VMC Student Champion Program

“We are each other’s champions.”

To champion someone is to fight for them. To become a VMC Student Champion is to accept the responsibility of becoming an advocate for our student veterans and military-connected students.

Learning Outcomes

The process of becoming a VMC Student Champion requires the completion of four connected trainings offered by the VMC itself, the Office of Public Safety, and the Mental Health Task Force. Grounded with a mental health orientation, the learning objectives for this series of trainings are as follows:

Individuals will be able to:

• Develop a basic understanding of military culture, training, and different types of military educational benefits.
• Assess and engage student veterans and military-connected individuals in appropriate and productive conversations about their military service and/or family connections.
• Engage and refer student veteran and military-connected students to the appropriate student services based on the student’s stated academic or personal issue.
• Assess potential mental health issues and refer students to the appropriate mental health services.
• Question, persuade, and refer individuals expressing suicidal ideation to the appropriate resources.
• Formulate appropriate strategies to support student veterans and military-connected students in pursuit of their educational, vocational, and personal goals.

The Curriculum

To earn the VMC Student Champion certification and badge, individuals must complete the following:

1. Attend the full VMC Ally Training offered
2. Attend a VMC-sponsored Green Zone Training.
   1. Green Zone Training describes in detail the mental health challenges of a specific subset of the Veteran and Military-Connected population.
3. Complete and share proof of completing a Mental Health First Aid Training and Certification.
4. Complete and share proof of completing QPR (Question. Persuade. Refer) Training and Certification.

This is an internal co-curricular Wright State-based certification. At present, it does not count for CEUs or academic credit.

How to Participate?

Individuals interested in pursuing this training series should email the VMC and request to be added to the VMC Student Champion Path located in Engage.

Once added to the “Path,” individuals will be able to track their progress toward completion of the four elements.

Completion

Those individuals who complete the four trainings will receive a certificate of completion and a door magnet. Since progress will be tracked within the Engage system, individuals will be able to “prove” their completion with the Engage Co-Curricular Transcript.

Questions

If you have questions or comments, please reach out to Seth Gordon, Director of the Veteran and Military Center, at seth.gordon@wright.edu

Training for the 2024-2025 Academic Year

Thank you for visiting. For both our Ally Training and Green Zone Training sessions, we will post new dates for the Spring 2025 semester in December 2024.

QPR Trainings

This requirement can be fulfilled by providing a certificate of completion from the QPR Institute to seth.gordon@wright.edu. Wright State University’s Office of Public Safety offers this one-hour-long training regularly. You can RSVP to one of their trainings through Engage.

Mental Health First Aid Training

Most Mental Health First Aid Training is offered in single-day or multi-day training throughout 8 to 10 hours. Wright State University frequently offers this training for free on campus. You can access free virtual training at ohiomhfa.org if you live in Ohio and work with a College-aged population. Once you have received your certificate of completion, please forward it to Seth Gordon at seth.gordon@wright.edu to have this requirement fulfilled.