Veteran support organisation Wandering Warriors and Melbourne Business School are launching a new scholarship to help returning soldiers transition back into civilian life.
The new Wandering Warriors Scholarship will give a former soldier an opportunity to study either a Full-time MBA or Part-Time MBA at Melbourne Business School.
Harry Moffitt, a recently-retired Special Air Service Team Commander, psychologist and the Victorian State Manager for Wandering Warriors, said veterans looking to transition into a civilian setting will reach their goal more successfully through education.
“I chose my own study pathway while I was still serving. I did 30 years with the Defence Force, and late in my career I studied psychology and I’m now a registered psychologist,” he said.
“I’m super-passionate about educating soldiers because I feel that education pathways like my own play a huge part in becoming and feeling successful in civilian life.
“The best way to transform is through education. I really feel like sometimes, with veterans, if we don’t help them transform out of a siloed existence in the military – an institutionalised existence – we’re missing out on a bit of nation-building.”
The Wandering Warriors Scholarship will be available to all Australian Defence Force soldiers looking to return or veterans who have already returned to civilian life. It will also help to demystify how life after military service works.
“When soldiers are looking to return, they’re in this transformation space where they’re no longer what they were and they’re not quite yet what they will be,” Harry says.
“The university experience is a nice way for them to build themselves up, build up resilience and expand their minds by completing studies they may never have encountered. This will give them somewhere to be and a way to develop their identity with purpose.
“The biggest benefit is that their transition or transformation into civilian life is almost seamless. In many cases, they go on to run their own businesses – we had one person who took up a senior executive role at Westpac; we’ve got people working on human trafficking overseas; we have women doing PhDs.”
For veterans who are looking to refocus their life after service, Harry says it’s best not to delay taking action.
“Embrace the fact that education builds the mental scaffolding to the future,” he says.
For more information or to apply, visit the Wandering Warriors Scholarship page.
