Strengths-based engagement with student veterans: reframing possibilities and challenges for higher education institutions

Since the passage of the United States Post-9/11 GI Bill there has been significant scholarly and practical interest in how higher education institutions can best engage with student veterans. With an interest in how engagement is communicatively framed, we advance an argument that higher education institutions discursively engage student veterans primarily from a deficit framing that foregrounds struggles and challenges, rather than strengths. In this chapter we draw from two of our own empirical studies to advocate reframing student veteran engagement from a strengths-based perspective that recognizes new possibilities for engaging student veterans, while staying mindful of the challenges this brings. This chapter ends with several insights and interventions that higher education researchers, instructors, marketing teams, and student services administrators can use to reimagine student veteran engagement.