycles to spousal career disruptions.
- Flexible academic models, such as four-week courses and anytime start dates, that align with operational tempo and allow learners to focus on one class at a time without losing progress.
- Wellness and holistic support ecosystems that address financial stability, mental health, food insecurity, community-building, and transitions into civilian life.
These elements acknowledge a core truth: military-connected students are “Anders”—students and parents, workers and caregivers, veterans and emerging professionals. They need spaces, policies, and people designed for the complexity of their daily lives.
Strengthening Regional Workforce Pipelines
Transitioning out of the military is not a moment—it is a journey. As veterans navigate new cultures, new work environments, and new expectations, they need institutions that act as bridges between their military experience and high-demand civilian careers.
This requires strong employer partnerships across regions, intentional career development programming, and proactive outreach that helps veterans translate their skills into roles they may never have imagined. Importantly, many veterans do not want to replicate their military occupational specialty. They want to broaden, reinvent, and grow. Institutions must help them identify how their leadership, discipline, and technical capabilities map to roles in technology, healthcare, education, advanced manufacturing, logistics, and public service.
When institutions partner with nonprofits, employers, veteran service organizations, and government agencies, the results are powerful: higher employment rates, better alignment between credentials and careers, and stronger economic mobility for veterans and their families.
Building a Culturally Responsive Campus
A truly military-supportive institution doesn’t just offer services—it builds belonging. That means creating physical and digital spaces where military-affiliated learners feel understood, valued, and connected.
Culturally responsive campuses:
- Recognize the diversity of the military community—veterans, active-duty, reservists, spouses, and dependents.
- Offer “third places” where students can study, think, or build community between work and home.
- Integrate military-friendly design into advising, classroom experiences, and student engagement.
- Partner with community colleges and local organizations to extend these spaces beyond the main campus.
Belonging is not a bonus; it is a persistence strategy.
The Path Forward
Higher education has an extraordinary opportunity—and responsibility—to serve those who have served. Institutions that build intentional, learner-centered, career-aligned pathways for military-affiliated students don’t just improve enrollment outcomes. They transform lives, fuel regional economies, and strengthen long-term relationships with learners who continue returning for additional credentials throughout their careers.
Veterans and military families deserve higher education experiences that honor their service, accelerate their advancement, and connect their learning to meaningful, enduring careers. Institutions that rise to meet this moment will help define the future of lifelong learning.
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