Dispatches from the Student Veterans of America National Conference
The Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI)'s Ebonnie Goodfield ‘24GS and R.J. Jenkins share their experiences leading sessions at SVA’s 2025 National Conference.
Every year, the Student Veterans of America’s National Conference (NatCon) brings together veteran education advocates from across the nation. At this year’s conference, Columbia’s Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI) was honored with the 2024 William Pearson Tolley Champion for Veterans in Higher Education award.
Among the CVTI contingent were Columbia GS alumna Ebonnie Goodfield ‘24GS, CVTI’s Community Engagement Assistant, and R.J. Jenkins, CVTI’s Director of Education. Both Goodfield and Jenkins led sessions at SVA NatCon that drew on their unique personal experiences.
A US Navy veteran, Goodfield is a longtime student leader at Columbia, first as an undergraduate at GS, and now as a master’s student at the Columbia School of Social Work (CSSW). Being a veteran student at two distinct Columbia schools has given Goodfield unique insights. “After I transitioned away from GS into CSSW, away from a large veteran community and leaving a team like GS’s Deans and Administrators,” she shared, “it was an ‘aha’ moment—seeing the contrast between an environment that understood how to engage with a veteran transitioning and one that had room to improve on this.” In her role at CVTI, Goodfield decided to tackle this issue head on. “I made it my mission to get as many other partners [as possible] from other schools across campus to join the Columbia University Military Student and Veteran Partnership,” she said, “and to also inform on the women veteran identity and reshape narratives on who we are.”
“After I transitioned away from GS into CSSW, away from a large veteran community and leaving a team like GS’s Deans and Administrators, it was an ‘aha’ moment—seeing the contrast between an environment that understood how to engage with a veteran transitioning and one that had room to improve on this.”
Advocating for women veterans was center stage at Goodfield’s presentation at SVA NatCon, which focused on gender equity in leadership. Goodfield is the founder and president of Women Veterans of Columbia University (WVCU), and initially intended “to speak about how the first women student veteran chapter in the nation came to be, despite the seemingly negative sentiment it received before it was officially recognized.” However, Goodfield’s session evolved to speak more broadly about the unique challenges women veterans face and the critical nature of their contributions within academia, the professional sphere, and veteran communities at large. “Women veterans belong to so many different identities that universities lifting us up ultimately lifts those who identify with us as well,” she said. “It not only creates change for us, but for all veterans and universities.”
As a civilian working in veteran spaces, Jenkins brings a different yet equally invaluable perspective to his advocacy work. This was the focus of one of his sessions at SVA NatCon, “The Ultimate Imposter Syndrome,” co-led with Betsy Montañez of the New School. As Jenkins shared, the workshop focused on the need to “stop apologizing for and start owning our civilian-ness as we engage in the critical work of veteran advocacy, and what strategies we have used to connect with our student veterans in an authentic, trust-building way.” Added Jenkins, “the response to the session has been really humbling. It turns out a lot of folks were hungry for this message.”
“Watching our student veterans enrich the Columbia classroom has taught us some really valuable lessons, and our job—and privilege!—is to use that learning to improve the lives and experiences of veterans, transitioning service members, and their families at Columbia and beyond.”
Reflecting on the SVA experience as a whole, Jenkins said, “this year was an extra special NatCon for CVTI as we were honored to receive the 2024 William Pearson Tolley Champion for Veterans in Higher Education Award.” He continued, “While we appreciate —and are deeply humbled by—this acknowledgement, we understand that our work is both inspired and made possible by our own incredible veteran community right here at Columbia. Watching our student veterans enrich the Columbia classroom has taught us some really valuable lessons, and our job—and privilege!—is to use that learning to improve the lives and experiences of veterans, transitioning service members, and their families at Columbia and beyond.”
Please visit the CVTI website to see our extended interviews with Ebonnie Goodfield and R.J. Jenkins!