Belonging in Service: Voices of Women In and Beyond the Uniform is a 15-minute documentary centering the lived experiences of five women shaped by military service.
Through their own voices, they reflect on why they served, the expectations and realities of military life, transition, identity, resilience, community, and what it means to find belonging in and beyond the uniform.
Full Film Available Below.
Military service is not experienced in a single way.
Through first-person storytelling, Voices of Women In and Beyond the Uniform creates space for five women veterans to share their experiences in their own words.
Their stories explore motivations for joining, expectations of military life, leadership and personal growth, difficult and often underrepresented experiences, transition into civilian life, identity, resilience, and the importance of connection and community.
Rather than presenting a single definition of what it means to be a woman who served, the documentary honors the individuality of each experience while revealing themes that connect their stories.
Service shapes us. Belonging carries us forward.
At the heart of the documentary are five women veterans who shared their experiences and entrusted the project with their stories. Their service spans different generations and branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, bringing distinct perspectives to the film.
We are grateful to each of these women for sharing her experiences and allowing her story to become part of this documentary.
Belonging in Service: Voices of Women In and Beyond the Uniform grew from the 2025 Women's Military History Week Social and Panel Discussion, a collaborative effort between:
Pacific University Military & Veteran Services
Oregon Department of Veterans' Affairs — Women's Veteran Coordinator Office
Washington County Disability, Aging and Veteran Services
At the time, Denise Price-Giesbers, then Director of Transfer, Military and Veteran Services at Pacific University, was supervising a multimedia internship with Pacific University student Aaron Meeuwsen ’25. Aaron was producing short-form videos sharing the stories of transfer students.
The Women's Military History Week collaboration presented an opportunity to intentionally connect Aaron's academic preparation in film and video production with experiential learning and meaningful community storytelling. Women veterans attending the 2025 event were invited to volunteer to share their stories on camera. Aaron coordinated the participants and interviews, captured their stories, and began bringing their individual experiences together through documentary film. The vision was to return the following year with a completed film that could be shared during Women's Military History Week.
That idea became Belonging in Service: Voices of Women In and Beyond the Uniform.
The documentary provided Aaron with an opportunity to move beyond short-form video storytelling and apply his academic preparation in film and video production to a substantive documentary project created for a public audience.
As the sole student filmmaker, Aaron worked directly with the participating veterans, coordinating interviews, capturing their stories, and shaping the material into a cohesive documentary.
The experience brought together academic learning, documentary production, community engagement, and the responsibility of representing lived experiences shared by the women who participated.
Director & Producer | Multimedia Intern
Aaron served as Director and Producer of Belonging in Service: Voices of Women In and Beyond the Uniform. Through the internship, he applied his film and video production skills to an authentic community storytelling project from participant coordination and interviews through production of the completed documentary.
One year after the project began, Belonging in Service: Voices of Women In and Beyond the Uniform made its inaugural debut on March 16, 2026, during the 2026 Women's Military History Week Celebration at Pacific University.
The premiere brought the project full circle—from stories first gathered through the previous year's Women's Military History Week collaboration to a completed documentary shared with the community that helped inspire it. We were honored that 3 of the 5 Women were able to join us for this debut and to provide their insight into how telling their stories impacted them one year later.
Director & Producer
Aaron is a 2025 graduate of Pacific University whose academic work included film and video production. As Director and Producer, he coordinated participants and interviews and led the filmmaking process that transformed the women's individual experiences into the completed documentary.
His work on Voices of Women In and Beyond the Uniform grew from a multimedia internship into an applied documentary filmmaking experience centered on authentic storytelling and community engagement.
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Executive Producer & Project Lead
Denise conceived and led the project while serving as Director of Transfer, Military and Veteran Services at Pacific University.
She developed the project as an intentional intersection of military and veteran community engagement, collaborative partnership, storytelling, and student experiential learning. She provided overall project leadership, developed and supervised the internship experience, established the purpose and direction of the documentary, and led the project through its development and inaugural public presentation.
The documentary became the first film in the Belonging in Service Documentary Series, which Denise continues to lead through broader community collaboration and CMV Alliance.
CONNECT WITH DENISE ON LINKEDIN
The documentary grew from the collaboration surrounding the 2025 Women's Military History Week Social and Panel Discussion between:
Pacific University Military & Veteran Services
Oregon Department of Veterans' Affairs — Women's Veteran Coordinator Office
Washington County Disability, Aging and Veteran Services
Together, these relationships created the community connection and opportunity from which the documentary emerged.
What began through collaboration at Pacific University became the first film in the Belonging in Service Documentary Series.
Today, the series continues through broader community outreach and collaboration with CMV Alliance, creating new opportunities to elevate military-connected voices, build understanding, and strengthen connections through documentary storytelling.
EXPLORE THE BELONGING IN SERVICE DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Director & Producer | Aaron Meeuwsen ’25
Executive Producer & Project Lead | Denise Price-Giesbers
Runtime | 15 minutes
Inaugural Premiere
March 16, 2026
2026 Women's Military History Week Celebration
Pacific University
