“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
As Jake Stehle ’25 addressed a room full of soon-to-be Aggie student veterans at their New Student Conference, he opened his speech with the famous Mark Twain quote to describe an initiative at the Don & Ellie Knauss Veteran Resource & Support Center (VRSC) that changed his life forever. In a full-circle moment, he shared the significance of the Veteran Evaluation of Talent + Matching Assistance Program (VET+MAP): a resource to help veterans and military-affiliated individuals discover their innate strengths and discern their purpose.
“It’s a military custom to say, ‘Throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks,’ so I’d been doing that with my life for a while,” Stehle said of his time following service in the Navy Reserves. “When I first heard about VET+MAP, I felt like I finally found the beacon of hope—my ‘why’—that I’d been searching for.”
Helping veterans like Stehle was the motivation behind VET+MAP, a first-of-its-kind program created by VRSC Assistant Program Director Jason Walker ’90. Through personalized one-on-one coaching, VET+MAP’s purpose-to-impact process leverages the CliftonStrengths assessment as a starting point to help veterans discover talents, define values, discern purpose, declare ambitions, design goals and develop a personal brand to enable career readiness in their return to civilian life.
“Veterans tell me they found purpose in their military service, but once they left, their ‘north star’ was gone, and they struggled to find where they fit. That’s where we step in,” Walker said. “We get them on a path to knowing who they are, what they’re made to do and how to take charge of their life.”
Because of VET+MAP, hundreds of Aggie student veterans have been able to identify their purpose.
The program consists of self-paced, one-on-one coaching that equips veterans with introspective knowledge and purpose-centered career mentorship aligned to their personal talents and values. VET+MAP coach Daniela Romero Najera ’23 said the odds of someone sharing the same top five talents are 1 in 33 million.
“There’s nobody else designed just like you, and it’s something veterans can harness with expert guidance,” she said. “Leading companies today hire on innate talent, personal values and passionate alignment with their company mission, which is why VET+MAP is a game-changer. Our purpose-based, veteran-to-employer matching also increases the likelihood that veterans stay with these companies long-term.”
With help from former VRSC Director Col. Gerald “Jerry” Smith ’82 (USMC, Ret.) and initial funding provided by John Albers ’90, the CEO of Albers Aerospace, the pilot program launched in Aggieland in 2020 and has since helped more than 200 military-affiliated Aggies find their “why” and choose purpose-centered careers. As a free resource, VRSC Assistant Director Don Freeman said continued support from donors like Dr. Phylis and Steve Canion ’76 will be a catalyst for VET+MAP’s growing success.
“There are veterans running out of government benefits before getting the chance to graduate, many of them wounded heroes, spouses, parents and full-time employees,” Phylis said. “We give because we believe VET+MAP can make a real difference for them.”
Profile of an Aggie Student-Veteran
Texas A&M enrolls 1,000-1,200 student veterans annually. The typical profile:
- Age 27 to 34.
- 50% are married, many with children.
- 6+ years of service, many with multiple combat tours.
- 20% are first-generation college students.
- 44% report an annual household income of less than $18,000.
- More than 50% work one or more part-time jobs to make ends meet while in school.
Hear it from Jake Stehle ’25
“There’s a terrible statistic that shows we lose 22 veteran lives every day—and I personally believe that number is influenced by people not knowing their purpose and losing community. It’s my hope that every veteran will eventually have access to VET+MAP and discover the reason they were put on this planet. Everyone is born for a purpose, and I think people just need guidance to find that.” - Jake Stehle ’25
Finding the "Why"
The average veteran may change their major up to three times, compared to once for traditional students, often because they don’t know their “why.” The increased time to degree completion can put a tremendous financial burden on veteran families, especially since GI Bill benefits only cover a 36-month timeframe.
Life After the Field
As a national statistic, the success of student veterans without access to a program like VET+MAP is only 22%. The calculation is a result of:
1) A 51.7% graduation rate.
2) Of those who do graduate, 22% do not land a job within one year of graduation.
3) 44% of those with a job will not remain in the position for 12 months.
VET+MAP's Impact
For Aggie student-veterans who completed the VET+MAP program, the success rate is 67.7%. The calculation is a result of:
1) A 94.7% graduation rate.
2) Of those who graduated, 100% landed a job within one year of graduation. (94.7% had a job before they graduated.)
3) 88% were still with their employer after 12 months.
Join the mission of helping our nation’s heroes at Texas A&M. Contact David Bacot ’90, senior director of development, with the information below to learn how you can fund a student veteran’s expedition through VET+MAP.
Send Message to David
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