The Harding Veterans Administration seeks to help veterans by providing resources that will help them transition into a traditional academic setting.

Nearly 3,000 veterans from Operations Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Arkansas use the new GI Bill while attending two-year community colleges and four-year universities.

The Harding VA currently has two peer-advisors on campus, graduate students Josh Medley and Frank Beaupre who will help the veterans transitional period in the classroom.

“The goal of our project is to provide student veterans with supportive services to improve their ability to succeed,” Medley said. “We also want to find ways to encourage them to get help for emotional and psychological wounds when needed.”

Medley said a large part of being a veteran is dealing with psychological issues.

“At least 20 percent of soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or traumatic brain injury,” Medley said.

Some issues veterans face are not named conditions, but rather difficulties such as relating to other students, an extended gap between high school and college and age gaps with fellow students.

Beaupre said he hopes the program can reflect the organizational model of social clubs on campus.

“Just as members of a social club bring their personal stories and talents, this organization aims to pool the resources of upperclassmen student veterans and mentor underclassmen Veterans,” Beaupre said. “Whatever the need of the veteran is, we are here to assist in facilitating it.”

The program is only a few months old, but Medley said signs of success in similar programs are encouraging.

“We are starting to see success on our sister campuses that are beginning to attract student veterans,” Medley said. “However, these programs often have ROTC programs or already have a student veteran presence on campus. We believe we will see tremendous success.”

Currently, the VA is working to establish veteran-to-veteran programs in four counties across the state so that Harding’s VA can link student veterans to the resources they need. Medley said that identifying veterans on campus may be the hardest part of their job.

If you or someone you know can benefit from the VA, contact Josh Medley at jmedley@harding.edu.