COMMUNITY, SAFETY, AND SERVICE: ATTITUDES OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AMONG STUDENT VETERANS IN UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING DEGREE PROGRAMS

The military training of United States veterans emphasizes core beliefs and values that are highly valued within the engineering profession. Our study explores attitudes of social responsibility, defined as the desire to help others and benefit society, among engineering undergraduate student veterans. We used a validated instrument to measure social responsibility attitudes in engineering undergraduate students to answer the research question: How do attitudinal measures of social responsibility among undergraduate student veterans and non-veterans in engineering compare? We used data generated from focus group interviews with student veterans in engineering to answer the research question: How do undergraduate student veterans in engineering describe connections, if any, between social responsibility in the military and engineering professional contexts? Findings show how student veterans connect military-instilled values to engineering practice through tenets of social responsibility. These connections comprise yet another strength or unique attribute U.S. military veterans bring to engineering.