Meg O'Grady (National University) on Empowering Service Members Through Personalized Learning

On today’s episode of the Illumination by Modern Campus podcast, podcast host Shauna Cox was joined by Meg O’Grady to discuss how authentic collaboration with employers shapes responsive program design while examining how microcredentials can evolve into stackable pathways that support long-term career mobility.

Transcript

Shauna Cox (00:02):

Meg, welcome to the illumination podcast.

Meg O’Grady (00:05):

Thanks so much. So glad to be here.

Shauna Cox (00:07):

I'm so glad to dive into your experience and the work that you're doing. So I'm just going to kick off our conversation and ask what strategies most effectively translate military service into stackable credentials and a more clear learner to earner pathway for transitioning veterans?

Meg O’Grady (00:24):

Well, we know that military service members receive probably the top world-class education throughout their careers. So they're lifelong learners to begin with, and so they start with a basic training, but from there on, they have a entire life stream of education. And that professional education really does translate into a lot of things. If you think about it, just the durable and power skills like leadership and team building and those types of things, they translate into a lot of our courses that we would do in our business school in leadership studies, organizational leadership, but then there's also the technical skills that they're able to learn. So with us at National University, we have a world-class cyber and IT program. It's actually a national security agency cyber Center of excellence. And so about 60% of that program itself is made up of active duty service members and veterans.

(01:26):

And so it's really up to us to understand what that training can be and how it translates into our programs, whether that's our professional education or our degree program. So we are out there on a regular basis working with the services, the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and understanding what that training is. We bring it back to our faculty. The faculty is able to evaluate it, and then they're able to see where those credits can be applied towards a degree program. On the other hand, we also have certifications like the Google certificates. So if a service member earns a Google certificate, they will get credit for that in a degree program. But on the other side, if they're coming into our programs and they want to earn that Google certification, they can do that within the course of the program that they're taking.

Shauna Cox (02:22):

Amazing. And I love the care and dedication. There's a full, it's not just a, we're offering some programs to veterans on the side here. You guys are, especially with your role fully invested into this. And I want to expand on it a little bit more because there may be some institutions out there that are looking to serve veterans in a more strategic, meaningful way, or they might have something but want to improve it or just don't even know where to start. So in what ways can universities build more personalized veteran centered engagement models that are going to support the learners from enrollment and throughout the rest of their lives, career transitions, anything like that?

Meg O’Grady (03:02):

I love the way that you framed that question because we do actually look at our service members, our veterans, our military spouses from the time that they hear about National University all the way until they're an alumni. And just an example is we have an alumni who is now the chief technology officer at a large defense company. He has his bachelor's degree, two master's degrees, and he's working his third master's degree with us. The education was so appropriate for him, but I think for us, there's a couple different ways that we do this. We have a dedicated veteran benefits team that works with veterans specifically on their benefits. We have a tuition assistance team that helps active duty service members find the way to use their tuition assistance in the best way possible for their individual case. We also have a dedicated military enrollment team.

(03:59):

And so that enrollment team is available to our military affiliated students, not just service members and veterans, but military spouses as well, that recognize some of the unique things that those students bring to us as we go through our delivery model is really innovative. And as you may or may not know, we were founded 54 years ago by a retired navy captain who was working at a defense company as a professional development and training officer, and he realized that he could not get those students the education that they wanted or needed in a traditional model. And so he started this kind of non-traditional work with an innovative tool called the cassette player. In any case, we have come a long way and we would use really any tool tricks, policies and resources that we can to serve our adult students. But for the military in particular, we have a four week model, and that four week model is four week classes. They can enroll at any time, and they're able to look at one course at a time, and it really fits into the military kind of optempo that they have. And we've heard over and over from our military students that that's something that really sets us apart and really sets them up for success.

Shauna Cox (05:20):

I love that, and I want to expand on setting them up for success. I mentioned for the previous question that there's the career transitions that a veteran may have, and I think when they are in society, setting them up with the job, odd job, something that's meaningful, something that gives them the purpose that they want, I think it's important to make sure they have those right connections. And obviously an institution is set up for that. But looking into the details of that, what role should institutions play in creating more regionally aligned workforce pipelines that are going to connect those veterans to those high demand more civilian careers, if we call them that?

Meg O’Grady (06:08):

Yeah, I think the transition period, people think about it as this small period that comes after the military ends for the service member, and then they go into the civilian world. But what we have found is that that transition is a journey that almost never ends. And as they transition into the civilian world, they're looking at different cultures. They may be looking at a different way of living from just getting housing, and they've never had to do health insurance before or just living in a civilian community rather than their military community. So one of the things that we do in San Diego is work very closely with our community, and I think we are extremely fortunate. San Diego is probably the most military thriving community that really exists. We have a business community that really looks towards getting the talent from those military service members and their military spouses who are either transitioning out or the spouses who are stationed here with their active duty service members at National University.

(07:14):

We have relationships with more than 200 employers across the country. So not just here in San Diego, but all over the country where we can look at different careers for these military service members. Often military service members do not want to do the same thing that they did in the military, but it's really up to us to look at them and say, well, these are the skills that you've developed. It's not just those technical skills, but as I said before, the durable and power skills that they can apply to those jobs. Something that we're really proud of in the past two years at National University is we were one of 13 organizations who were awarded a grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and this grant is the very first grant that they have ever applied to veterans and their spouses. So we're really, really excited about serving those spouses as well.

(08:08):

But it allowed us to really catalyze some of the services that we already offered at National University. For instance, we were able to expand our veteran and military community center where our students can come in and they can get everything from financial career transition resources to even a food pantry. That was really, really useful during this last government shutdown. So it allowed us to expand our transition services in the San Diego community. And the grant itself is not just for National University students. We ensured that when we wrote the grant, it included the larger San Diego community. And so we're working with a variety of nonprofits here in the region that provide transition assistance services. So there's support. The enlisted project is one of those nonprofits, the Wounded Warrior Project, hiring our heroes out of the US Chamber of Commerce, which has really fantastic programs for career education and career placement. So we're really excited about that grant, and we've been able to place more than 300 community members into family sustaining careers.

Shauna Cox (09:24):

That's so amazing to have and be able to share. And I think tying in the community aspect into that is really, really important. And I want to dovetail off of this idea of the benefits that are out there that exist for veterans and kind of bring in the idea of a program structure and put them together. So what program structures and maybe some more advising approaches best maximize the impact of, say, the GI Bill and the Department of Defense? So the DOD education benefits for military affiliated learners,

Meg O’Grady (10:01):

I think it's really important to have those relationships with the DOD and the VA because they do have a variety of government programs that are really effective for transitioning service members. So through the DOD, every service member is actually required to go through transition assistance programs, and those programs are generally in their last 180 days. In addition to that, they can take advantage of a program called Skill Bridge, which allows them to go from their last 180 days in service to an internship, a fellowship, or a training with an employer that is outside of the military. So they can do that on their own or they can work with nonprofits like the Hiring Our Heroes Program out of the US Chamber of Commerce, who will place them in a fellowship that allows them to get six to eight weeks of real civilian training and culture and really understand what that looks like.

(10:57):

And I know for a fact that that program has placed about 78% of the folks who go through the fellowships into career sustaining jobs post-military service. I would say the other piece of it is when you look at the Department of Veterans Affairs, we encourage every single service member who is transitioning to apply for their veterans benefits, whether they think they have a disability or not. That's really a myth. It's not just applying for your disability, but you can also get, again, your GI Bill if you are 20% disabled, you can get the VRE program, which allows you to have vocational rehabilitation. There are several other programs that are really looking at the industries themselves, like Vets in Tech, and then the Department of Labor who is really key in putting together the Transition Assistance Program also has a post-transition that is on installations or near installations all over the country. So it doesn't matter how long you've been out as a veteran, if you feel like you're in that part of your journey where you're still transitioning, you can go to this off base transition assistance program and get the assistance that you need.

Shauna Cox (12:12):

Amazing. I love that. And I know a lot of the times here we're talking about having the learners go out into the quote, real world civilian life, all this work connected stuff, but I really want to reign it back and talk about the campus itself and the institution and its environment because I think that is the stepping stone before they reach that society. So what elements defined a culturally responsive campus ecosystem that is going to strengthen belonging and persistence for these learners?

Meg O’Grady (12:47):

We have what we call whole human education, and that means that when we interact with our students, when we advise our students, when they come to us, we're not just looking at their academics or career potential, we're looking at their financial wellbeing, we're looking at their community engagement, we're looking at their social emotional wellness. And so to that point, we have an incredible student wellness team and we connect our service members. In fact, all of our students with our student wellness team where they can find any resources that they need. And with the military, the one thing that we do know is those resources exist. In fact, there's more than 1300 nonprofits that are across the country providing not only transition and career assistance, but food insecurity and homelessness and mental health. And so we make sure, and we're very intentional about connecting with those nonprofits and organizations that provide those resources because we don't have to invent them.

(13:49):

There are organizations that do it very well, and so we're very intentional about cultivating those relationships and ensuring that our students can connect with those resources when they need them throughout their student career. The other thing that's really neat about National University is we have started the Nest concept, which means it's a third place for our students to come and learn when we have adult working students, and a hundred percent of our students are non-traditional working and military students, they often need a third place to go where they can study, where they can do the work that they need, where they can just get away and think. Sometimes we call our students Anders. So our students are students and mothers and service members and nurses and brothers and musicians. And so every single one of our students has at least one, if not multiple ands.

(14:48):

We want to give them a space where they can come and do the work that they need, where they can connect with each other in a non-traditional way. And so the Nest is at our Spectrum campus in San Diego, and we've extended that concept as we go to our other campuses. We have a campus in LA that's really, really fantastic, and we have a veteran and military community center there. So anywhere that we are, we want our students to have a place to go where they feel like they're part of our national university family where they can find the resources that they need to be successful, and not just on our campuses, but we are now partnering with community colleges around California to create that nest space with those community colleges. So it's really a great way for us to connect our community, and it's a great way for our students to connect with each other.

Shauna Cox (15:43):

I love the Nest idea because I was first introduced to it by your president, mark Millon. He has been on and talked about it very briefly, and I was like, this idea, this concept is so fitting for those learners and the fact that you call them Anders, I totally that past my mind, but coming back to it, I love being reminded of it because that's exactly who they are. And once you have that in your mind, that's really that learner-centered mindset that then helps you help them and provide the best services that you can for them. But Meg, those are all the questions that I have for you. But before I let you go, is there anything else you'd like to add in terms of serving veterans advice you have or anything that we may have missed that you really want to bring up?

Meg O’Grady (16:29):

Well, I think it's appropriate that you brought up Mark Mill Iron because President Mill Iron is laser focused on serving this community, our non-traditional working and military students. And I will say every single member of our team is absolutely focused on that as well. We have a special training, we call it Ander training because this isn't a normal, traditional university. And President Mill Iron always says if you want to go to a place with Ivy Walls and a climbing wall and a backpack and fraternities, for the love of God, don't come to National University. And just having that leadership that's laser focused allows us to do the work that we want to do for a very large community of learners that don't necessarily have that everywhere. The thing that I would say is such a joy about working at National University is that I have never been so clear about what it is that we want to do, where it is that we're going, and what it is that my team can do to contribute to the success of all of our learners.

Shauna Cox (17:37):

Amazing. Again, Meg, thank you so much for sharing your insights and all of that good stuff. This is a really important topic, I think to be sharing with everybody and serving veterans is critical, and you guys are doing such great work. So thank you again for your time.

Meg O’Grady (17:53):

Thank you, Shauna.