To help military service members prepare for the transition into college, Cornell University recently hosted a weeklong academic boot camp as part of a nationwide initiative.
The program, Warrior-Scholar Project (WSP), offers free college preparatory classes to current and retired enlisted service members. It gives military members the opportunity to gain some college experience, skills and mentorships before enrolling in a higher education institution.
“Our whole mission is for those veterans who want to go back to school,” says WSP chief executive officer Ryan Pavel. “We’re going to help them get there. And it’s not just reading, writing or arithmetic. It’s the cultural change that is going to be from the military to academia.”
WSP was launched at Yale University in 2012 by students Chris Howell, Jessie Reising and Nick Rugoff. The original group of veteran participants consisted of nine individuals.
From there, WSP became a nonprofit organization and expanded to more colleges and universities across the country. Relationships with schools to host WSP were created through donors or individual connections.
Two types of curricula were created for the program, including a one-week liberal arts model as well as a two-week model that focuses on liberal arts, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) courses.
Cornell, which uses the liberal arts model, is one of 17 colleges and universities to host WSP on their campus. The school has been involved in the initiative since 2015.
