In the next few years, Alkek One will feature an immersive gallery space full of narratives, interview transcripts, audio and visual materials of 50 historically underrepresented (HUR) veterans.
University Libraries and the School of Social Work received a $344,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. Katherine Selber, a School of Social Work professor, and Kelly Clary, a School of Social Work assistant professor, act as the principal investigators of the grant, while University Libraries are key personnel. Both parties will spend a year collecting and organizing the stories of the veterans buried in Veterans Affairs-funded cemeteries in Central Texas, Killeen and Corpus Christi.
The idea stemmed from Khoi Nguyen, an emerging technology supervisor, who spent his professional life elevating the stories of the underrepresented such as members of the Civil Rights Movement and the LGBTQ Movement. As a boat refugee coming to the U.S. from Vietnam, he wanted to find out who laid the foundations for his rights, which led him to the veterans and their sacrifice.
“[University Libraries and the School of Social Work] owe it to their family to never have what they contribute forgotten, and especially connecting with the younger generation to that generation to show them that we care,” Nguyen said. “We care deeply, and it’s important for us to do what we can to preserve the stories.”
John Kelley, the Veterans Land board director, introduced the grant to Nguyen in 2022. Nguyen brought the idea to Andrew Rechnitz, the technology engagement director, who approved it. Rechnitz recalled how deeply invested Nguyen was with veterans and could relate to his personal story.
“Everybody is connected in some way or another to a veteran,” Rechnitz said. “One of the great things about this focus is in a fairly politically divided country, this is something that cuts across the aisle and that everybody can get invested involved in.”
Kristin Van Diest, the head of special collections and archives, later joined the project when she was the digital publishing librarian. She resonated with the mission because she had a personal history with veterans. Van Diest wanted to make sure students with veteran or military connections have a place to share their stories with someone who recognizes what they went through.
“I want to support finding a home for these stories and being involved in that process,” Van Diest said.
Many community events will bring awareness to the project. Van Diest helped build an open educational resource to teach students and teachers how to conduct these interviews. Heriberto Arambula, a combat veteran and Texas State alumnus, acted as the liaison to the veteran communities.
While there will be best practices for conducting interviews, Nguyen said the most important practice is to give students the skill sets and educators needed to deal with being sensitive and knowledgeable. A significant part of the process is recruiting and training student veterans to conduct interviews with family members of the buried veterans.
“We’re also providing that sort of safety to the families,” Van Diest said. “While they’re having those conversations, the interviewer often should have some understanding of what they might have gone through.”
After collecting the interview materials, next year a summer institute will train teachers in the area on how to use them. The grant requires the curated stories to be included in the Veteran Legacy Memorial, an online repository for millions of veterans. While the library will consist of an oral history collection and interview instructions in its archives, it also plans an immersive exhibition to display some of the stories in 2027 by renovating its old TV studios.
Though the grant will last one year, the project is expected to expand past the initial 50 HUR veteran stories.
“Our mission is to be an open and inviting university initiative to get stories from veterans and their families, so I will imagine it will continue way long after the grant’s over,” Nguyen said.
