A Follow-Up on Yesterday's Efforts to Help Military-Connected Students

We recently previewed a survey that's bringing attention to the hardships endured by military-connected teenagers. Now, the survey has been released, and Bret Burkhart and Veronica Carter got an update from the senior vice president of military and government programs at National University, Meg O'Grady.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've been talking about the effort that's underway to help
teenagers who may be struggling to find a sense of belonging.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Joining us now on the COGA News liveline as senior
vice president of Military and Government Programs at National University Mego. Grady, Meg,
thank you so much for joining us on San Diego's
Morning News.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
What kind of struggles are we talking about when it
comes to military teenagers.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Well, we know that it's hard to be a teenager,
right and so as hard as it is to be
a teenager, it's even harder to be a military teenager.
In fact, most military kids have several moves as they
go through an average of five different moves in their
lifetime and often more. We notice that through the Military

(00:47):
Teen Experience Survey that the National Military Family Association has
done for five years in a row, that teenagers often
have a hard time with belonging when they move to
a new school and that really does inhibit some learning.
And there are lots of things that we can do
to make that better for them as they move through

(01:08):
different military communities.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
So, you know, we know the struggles. I think we
all had friends who you know, when we were in school,
of they had military families and so they had to
move a lot, And so a kid just naturally has
to either get really good at making new friends or
they're going to fall into the group who just struggle
every single new school they go to. Well, I mean,

(01:33):
what can we do about that?

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah, And I think that's a really good point, is
that military kids often show a higher level of resilience,
and often you can tell that they are really strong
at making new friends and adapting to new situations. But
there's a whole lot of things that we can do
in the classroom. Sometimes we don't even know that those
kids are military students, right, and so teachers can intentionally

(01:57):
pair military and civilian youth and group avities, especially in
a place here like San Diego County where we know
there are so many military families, and the school district
in San Diego County have done a wonderful job of
really addressing these with their Purple Star School initiative. We
can also suggest that teachers hold a morning meeting and

(02:17):
students can share their name and a few personal interests.
I mean, really simple and effective practices to just identify
who aren't those students and how can we help welcome
them with belonging into the classrooms?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, where does that come from? What I mean, how
do you give them a sense of belonging when they're
going from school district to school district based on a
family's military service.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Well, it's interesting because as they routinely, you know, navigate
these deployments, move school changes, it's funny how these teenagers
can actually connect with each other. They sort of find
each other. But just having that identification process through coaches
and teachers and being able to say, here are these students.
They're coming to us from a military family, they can

(03:02):
find like and like, and then they can also connect
with civilian students who have been there for a while
and really understand like where is my team? Where is
my club? What are the places that I want to
belong here?

Speaker 1 (03:14):
I you know, I really admired the ones that do
it well. We moved once when I was a child,
and it like shattered me and my brother too. You know,
we were both kind of shy. My other sisters handled
it okay, but we were just shattered at having to move.
And I can't imagine having to do this like every
year or you.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Know, well, not only that you're not just looking for
a sense of belonging, but you're having to say goodbye
to friends you've already made along the way in a
short period of time so often.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
And you know, our Sandford Harmony program that we have
at National University really does help address with teachers and
with millions of students across the United States. You know,
these kind of these subjects of belonging and how to
create relationships and how to really you know, get along
in the classroom, but not only in the classroom and

(04:04):
places that are in their neighborhoods and community spaces. But
you know, as a military spouse, I moved seventeen times
in twenty three years. And my daughter, who's twenty nine
now still identifies herself as a military kid. She gets it.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Wow wow, Meg, thank you so much for joining us.
Mego Grady the Senior Vice President's Military and Government Programs
at National University.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Thank you, Meg, Thank you