Reaching the Military Veteran Learner

Military veterans face several difficulties when leaving their regimented lifestyle in uniform to transition to a chaotic civilian population. Reintegration into society often requires veterans to learn new skills or return to college. Veteran students are nontraditional and at times do not fit the mold traditional student retention programs are designed to address. The author traces the evolution of student retention theory from Spady to the present, with respect to the veteran population as nontraditional students, and examines new ideas based not on what colleges are doing, but rather on what students are considering when making the decision to continue their college education.