SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sentinels of Freedom Scholarship Foundation (Sentinels) is partnering with local organizations to fund on-campus Student Veterans’ Resource Centers (Resource Centers) at colleges and universities around the country. Partnerships include Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and building giant Lennar Urban, as well as several other local organizations. Dahlin Group, Engeo, Anvil Builders and HomeAid have also volunteered their architectural and building services. The Resource Centers will provide a safe space for veterans to support one another as they transition from military service to civilian life into higher education and their career goals.
To meet the growing demand of the more than one million veterans receiving education benefits through Veterans Affairs, campuses are being called on to meet the needs of this population. Everyday veterans walk onto college campuses across America, but a support system is necessary for them to excel.
Sentinels scholarship recipient Brian Vargas recently shared, “Transitioning from a war zone to a college campus is extremely difficult. When I first started, I would show up on campus, not talk to anyone and go home. It wasn’t until I found a group of other veterans and started the veteran’s organization at my community college that I started to feel like I belonged and could acclimate to my new college life. There are unfortunately many veterans across the country that are still facing challenges on campuses, and I hope they can find a similar organization and place to feel like they belong.”
These Centers allow veterans to get plugged into the greater veteran community. Resources will include quiet study areas, a library with textbooks, computers and printers, as well as common spaces to connect and build a sense of community.
San Francisco State University partnered with Sentinels of Freedom and PG&E to establish their resource center in 2012. The center serves more than 400 veterans that attend the university. Air Force veteran Eugene De Los Santos reflected on the project, “I think it’s great because it can feel uncomfortable transitioning to civilian life. It’s difficult, but this is a place on campus to connect with other veterans who have gone through the same thing.”
“California has the highest number of veterans of any state; our goal is to create a Student Veterans Resource Center on every campus. Assisting them as they transition home and start college or trade school is not only the right thing to do it is our undeniable responsibility to honor these veterans. It is for this reason that we have partnered with several local organizations and will be rolling out more centers in the near future,” Mike Conklin, Chairman of Sentinels of Freedom, recently remarked.
Sentinels and PG&E recently funded a Resource Center at Alameda Community College in Alameda, CA. This center will serve the 150 veterans who attend the campus and is expected to open in September 2015, with a ribbon-cutting in November.
Other future resource centers are in the Contra Costa Community College District; including one at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill CA, sponsored by Lennar Urban, Contra Costa College in San Pablo, CA, sponsored by Sentinels of Freedom and Anvil Construction and Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, CA, sponsored by PG&E. Sentinels of Freedom has raised 85% of the funds necessary to outfit the three new centers through its corporate and private partnerships. The project is now in the development phase and the Diablo Valley and Los Medanos centers are expected to be completed in 2015 and Contra Costa in 2016.
Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, which has a stellar reputation for taking care of their student veterans, also has a center opening fall 2015. Sentinels of Freedom currently has five scholarship recipients enrolled at Lipscomb and is helping to build this center that will service the more than 150 veterans on the campus and is named in honor of Charlie Daniel’s for his unwavering support of veterans.
#Sentinelsoffreedom #Studentveteranresourcecenters #PGE4me
