There has been a growing emphasis on producing engineers that are technically proficient while having many professional skills such as organization, time management, communication, and leadership. Service academies and military colleges require a highly structured leadership curriculum and formal experience for all their cadet students. However, many veterans are not required and cannot experience the leadership sequence at military colleges. Unless they are a cadet or midshipman, they simply are not allowed to register for these courses nor can they hold leadership positions in the cadet ranks. However, veteran students are well suited to assume leadership roles and responsibilities in and out of the classroom. Their military experience often fosters growth of these soft skills and make them effective and admired leaders, even at a military college where their academic peers have experienced a more structured and recent leadership curriculum. Faculty and traditional students at civilian or military colleges can benefit from these qualities if they are aware of their skills and experiences. The classroom experience and extracurricular activities can be enriched through these non-traditional students. This paper discusses some of the professional skills recognized in veterans. It then provides examples of veterans in leadership roles in three different programs and activities. One experience will be a project leader in the ASCE concrete canoe, another is the role of veteran leaders in a senior design project in electrical engineering. Finally, the last experience describes the veterans assuming leadership roles in the student chapter of ASME. Based upon the feedback and peer assessments, these veterans played significant roles in their organizations’ and teams’ activities and eventual success.
Robert Rabb is the associate dean for education in the College of Engineering at Penn State. He previously served as a professor and the Mechanical Engineering Department Chair at The Citadel. He previously taught mechanical engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the United Military Academy and his M.S. and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His research and teaching interests are in mechatronics, regenerative power, and multidisciplinary engineering.
Dr. Kevin Bower is the D. Graham Copland Professor of Civil Engineering and Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina. Dr. Bower’s research into teaching and learning forces on improving active learning environments and the development of principled leaders attributes in engineering students.
Robert Barsanti is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The Citadel where he teaches and does research in the area of target tracking and signal processing. Since 2015, Dr. Barsanti has served as the William States Lee
Ron Welch (P.E.) received his B.S. degree in Engineering Mechanics from the United States Military Academy in 1982. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1990 and 1999, respectively. He taught at The United States Military Academy during his 25 year military career. After retiring form the military he has taught at the University of Texas at Tyler and The Citadel, where he was the Dean of Engineering for 10 years.
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