The stories of veterans aren’t ones you hear everyday, but William & Mary’s new project will help civilians and veterans better understand each other.
“We know in the United State is there is a civilian-military divide,” said Charlie Foster, director of the Office of Student Veteran Engagement. “Civilians don’t often understand the military experience and it makes it hard for veterans to understand what they’re getting into as they become civilians. So a veteran storytelling event can help everyone transition out of the military.”
Foster is one of the leading forces behind a project to collect student veteran stories on the William & Mary campus.
The concept is one is he familiar with because he took part in a storytelling event that started at the college in 2014. During that time, veterans could come up on stage during a Veterans Day event and tell a story that was unique or important to them during their time in service.
For Foster, the activity came natural to him because he had worked in the American Forces Network where he was trained on public speaking, journalism and storytelling. But he recognized for some, the activity might present more of a challenge.
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The event was founded by Sam Pressler, a student, who went on to start the national nonprofit Armed Service Arts Partnership. However, in 2016 the event stopped and Foster said he felt it was a tradition that should continue.
When Foster started in his new position as adviser for Student Veterans of America, he said he began to plan the storytelling event again.
But unfortunately, the event didn’t have success. The first year he tried to replicate the storytelling event with a stage and spotlight, there was hardly any veteran participation.
“It seemed very hard for other folks,” he said. “It was always on Veterans Day so I would be like ‘Happy Veterans Day, now go give a performance.’ Which instead of saying ‘thank you for your service,’ it’s like saying your service isn’t over.”
Foster said he didn’t want to give up.
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That’s when Leslie Cropper, the instructional design assistant in the Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation at the college, and Toni Gay, a doctor of education student, came to Foster with the idea of digital storytelling.
Gay said she had worked on a digital storytelling project in 2018 when she produced a blog for a class while traveling through Ireland. She said it seemed natural that it could be something other veterans might also benefit from.
“I discovered that storytelling in general helped me to process and come to terms with the transitional challenges I had experienced,” she said. “The experience in Ireland two summers ago had an unintended outcome for me which was…as a student veteran doing my own story as part of this project now.”
Foster said the project is looking at having veterans tell stories through videos or presentations that they feel comfortable with. Last year, the group tried to do something similar but was unsuccessful because, he believes, the student veterans saw it as another assignment.
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The group is now trying to organize meetings and sessions where the students can actively work on their projects together, instead of feeling responsible for them on their own.
“We you’re in school, there are nothing but reasons to stop doing some sort of passion project,” he said. “We want to make sure they know what they’re doing and keep the ball rolling.”
Foster said he hopes to have the project complete with at least five or six participants. He said the group is trying to have an hour-long digital presentation of the veterans’ stories with a question and answer session following.
“We really just want people to tell these stories,” Foster said.
To find out how to participate, visit the Office of Veteran Student Engagement online.
