Final Project and Reflection

Final Project

  • How does a veteran’s struggle with PTSD affect his or her employment chances in the United States?
Several statistics:
•About 7% of the adult population in the United States, 18 million Americans, are veterans.
•Recent rising tensions in bilateral relations can lead to a future increase in the number of veterans.
•PTSD symptoms include intense feelings of fear and anxiety, avoidance, reduction in the ability to logically regulate responses to goals, priorities, and environmental demands.
•Veterans exhibiting PTSD symptoms are 43% less likely to find employment and have decreased levels of work performance.
•As more jobs require individuals to attain Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees, veterans’ ability to cope with college settings while suffering from PTSD is also vital.
•½ student veterans state that they do not feel as though they fit in on-campus and fail to experience social integration, and one-third feel unfairly judged.

For the purpose of increasing veterans’ rates of employment, I chose to tackle the issue of PTSD in veterans through increasing bi-lateral cooperation as my final project. 

Clearly, PTSD is a difficult mental health disorder which affects veterans. Addressing PTSD in veterans will increase their employment, job retention, and graduation rates among veterans. This will lead to their general welfare and added human capital for the U.S. žRecently, the Biden Administration announced a $125M military aid package plan for Ukraine, crucial U.S. interests in assisting Ukraine as a geopolitical leader. Ukraine and the United States complement one another in their ability to help veterans unlike ever before. Ukraine has an active conflict, seeing first-hand the hardships felt by veterans. The United States stations troops abroad, making their issues distant and often left unseen. Still, while Ukraine provides a clear grasp of priorities, United States has the necessary resources.

Read the Policy Memo here. 

Action Plan

  • RAISING AWARENESS:
In order to raise awareness toward the issue of veteran’s struggle with the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, I published an article on the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF) website, ”CETA in Addressing PTSD in Veterans in Ukraine.” The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation is a strategic “do-tank” headquartered in Washington, DC with a 30-year reputation of working with the U.S. Congress on expanding bi-lateral cooperation with Ukraine.  Later, it will also be published on its social media pages and included in the Foundation’s monthly newsletter. Just its Facebook page alone has 6,962 followers.
  • RALLYING CONGRESS
I will be working with the Friends of Ukraine Network (FOUN) in the upcoming months. FOUN is a “non-partisan coalition of former ambassadors, leading policy, and international security professionals which discusses and makes recommendations on numerous issues to Congress of mutual concern.” FOUN publishes annual Priority Recommendations for US Assistance to Ukraine for Congress that are instrumental in formulating foreign policy toward Ukraine. This year, I will work to ensure that provision of psychological assistance for treatment of PTSD is included in the Priority Recommendation FY21.
  • ENCOURAGING BI-LATERAL COOPERATION
This summer I will be connecting the Huts for Veterans, a U.S.-based, non-profit organization with a Ukrainian-based nonprofit that has a similar aim to assist veterans through proper therapeutic healing, especially for PTSD. Huts for Veterans is funded by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Forest Service. Its aim is to provide an adapted wilderness therapy model for Ukrainian veterans. I plan to enable the land management agencies in both the U.S. and Ukraine to work with non-governmental organizations to ensure proper healing of veterans impacted by the war and experiencing psychological and physical hardships.

Final Reflection

Overall, I am ecstatic that I was able to accomplish so much through the SPA Leadership Program. The program challenged me to think independently and critically about issues faced by local communities as well as those abroad. Most importantly, the program shaped me into a leader who is unafraid to tackle a variety of challenges, take initiative, and think beyond the mere boundaries of what is “possible.” Today, I look toward what is impossible – what everyone dismisses saying that it cannot be done. 

Going forward, I hope to finish the implementation of my project by actually creating a long-lasting partnership between a Ukrainian and a U.S. based organization so that they may better assist veterans through an individualistic approach. 

The leadership skills I learned about from the very first class until now are the very same that I utilised throughout my project implementation. In fact, I think that I most exhibited adaptive and situational leadership approaches in the way that I addressed issues faced by veterans. These approaches helped stir me away from generalisation and made me realise the individualistic nature of the veterans’ struggles. Because of this, I am sure that my project will be a success going forward.