“The Wayne State University PAVE team has done a commendable job providing support, resources, and community to their military-connected students. Over the summer, they have been building on an already strong foundation to keep growing the program on their campus, training new team members, and engaging with students over the summer. Their positive outlook and tireless efforts demonstrate great care and dedication to the wellbeing of their military-connected students,” says Emma Czajka, PAVE Program Coordinator.

Wayne State University (WSU) has approximately 600 military-affiliated students on campus. Their PAVE team is made up of Campus Champion, Bill Keilman, Veterans Services Coordinator, Dante Strother, Team Leader Carissa Bennett, and Peer Advisors Josh Anderson, Nadim Yousify, Montrice Moore, and Jay Elias. Together, the team is serving around 120 of Wayne State’s student veterans this term.

The WSU PAVE team has built a strong community around campus with the Veterans Resource Center (VRC) serving as the central hub for resources, events, and connection. According to Josh, “it’s been a good balance of how many will respond [to outreach], and we have a lot more people showing in person because we have a center where you can just come and relax.” They have also increased engagement with creative outreach and events; for example: Josh made a short intro video describing himself and his PAVE role and shared that with his student veterans which has greatly increased interaction.

Additionally, the team holds many creative events to bring students together, like “PAVEsgiving” and an ongoing free laptop raffle funded through Department of Education grants. Their goal with events like these is, “to try to eliminate and minimize as many of the barriers that our student veterans are coming into the university with…having a nice, warm meal with most of our events is a good way to address some of those gaps that our students are not necessarily advertising,” says Dante. 

This focus on addressing needs to build community has also led to fruitful partnerships with other campus organizations. After a student veteran expressed mental health concerns, the VRC reached out and connected with the campus Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), which led to there now being a representative in the office weekly. Jay described connecting strongly with his assigned students through shared academic pursuits, and Carissa was able to use PAVE to find a student veteran with similar experiences to hers saying, “she has remained in close contact and actively engaged in our veteran community.”

Overall, the efforts and overwhelming positivity of the WSU PAVE team’s approach to supporting their student veterans has had notable success and tangible results on campus. According to Bill, the persistence rate of student veterans is around 93% at Wayne State, compared to the overall student body persistence rate of around 70%. While the data supports the work that the Wayne State PAVE team is doing, it can only capture a fraction of the passion, time, and energy that they are endlessly devoting to improving the lives and communities of student veterans on campus.

Keep up the great work, Wayne State PAVE team!