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As the 2020 Mensa Foundation Distinguished Teacher of the Year, Kenneth Walters, associate professor of psychology, shares a commitment to education, research, and mentorship.

Since its inception, the Mensa Foundation Distinguished Teacher Award has been presented to only three college professors, including Southern's Ken Walters (left). He was nominated by senior and Mensa member Paul McKee (right), who one day plans to work as a college professor.

Having served with the United States Marine Corps Infantry from 2013 – 2018, senior psychology major Paul McKee brought extensive life experience to Southern. But as a first-generation college student starting college classes mere weeks after completing active duty, McKee was also a higher education novice. A common thread of advice — “Get involved in faculty-directed research!” — led him to the office of Kenneth S. Walters, associate professor of psychology.

It was a wise move. Walters, a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist, joined Southern in 2009, relaunching his higher education career after focusing on his clinical practice for about 10 years. His research focuses include psychopathology as well as substance use and abuse among college students. In recent years, he and his students have studied depression, traumatic stress, suicidality (thoughts about taking one’s life,  suicide plans and attempts), and the non-medical use of stimulants and opioids among college students.

At Southern, Walters has mentored 45 students on his research team with impressive results. They’ve published nine papers in scientific and professional journals, delivered 12 oral presentations, and presented 76 posters at scientific conferences. Thirty-nine of Walters’ former student researchers have graduated to date — and all have been admitted to competitive graduate training programs.

The professor recruits six to nine research assistants a year, typically academically strong upperclassmen. So, it was unexpected when McKee, then a first-year Southern student, asked to join Walters’ research team. McKee’s nontraditional student background complicated matters. He did not have SAT scores or a college transcript showcasing past grades. “He did present me with a Mensa [high IQ society] membership card and an excellent writing sample. . . . I found him to be intelligent, personable, and highly determined to succeed,” says Walters.

About 300 Southern students with connections to the military are attending Southern during the fall 2020 semester, including 245 veterans, 35 National Guard/Reservists, and 20 dependents.  As a fellow veteran, Walters understands some of the challenges these students might face.

From 1987 to 1991, Walters served with the U.S. Armed Forces as an Army Ranger in the 82nd Airborne Division, and was part of the initial Operation Desert Shield campaign to liberate Kuwait. He started college in 1991 — like McKee, just weeks after his active duty ended. “To make that transition in such a short time can be challenging,” says Walters.

Kenneth Walters

Walters also knew what it was like to be a first-generation college student. “I came from a background in which higher education was neither expected nor the norm. . . . Overcoming disadvantage and humble beginnings is a commonly shared theme between me and my students,” says the professor.

Walters gave McKee a chance — and has never looked back. “He is now the lab manager for my research team, putting to good use his notable leadership skills,” he says of McKee, who is on track to graduate this spring and is applying to doctoral programs in behavioral neuroscience. “He is an extraordinarily talented young man. I have only the highest hopes for his future,” says his professor.

McKee has equally high regard for Walters — and nominated him for the Mensa Foundation 2020 Distinguished Teacher Award. The award recognizes a teacher, professor, or instructor at any educational level who has had an especially positive influence on the education or life of a Mensa member. Walters won the national honor — and is one of only three higher education faculty members to receive the award since its inception.

Membership in Mensa is highly selective. To join, you must score in the top two percent of the general population on an accepted standardized intelligence test. In the U.S., members range in age from 2 to 106 years, and include engineers, homemakers, chief executive officers, students, and more  — an almost infinite array of people all sharing one trait: high intelligence.

“The Mensa Foundation is honored to recognize Dr. Walters, whose research and instructional approach exemplifies the foundation’s mission to use intelligence to benefit humanity,” says Marie Mayer, president of the Mensa Foundation.

The organization’s commitment to the community is not lost on McKee.  Looking forward, he plans to follow in his mentor’s footsteps and become a university faculty member, inspired, he says, by Walters and others in the Department of Psychology.  “Although this list is not exhaustive, Dr. Michael Nizhnikov, Dr. Christopher Budnick, and Dr. W. Jerome Hauselt are among the most committed, stimulating, and integrous people that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting,” says McKee.

He continues: “Of course, the nomination was for Dr. Walters, who embodies all that is desired in a mentor, educator, and friend. There is none more deserving of this recognition than him. He has spent his life in service of others, first in the United States Army, then as clinical psychologist, and now as a professor. It was fantastic news to hear about his winning. Dr. Walters deserves every second of this.”

Students who are also veterans enjoy the services and camaraderie of the campus Veterans Center.

If you talk to veterans who use the Veterans Center at Southern about what brings them back day after day, it’s not amenities such as the large flat screen television or the comfortable sectional couches. Sure, those are nice, but what really makes the space is the people who congregate there.

“In the military it’s all about the camaraderie and the support you give each other as soldiers,” Veterans Center Director Jack Mordente, U.S. Army, says. “When vets get done with service, they either go to work or they go to school. If they go to school they maintain the camaraderie. They tell stories and joke with each other. It’s all about support.”

These days, more and more veterans are in search of support in higher education. Colleges have seen an increase in enrollment of veterans thanks to the conclusion of close to a decade of involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to Department of Veterans Affairs, in 2013 more than a million student veterans were using their GI benefits to pursue advanced educational opportunities; that number was estimated to increase by 20 percent in just a few years. At Southern, approximately 300 veterans are enrolled (that includes veterans, National Guard, Reservists, and dependents).

Staffed by Mordente and work-study students who are also veterans, the Veterans’ Center is open 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. There’s a lounge, a refrigerator, a microwave, a separate computer lab, and ample space to study, network, watch movies, or simply to develop friendships.

“We get about 35 to 40 vets using it a day,” Mordente says.

Lliam West is one of them. A junior at Southern, he is thinking that after he graduates he’d like to go on to Officer Candidate School, or OCS, the U.S. Army’s main training academy for prospective army officers. Candidates who successfully complete the intense, 12-week OCS receive commissions as U.S. Army officers and assume the ability to command soldiers.

While Southern has been a good fit for West because he had friends who had also enrolled and because it was close to his hometown of Milford, he still struggled to create friendships. He found his niche at the center; in fact, you can find him there “every day, between classes.”

“We all get along,” West says. “There’s a lot of debate and discussion, and people can feel free to be themselves. I come here every day. My friends are here.”

Each public college in Connecticut has a veterans center, though it’s commonly called an OASIS (Operation Academic Support for Incoming Service Members). Among Connecticut’s community colleges and state universities — Central, Eastern and Western — Southern’s center is the largest. Years ago, a women’s group heard about Southern’ s Veterans’ Center. Using it as a model, they provided funding, furniture, and assistance at the other state schools. All the schools had to do was provide the space. Mordente, who has been involved with veteran’s services at Southern since 1975, understands the connotation of an OASIS but states he’s a “’60’s” guy who prefers the more casual Veterans Center. Whatever name you call it, it leaves a lasting impression.

“I get feedback from students who transfer here that it’s head and shoulders above the rest,” Mordente says. “Vets see our center and say, ‘This is incredible.’ Veterans meet each other, they socialize, talk about their military experience with each other, then academic discussions happen. There’s talk about different courses and professors. It’s the kind of thing where they stop in between classes and keep coming back. Or vets are in classes with each other, and they’ll talk about the center and sometimes there will be a vet who hasn’t been using it, and they will” [based on someone’s recommendation].

Veterans Center Director Jack Mordente speaks at a campus Veterans Day event.

In addition to the Center, veterans can make use of other services offered through the Veterans Office, such as guidance, advisement, GI Bill and Connecticut War Veterans and National Guard Tuition Waiver Certifications support. The office acts as a liaison with local, state, and federal agencies. Also, in coordination with Southern’s Academic Success Center, veterans can receive tutoring help from other veterans at the center.

Mordente finds that the connections made at the center are so strong that if a veteran is deployed or graduates from Southern, his or her relationship with the center goes on.

“There’s an incredible wall outside the center with photographs of war-deployed Southern students, pictures of vets in the center, of Veterans’ Day ceremonies and other activities,” Mordente says. “It’s the first thing you see when you come to the center, and it’s pretty special.” It was enough to draw in Lily, who recently transferred to Southern. She was looking for a quiet spot away from the crowds, where she could blend in, and she found it here.

“All of us appreciate it,” she said. “It’s a place where we all come and find someone who will understand us.”

Working as a therapist near a Seattle-area military base, Sebastian Perumbilly saw many post-9/11 veterans struggling to readjust to civilian life. Traumatized by their combat experiences, they often complained of nightmares, insomnia and depression. Some self-medicated with alcohol or illegal drugs.

At the time, Perumbilly treated them for post-traumatic stress disorder, like most clinicians would have back in 2010. But today he believes some may have been suffering from a different post-combat condition: “moral injury.”

Recognized by clinicians only recently, “moral injury” occurs when soldiers do or witness something in combat that violates their own values or society’s moral code. While many symptoms overlap with PTSD, veterans suffering from “moral injury” also experience deep feelings of shame, guilt and remorse.

“A part of you dies. That’s what these veterans tell us,” said Perumbilly, now assistant professor of marriage and family therapy at Southern. “They don’t want to do certain things, but they are forced to,” causing a crisis of conscience. He said traditional mental health tools, such as psychotherapy and medication, do not heal these deeper wounds.

Perumbilly recalls one post-9/11 veteran he met in Seattle who complained of devastating nightmares. The veteran was haunted by memories of running over three Iraqi children who formed a human barricade in front of his military vehicle, blocking its path.

“He killed all three of them, but at the same time he had three kids back home almost the same age – 11, 9 and 7,” Perumbilly recalled. “He said each time he went to sleep, these kids were screaming in his head.”

He now cites the veteran as a textbook example of moral injury. Even though he was trained to act the way he did based on the military’s rules of engagement, Perumbilly said, he felt enormous guilt as a father and human being.

“While you are in combat, the rules of engagement are different (from the rules of society).When you are out in the field, you don’t know what’s waiting for you. You have to kill or be killed,” Perumbilly said. “But still it affects you when you come back.”

Perumbilly first learned about moral injury while looking into the high rate of suicide among post-9/11 veterans. An estimated 20 veterans per day die by suicide in the U.S., according to a 2014 study by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Working under a grant with Valerie Dripchak, professor of social work at Southern, he set out to learn more about the phenomenon. His research led him to Edward Tick, Ph.D., one of the nation’s leading experts on moral injury and founder of Soldier’s Heart, a program that promotes “spiritual and holistic” healing.

Last November and December, Perumbilly spent two weeks in Vietnam with Tick and a group of Vietnam veterans on a “reconciliation journey.” The idea was to return to the place where the injury occurred so the soldiers, now in their 60s and 70s, could make peace with their past. Two post-9/11 veterans also made the trip.

One veteran wanted to go back to the Mekong Delta, where he recalled killing “anything that moved” in a firefight. Another, a Mennonite gardener, told how he was ordered to drive a truck through a rice paddy in an act of destruction, over the cries of Vietnamese women and children.

“We went back to the same exact spot. He removed his shoes and walked through the rice paddy,” said Perumbilly, who was there as an observer and researcher. “It was a very powerful, deeply spiritual, moving experience.”

The vets also met with former Viet Cong soldiers, and were surprised – and relieved– at the welcome they received and to learn the country has moved on.  Perumbilly has kept in touch with the veterans, who told him the trip did more for them than decades of treatment for PTSD. He hopes to share the lessons he learned with the future therapists he teaches at Southern.

“The conventional wisdom we have in psychology and mental health is not sufficient to treat this population,” he said. “They’re in a different world.”

 

 

While the heartwarming images of soldiers happily returning home into the loving arms of their families after years of service are ingrained in the American consciousness, the transition back to civilian life is often filled with unanticipated challenges.

The integration back into society – family life, the workplace, school – can be a bit of a bumpy road, especially for those who have been away for many years. It is even more difficult for those veterans who must contend with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as those suffering from depression, anxiety, and even thoughts of suicide.

As part of an effort to assist in this transition, the Family Clinic at Southern has created a program called, “A Soldier’s Home Project.” It involves free therapy services to active duty soldiers, veterans and their families. A range of services are available, including those focusing on healthy living after and during deployment, relationship building, PTSD, parenting during and after deployment, mindful living, emotional regulation, anxiety, suicide prevention, and grief and loss. Family members may participate in services even if their soldier is deployed or cannot attend. Group and individual sessions are available.

“Our soldiers and veterans have given so much to their country, and this is one way in which we can help them,” said Julie Liefeld, clinic director. “And we also want to assist families who are affected, as well.”

Liefeld, who also serves as director of the SCSU Marriage and Family Therapy program, said that PTSD is not unusual among those who have served in the military, especially in combat. Certain triggers – which vary from person to person – can spark a PTSD incident. She said that in some individuals, it can be the skidding sound of wheels while driving, or a truck that jackknifes and mimics a gunshot sound. In others, it might be a certain smell, or even the sight of garbage on the road.

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The limbic system, a part of the brain that regulates the fight-or-flight function, is responsible for an individual remembering certain sounds, sights or actions and translating them into danger signals, Liefeld explained.
She also said that while soldiers who are deployed are hypervigilant out of necessity, it takes time to adjust to the more laid back civilian lifestyle. “It’s not like flipping a switch in which people can just turn it off right away, especially for veterans who were deployed for a long period of time,” Liefeld said.

“We even see it in the classroom,” she said. “For example, some veterans want to make sure their backs are not to the door.”

She said that even if being hypervigilant does not create an immediate problem, it can lead to depression when sustained for too long.

Liefeld has worked on establishing this new program with Jack Mordente, SCSU’s coordinator of veterans’ and military affairs.

“Veterans are never going to forget their experience, but this program will help them come to terms with it,” said Mordente, a veteran who served during the Vietnam War era. “It will give them and/or their families another form of support.”

Mordente stressed that the lives of spouses and children of veterans also are affected by deployment and returning from combat. “The dynamics of family life change, so it’s an adjustment for them, too,” he said. “The Family Clinic here at Southern wants to reach out to the families, as well, and that’s very important.”
The Family Clinic is staffed by faculty in the SCSU Marriage and Family Therapy program, as well as many advanced graduate students.

SCSU also offers a variety of services for veterans, including a Drop-In Center, and the university Veterans’ Association.

(For further information about the “A Soldier’s Home Clinic” program, or to make an appointment, call the clinic at 203-392-6413.)

© 2016 Southern Connecticut State University.