Out of the Shadows: The Lived Experiences of Active-Duty Military Undergraduates

Abstract: The lived experiences of active-duty military students are currently silenced in higher education by assumptions and a lack of knowledge surrounding their individuality. Researchers undertook a phenomenological qualitative study on the experience of active-duty military undergraduates at a mid-sized four-year regional public university in the Southern region of the United States. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and supplementary surveys with four active-duty military students. The data revealed that individual identities influenced participants’ meaning-making of activation, mobilization, and orders during an academic period. The obligations created by their dual identities of service members and college students forced participants to make sacrifices and decisions that made one identity more salient than the other. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) military over academics, (b) communication, (c) negative experiences and emotions, and (d) financial motivation and implications. Implications for research and practice related to isolated support structures, discrepancies in communication, academic hardships, and problematic grouping are discussed.