Veterans Succeed at Harvard

Written by Call of Duty Endowment on February 24, 2010 – 3:54 pm -

Following up on Monday’s post on veterans who have earned MBA degrees, we came across this article from last week’s Harvard Gazette. The story profiles a few of the 150+ current students at Harvard University who have seen combat in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

The story hits on an important issue —the diversity that former military men and women can bring to a graduate program or workplace. We’re not talking about diversity as it comes to the usual race or gender discussion, but rather the diversity of backgrounds, thoughts and life experiences. To earn acceptance into top graduate schools or corporate training programs, many candidates will have previous workforce experience; but only a few will have previous workforce experience that required judgment under extreme pressure, tight deadlines, and decision making that had immediate and obvious impacts that come with these individual’s time in the military. It’s this type of critical thinking training and direct accountability decision making will prove invaluable to employers.

As one vet explained of grad school, “We talk a lot of theory here.” For men and women who have served in the military, theory is just that—a school subject. But tangible skills and real-life decision making can’t be taught in the classroom alone…

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