Empowering Female [Student] Veterans through Community Writing and Experiential Learning in the Classroom

VETERAN BENEFIT	DESCRIPTION
Selecting the story/memory they most wanted to tell	Though many of the students stuck to their story once they figured out what it was, the numerous memories the veteran participants had about their time at war made deciding on one story/page one moment very challenging. Many of the veterans remembered fragmented moments/sensations, but a cohesive story or memory was harder to come by. The Herstory methodology of choosing a singular “Page One” moment helped them create (or begin the process of creating) a linear narrative about their service.
Finding their voice and reclaiming agency for their time at war	In addition to having some trouble deciding on a story, many of the veteran participants struggled with the voice and perspective they used to tell their story. One female veteran spent the first few sessions writing about herself in the third person and from the viewpoint of her dogs. By the end of the workshop, she had produced a totally different “Page One” moment in her own voice, using the first-person, and beginning to address memories of MST from a male commanding officer.
Finding a supportive peer group that used a specific methodology for bibliotherapeutic memoir writing	As many of the vets addressed in their emails of interest, it was novel to find a workshop devoted exclusively to women veterans and many appreciated the all-female emphasis. One of the veterans who participated in the workshop who was a former Army medic is currently participating in Herstory’s facilitator training institute to lead Herstory workshops herself in the future.

Table 2

[Civilian] Student Workshop Benefits.

[CIVILIAN] STUDENT BENEFIT	DESCRIPTION
Using stories to reorient themselves to their family’s history and relationship to war	Because many of the students enrolled in the literature course were not veterans themselves, their memoirs delved into stories passed to them from parents and grandparents. For example, two students incorporated war stories from their grandmothers about civil wars in countries like Bangladesh and Korea in their respective memoirs.
Using skills honed by their major in new and unexpected ways	Though the course was limited to students who were English majors, many students were double majoring in other subjects including journalism, history, and psychology. Two students double-majoring in English and journalism interviewed family members and consulted archives to learn more about their family’s relationship to the military: one of those students discovered that her great-grandmother was only born to fill the loss of her eldest brother dying in combat during WWI, while the other journalism student discovered that his grandfather wrote an Emmy-winning episode of MAS*H. A student majoring in English and history framed her memoir piece through a comparison of “factually” learning about wars in history courses versus the “empathetic” approach she viewed occurring in our English course. A student majoring in English and Psychology was able to craft a critical analysis paper on bibliotherapy using texts from the course in addition to her experience with the female veterans in the workshop. All of these examples help support research that claims that “Any class that grapples with veterans studies is inherently interdisciplinary” since “understanding the positionality of veterans in American society requires knowledge that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries” (Hodges, 2018, p. 94).
Revising	Outside of first year composition classrooms, the opportunity to consistently draft, receive peer feedback, and revise one piece of writing for a substantial portion of the semester does not often occur for most college students. By the workshop’s close the majority of the students in the course voiced that they felt exceptionally “proud” of their finished memoir piece, many planned to continue to add to and edit their memoir, and most wished the workshop was longer than the nine weeks it was in session.
Learning about the public humanities and making connections to the campus community	Throughout the semester, students in “The Literature of War” were offered numerous extra credit opportunities through attendance at veteran-themed events on campus. Such activities and events included the university’s annual Veterans Day Ceremony, a “tent city” event held overnight to increase awareness about veteran homelessness, a film screening of The Invisible War and Lone Survivor, and a “literary karaoke” event hosted by SBU libraries whose theme was writings by or about veterans. Many of the students expressed in their evaluations that they did not know such events existed but were glad the course encouraged them to learn more about their campus community and the resources it had for veterans. Further, one of the student veterans enrolled in the workshop was the key-note speaker for the Veterans Day Ceremony, and the event became a site for the students and [student] veterans to congregate and support one another outside the specific confines of the workshop environment.