San Diego SERVICE (Success in Engineering for Recent Veterans through Internship and Career Experience) Program

San Diego State University Foundation, San Diego CA

Investigators

Abstract

This engineering education research project seeks to establish a support program for student veterans at San Diego State University in partnership with two local community colleges. A key element of the SERVICE project is to define a clear pathway for veterans to complete engineering degrees. The program seeks to engage industrial partners to offer internships to veterans throughout their college careers. By offering math courses to service members before they arrive at colleges, the project seeks to minimize some of the major hurdles to veterans' success in college. The broader significance and importance of this project will be to develop a model for broad participation of veterans that recruits and retains them in college and transitions them to engineering careers. Should the project demonstrate the coalition of partner schools is able to successfully transition student veterans to graduation via the effective use of internship programs, this pilot will serve as a model that can be readily implemented by other university - community college partnerships.