Three years ago, CVTI partnered with Penn State’s Office of Veterans Programs to help launch its Veterans College Boot Camp—a free transition program designed to help incoming student veterans and military-connected students prepare for university life, strengthen academic skills, and build community before their first semester.
From the beginning, CVTI’s goal was bigger than simply delivering academic skills programming.
Our approach is capacity building: helping institutions develop the knowledge, tools, and leadership to sustain and strengthen their own veteran support programs.
For the first two years, CVTI staff facilitated the academic skills sessions. This year, the model took an important next step.
Five student veteran mentors—all Veterans College Boot Camp alumni—were trained to lead the academic skills sessions for the newest cohort.
The result was more than a successful transition of responsibility. Students who once arrived at Boot Camp looking for guidance were now standing at the front of the room, sharing their experience and helping their peers navigate the transition to college.
That is what capacity building looks like.
It means moving beyond programs that depend on outside expertise and toward models that are locally owned, locally sustained, and strengthened by the people closest to the work.
CVTI is proud to partner with institutions like Penn State to build that capacity—and to help create environments where student veterans can become not only recipients of support, but leaders in supporting one another.
