The 2026 NASPA Symposium on Military-Connected Students is NASPA's premiere event designed for student affairs practitioners supporting military-connected students. The three-day symposium features keynote sessions; research, policy, and best practices presentations; and workshop-style sessions to help campus professionals develop or enhance their programming and services for veterans and military-connected students.
CVTI Director of Education, R.J. Jenkins, looks forward to delivering two breakout sessions at this year's conference:
Optimizing Conference Outcomes When You Feel Behind and Everyone Else Seems Ahead
Presenters at conferences often come from institutions with abundant resources, large staffs, and the freedom to showcase models of success. Attendees, meanwhile, frequently arrive with pressing challenges, stubborn institutional barriers, and fewer supports. This contrast can produce what I call institutional imposter feelings: a nagging sense that you’re somehow failing, that you're behind everybody else. Participants in this session will learn practical strategies for reframing their experience, connecting authentically, and translating what they see into actionable next steps for their own campus.
Real Talk: When A Student Veteran Makes You Want To Quit (And What To Do About It)
While we often celebrate the strengths veterans bring to campus - leadership, adaptability, discipline - there’s far less open discussion about the challenges practitioners sometimes face in serving them. From entitlement to combativeness to condescension, these realities are rarely addressed in professional spaces despite being a staple of informal conversations. It's time to tackle some uncomfortable truths about our work head-on—not to complain, but to build community, normalize challenge, and strengthen our collective capacity to serve veterans more effectively and sustainably.
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