During the last week in July, a time when most college campuses are largely empty in between semesters, Syracuse University’s National Veterans Resource Center will be bustling with activity. Two programs that align with Syracuse University’s historical commitment to military-connected students, the seventh annual Warrior Scholar Project (WSP) and the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV), will begin on July 24 and run through July 31.
The Warrior Scholar Project provides a way forward academically for military veterans following their transition out of service. WSP is a series of intensive, weeklong college preparatory academic boot camps. In addition to training military personnel in the skills required for college, they are taught that they can be a valuable addition to the classroom. Writing tutors, sessions on analytical reading and an opportunity to work with other student-veterans prepare them to be successful within a campus environment.
“Service members don’t follow a semester schedule, so neither do we,” says Ron Novack, executive director of the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs. “The seventh annual Warrior Scholar Project program is held over the summer so we can set student veterans up for success before they arrive in a classroom for the first time.”
The EBV was founded at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management in 2007. Since then, it has grown and is offered by a national consortium of world-class schools like Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles; Mays Business School at Texas A&M University; School of Business at the University of Connecticut; Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University; and the University of Missouri.
WSP is also a national program, with 2021 in-person boot camps offered by the University of Michigan, University of Arizona and Notre Dame. Virtual programs will be offered over the remainder of the summer by universities including Harvard, Chicago and Cornell.