Speaker
Joe Rasmussen
Director of University Veteran Services, UW–Madison
Joe Rasmussen is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, serving on active duty from 2002-2006. He earned his Master of Social Work from UW–Madison and his Bachelor of Social Work from UW–Whitewater. Mr. Rasmussen began working at UW in 2012 as the School Certifying Official and became director in 2022. His current work is focused on professionalizing military-connected student work, advocating for changes to better support the current military connected student, and increasing the number of military and veteran students enrolling in high-quality educational experiences.
Speaking in
Towards Constructing Military-Connected Student Inclusion: A Student Panel and Discussion
Similar to a few other large, public institutions, UW-Madison’s history is inextricably intertwined with that of the nation’s military. This highlights the critical importance in supporting the unique needs of student veterans, service members, and family members. Supporting military-connected students requires learning more about military-connected identities and experiences. Often presenting in invisible ways, military-connected identities can be obscured by other aspects of student identity. Working towards inclusive environments for military-connected students at UW-Madison becomes possible once prepared to understand the transformative power of community.
This session seeks to elevate current military-connected student stories and provide support for them to voice their experiences. A student panel of current UW-Madison military-connected students is central to the focus of this session.
Session Objectives
- Learn about trends in military-connected student populations
- Build empowerment to better support military-connected students