Veterans Initiative

Veterans' Initiative

“The secret magic in this program is that there is soul. We get in touch with ourselves on a deeper personal level and although some of us may feel like fragments or pieces, we use language to once again find or embrace our identities, who we are.”

– Clemente Graduate, Class of 2016


During the past decade, a million veterans have returned from deployment overseas. Many of them face physical and emotional challenges that make transitioning back to civilian life particularly daunting.


Established in 2015, the Clemente Veterans’ Initiative (CVI) invites students to renew their sense of purpose through deep engagement with the humanities. Exploring questions of war, civic duty, family, and sacrifice, CVI offers veterans a chance to place their personal experience into  a broader perspective, one that helps them connect their military experience with their civilian lives.



 Clemente came at a very low point in my life. It kept me focused on something other than my circumstances and fears. The confidence I've built and the connections I've made have allowed me to complete two fellowships and a yearlong national service to AmeriCorps. I've found employment, and I am enrolling in a bachelor’s completion program. I owe all of that to Clemente.

Clemente Course Graduate, 2016

VETERANS FIND RESONANCE AND COMMUNITY IN CLEMENTE

Clemente offers veterans the opportunity to engage intellectually with a community of peers facing similar challenges, and to move out of their often self-imposed isolation.  And it reinforces a critical sense of community that is often lost when veterans return to civilian life.


“Veterans are deeply changed by their military experience, whether or not they’ve been to war,” says Jeb Wyman, founding academic director of the Veterans’ course in Seattle and editor of the book, What They Signed Up For, a collection of interviews with veterans. “One of those changes is a profound sense of community with other veterans. Clemente offers students a way to recreate this sense of community in civilian life.”

By Linnea Iannazzone 06 Sep, 2022
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By Linnea Iannazzone 11 May, 2022
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Research shows that 88% of veterans drop out of college in their first year and only 3% ultimately graduate. Many choose not to start college for fear of failing, and the reality that they will be required to pay back Veterans Administration benefits if they do not finish the classes.


 “A lot of military come home not physically or mentally ready to go to college, especially if they are dealing with PTSD and other war injuries.  In Clemente they are encouraged to engage in discussions and learn to express themselves. The professors guide them to open their minds and think differently about their own potential so that they have the confidence to complete their education.” Joan Cisco, Veterans First


 This program has helped me start to learn again. I have a Traumatic Brain Injury and learning has been very challenging for me. I feel like the nerve endings in my brain have started growing again.


Clemente Course Graduate, Class of 2017

Clemente helps  veterans succeed in other college classrooms as well, a critical issue for those who may feel estranged from their younger classmates or out of place in the civilian world.


As a 2016 graduate put it: "Let's face it, veterans suffer much mental stress, injury and heartache. Clemente seems to offer veterans a place to start moving through their emotions with a guided curriculum. They are able to get out of their heads and into other valuable forms of thought. They are able to put some of their stuffed frustration and shame into words through pen and paper or paintings or discussion. I believe Clemente exposes veterans to talents, skills, and desires they may not have recognized in themselves."

The Clemente Veterans’ Initiative was launched in partnership with the Teagle Foundation and thrives with support the National Endowment for the Humanities, and generous individual donations.

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