The third annual Iowa Statewide Veterans Conference was Thursday, Nov. 15, at Iowa State, with the conference’s goal to help support and understand Iowa veterans in higher education.

Keynote speaker Corey Rumann echoed this goal in his address to the group of 200 conference attendees.

Rumann, an ISU alumnus, is the assistant professor of practice in the department of educational administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is the co-author of “Called to Serve: A Handbook on Student Veterans and Higher Education.”

In the keynote address, Rumann discussed the challenges student veterans face when coming they come back to continue higher education. He had also stressed the importance of helping student veterans on all levels, not just with school.

“There is still more that needs to be done to help student veterans coming back,” Rumann said.

He encouraged leaders that work with veterans to continue support for student veterans through all kinds of different programs available.

Rumann also encouraged creation of policies that help veterans returning from deployment and to share the policies that work with others in their field.

“I enjoyed the address, you could tell that this subject is very near and dear to his heart,” said Marge Welch of William Penn University.

This year’s Iowa State Veterans Conference is geared toward helping to support Iowa veterans in higher education. The conference was a one-day event that occurs yearly at different locations across the state.

“We have worked very hard on putting together this conference and are hearing tremendous feed back” said Jathan Chicoine, program director at Iowa State.

This year’s theme “Supporting Iowan Veterans in High Education,” is an effort to bring light to the issues that veterans returning to higher education face.

Leaders from various higher educational institutes across the state attended today’s conference to learn more about the issues that face returning Iowan veterans. Veterans and veterans groups were also invited to attend the conference.

The conference was packed with break out sessions all centered on supporting Iowa veterans in higher education. Along with the break out session there was a lunch. There was also a resource fair with 20 different organizations that conference attendees could go and receive more information on certain subjects.

“We wanted to have a variety of sessions and groups to bring more choices to people attending the conference,” Chicoine said.

The Iowa Veterans Conference is a traveling conference and will be either at Northern Iowa or Iowa next year.

The conference was sponsored by the office of the president, student affairs and Troops to Teachers.