6 minute read
The COMMIT Foundation Difference CDR Scott Walgren, USN (Ret
The COMMIT Foundation Difference
By CDR Scott Walgren, USN (Ret.)
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The professional journey for Navy pilots and aircrew is pretty standard. From day one, we know the learning objectives, standards of performance, and measurements of success. We’re provided a NATOPS syllabus, a tactical syllabus, and a road map for the duration of our career. We’re guided to meet specific gates and screen boards, informed by trusted leaders, peers, and detailers. The path is specific, predictable, and linear. For 10, 20, sometimes 30 years, we know where to be and how to succeed.
We’re conditioned to look toward our next set of orders early and often, hopeful of getting through the uncertainty and discomfort of the process as quickly as possible. Knowing what’s next makes life easier. Deciding to buy or rent, planning for kids’ schooling, supporting our spouse or partner's career, scheduling the PCS, and writing the elusive turnover binder are patterns repeated throughout our naval career. That is, until the time comes to hang up the uniform. And that time arrives for everyone. Everyone. Some earlier than others, but at some point we all transition. What then?
During this transition, some of these cultural perspectives and learned behaviors create obstacles. The same behaviors which generated success over a military career can actually work against us in transition. The tendency to race through uncertainty, create and complete checklists, seek out perspectives from others with remarkably similar backgrounds, while informed by DoD’s one-size-fits-all approach to transition support, all work against high performing, high achieving military professionals. Combine this reality with the acknowledgment that we’ve never needed a resume, never interviewed for a job, never negotiated a compensation package, and confidence naturally begins to erode. The fact is few of us have been remotely curious about career paths outside of our narrow aviation profession. With all this, how does someone even begin to imagine the realm of what’s possible?
I’d like to offer one solution to the transition challenge, through an organization I joined following my own 20 year career flying Navy helicopters. Since my retirement in 2018, I’ve been honored to lead the programmatic efforts of The COMMIT Foundation, which I know to be the best veteran transition program in the country. The opportunity to bring together two groups that I love, Navy rotary wing professionals and The COMMIT Foundation is humbling and exciting.
At COMMIT, we tackle the very obstacles described above, offering a highly individualized approach to transition. We’re singularly focused on helping exceptional American service members and veterans transition into successful roles and careers postservice, ensuring you find purpose and meaning, both personally and professionally after the military. We start by encouraging a pause in your bias for action, long enough to ask tough questions about who you want to be after the military. We want you to truly understand, envision, and believe in the life you want to build, and we support that effort through an uncompromising standard of high-touch, high-impact programming.
Professional interests which were commonly aligned during active duty service become radically divergent when leaving the military, so COMMIT invests time and resources in each person to address specific challenges with a personalized approach. We explore values, skills, and life design fundamentals to identify your individual sources of purpose and meaning. The effort builds self-awareness and results in a more intentional, focused, deliberate, and holistic transition. Stated another way, we help to develop a strategic vision first, grounded in identity and selfawareness, after which you design the tactical implementation of the plan while being supported by the COMMIT Team . It’s easier (and completely natural) to address tactical-level challenges first, but without knowing what you really want, tactical steps don’t help. There’s no right or wrong in the life you design, only intentional or unintentional decisions. This is the COMMIT difference.
Our transition services include an individually tailored, layered delivery of One-on-One Transition Assistance Services and Transition Mentoring Workshops all supported by a tremendous collection of professionals who recognize the value and contribution you offer post-service.
CAPT Mike Dowling,USN (Ret.) participating in a recent COMMIT Workshop.
Our One-on-One Transition Assistance Program first identifies exactly where an individual is in their transition journey, helping to determine what lives they want to live post-service, and connecting them with people who can help make the life they’ve designed a reality. Services include executive coaching, career counseling, professional resume writing, scholarships for skills training/degree programs, and interview preparation. In addition, we facilitate introductions to industry leaders who align with their interests. Through our network of board members, staff, mentors, and program alumni, we make connections in a manner no other organization can replicate.
We offer access to our digital platform known as Pursue Your Purpose. It explores individual transition priorities framed by personal values, strengths, and constraints. The effort is supported by five sessions with an executive coach, who helps to more fully define personal and professional opportunities and create new levels of self-awareness.
Our Transition Mentoring Workshops are based on concepts similar to one-on-one assistance. Those who attend are provided a two-day immersive experience to share in conversations and thought exercises alongside peers. They also have an opportunity to engage with a group of successful public and private sector leaders from various industries, some of whom are veterans.
Katy Stanfill, clinical psychologist and executive coach who flew H-46s during her Navy career speaks during a Mentoring Workshop
All individuals receiving services have access to our Digital Library, an online collection of resources pertaining to subjects transitioning veterans find critical or challenging. The library is “living” and continuously evolves as COMMIT uses data analytics and surveys to expand and introduce new subjects our veterans would benefit from most.
Our services are provided at no cost to transitioning service members and veterans, but there is an expectation. We expect those accepted into our programs to invest fully in the process. Big life questions shouldn’t be easy to answer, and we ask a lot of them. What’s going to make you happy? What’s going to make your family happy? What’s holding you back from pursuing exactly what you want? You deserve to thrive, and figuring out the formula to make that happen deserves time and attention. Applications are invited without regard to commissioning status or rank.
The privilege of being a part of the HSC, HSM, and HM Communities for any period of time should be celebrated and treasured. It’s an honor very few people in our nation ever experience, framed by purpose, professionalism, camaraderie, and pride. The decision to leave is rarely easy, and often approached with a sense of uncertainty, disorientation, and fear. Imagine the opportunity to design a post-Navy life that is just as fulfilling, just as purposeful, and of which you can be just as proud. That’s an uncommon perspective for anyone leaving the rotary wing community, let alone the military, and it should absolutely be the standard. The skills and talents honed over a military career uniquely position us to contribute powerfully to whatever endeavor we choose. That’s the perspective and promise The COMMIT Foundation offers. It requires work. It demands answers to hard questions. And the end result is a life filled with purpose and meaning which each and every one of us deserve.
CDR Scott Walgren, USN (Ret.) is the Chief Programs Officer for the COMMIT Foundation
