From campus-based seminars to national events, from research-driven insights to countless conversations with individual veterans and veteran-serving professionals, we have stayed true to our four areas of practice — Force Multiplication, Community Action Research, Collaborative Thought and Convening, and Content Creation and Distribution — and we are proud of the work we've done and the impact we've made.
We continued our Summer Seminar Series with "Literature of and after the Vietnam War: 50 Years of Peace & Conflict" during which Professor Nick Utzig used literature and film to explore the costs of war and continuing legacies that war leaves behind. In doing so, we were not only able to honor those who served in earlier eras, but we also provided a space for members of our community — both on campus and beyond — to reflect on how institutions like Columbia grapple with conflict and collective responsibility.
We remained dedicated to elevating the stories of individual veterans, from highlighting women veterans who are currently leading on Columbia's campus to sharing the journey of one of our VA Ambassadors, Adam Hamid, who transferred from community college to Columbia. These "Veteran Voices" remind us why CVTI exists: to help veterans — along with the institutions that serve them — thrive.
We recognize that support extends beyond access and benefits, and that the work of integration belongs to colleges, universities, and corporate entities, and so our Director of Community Engagement, Dave Keefe, expanded our veteran narrative training on the Columbia campus. These workshops, along with the guides we’ve developed, help build a deeper understanding of the veteran community on campus and will enable faculty and staff to serve veteran and military-connected students at Columbia and other colleges and universities more effectively and with greater confidence. You can find the Faculty Guide to Engaging Veteran & Military Connected in the Classroom Guide here.
We continue grounding our advocacy in evidence, and we aspired this year to generate impact in both higher education and workforce settings. Over the past several years, our academic skills content — developed by veterans, for veterans — has had a meaningful impact on students at the Alamo Colleges District where student veteran GPA rose and confidence improved as a result of interacting with our tools. And at Amazon, we were proud to deliver, for the second year in a row, proprietary soft-skills and leadership training to hundreds of military-connected employees. These initiatives remind us that transition support for veterans needs to be broad enough to include not just education, but also professional life and workplace culture. View or download the CVTI Impact Report.
CVTI remained active on the national stage as well. During our most recent LinkedIn Live — led by our Director of Education, R.J. Jenkins, in conversation with JD Due and Charlie Foster from William & Mary — we spoke candidly about how to build stronger cultures of support for veterans on campus. The first of a series of discussions we'll be hosting into next year, our "Start Where You're At” series will explore, in conversation with veteran-serving professionals across the country, how great veteran support programs begin, how we assess the work we're doing, how we decide what to do next, and how we begin the process of building new programs or leveling up the ones we have.
We're proud of what we’ve accomplished this year, but we know there is more to do, and we look forward to collaborating with partners on campus and across the country to help each other thrive.
