Entering college as a veteran isn’t easy, so LSU’s William A. Brookshire Military and Veterans Student Center has been working to help students with a military background take advantage of the benefits available to them and provide a sense of community.
The center, located near Barnes & Noble on Veterans Drive, offers veterans and their families a multitude of services to ensure their success at LSU. This includes accessing financial and academic benefits, help submitting veteran documentation and paperwork, or general student questions like class registration.
Since 2020, Brookshire Center has made great strides to improve access to its community, its director said.
“It was difficult. When I started, the pandemic was going on…veterans isolating isn’t a good thing,” said Program Director Grant Schadeberg. “Once we came back, it was slow to get people to come around here. I’ve tried to change the center from a strictly academic place to more of a lounge…make it feel like a place where we’re just hanging out as friends at home. It’s been very successful at getting them to come back around.”
The staff at Brookshire Center organize a number of social events, including tailgates, trips to the World War II museum and attending the National Conference for Student Veterans, where there are hundreds of employers looking to talk to veterans.
“As a transitioning veteran who was at a university at one point, I know how hard it is to step foot in the civilian world after you’ve been trained to be a soldier…you can’t manage conflict the same way and things like that,” Schadeberg, said.
After a research firm found that student veterans in their first semester had the lowest GPA of any special population at LSU, a push began for approval of a military transition class. After years of effort, it was eventually approved.
“It’s just giving them tools to understand how to navigate being out of the military on a college campus where a lot of people don’t look like you,” Schadeberg said.
The course, University Studies for Student Veterans, is currently listed as HSE 1000 but will later be changed to LHRD 1776.
Brandee Patrick, director of communications at Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs, considers mindfulness of veteran experiences another step that needs to be taken.
“It’s a matter of training and awareness with the faculty and staff, especially when you think about mental health, the role that [traumatic brain injury] and [post-traumatic stress disorder] are playing,” Patrick said. “Understanding that some of the things they’re talking about in class are triggers, understand why they’re having an outburst, that comes with learning about those things. Having a commitment to understand.”
Brookshire Center has helped students access mental health services, regain previously denied credits and begin use of their GI bill benefits, a federal monthly stipend awarded to veterans in education programs.
Around 2000 students at LSU qualify for these types of benefits, according to Patrick.
“These centers, they provide a safe space for these students to be around other student veterans, children of veterans, spouses,” Patrick said. “Being in that environment where there’s somebody that’s like-minded, that they can share experiences with and make connections, to really foster an environment of belonging for them.”
Brookshire Center had a sponsored tailgate for the Army football game on Oct. 21 and will host a center open house on for Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
Students can find more information about Brookshire Center at its office on Veterans Drive or on its website here.
