Veterans Day, celebrated this year on Tuesday, Nov. 11 is a time to honor the American soldiers who deserve endless respect and gratitude for the service they provide that keeps our rights intact and our country safe. Even when citizens disagree with the motives of war, they still support the troops without hesitation.
When these soldiers return from war, most agree that this support should continue during the often-difficult transition from active service to whatever their next step in their life is. Many veterans choose to get their college degrees after returning from war. This transition from the rigid, uniformed environment that is military life to a laid back, individualistic environment that is college is hard for some to make.
Veterans who come to Longwood now have an organization that can help with this transition.
Longwood Student Veterans (LSV) was created in September by current student and Marine veteran Greg Serwo. According to their Web site, the group "serves to provide much-needed transitional information and a peer-to-peer network for veterans who are attending or planning to attend Longwood University as well as coordinate campus activities, advocate for student veterans' concerns regarding policy, promote pre-professional networking, and generally provide a touchstone for student veterans pursuing higher education at Longwood."
"Early estimates indicates that 45-50 students are veterans here at Longwood," according to an LU press release. The group gives Longwood student veterans the opportunity to recognize and support each other in an environment where they can get together and receive the services they might need that other students don't. Equally as important, the student body can better understand that there are veterans among them. It is easy to get lulled into the sense that everyone on campus is a "typical college student" when in fact there are some who have seen things that most can't imagine.
Susan Stinson, an adjunct professor of English and one of the LSV faculty advisers explained in a press release some of the difficulties student veterans might incur: "Their concerns are often different from those of their classmates. For example, Longwood freshmen are not allowed to have cars. So if you're a veteran, how do you get to the VA office in Charlottesville, Roanoke or Richmond? Also, one veteran said he was having a hard time concentrating because he was used to a different environment."
On Nov. 11, LSV hosted an event entitled, "From Combat to College and Beyond." One of the guest speakers was Martha Mead, who is the Special Projects Coordinator for the Virginia Wounded Warrior Program, VDVS. This program has been assisting the LSV in organizing support for veterans who might have stress-related issues.
"We are establishing a number of conferences and training seminars across the commonwealth, [with] the scope of our program determining our needs. Before March 2009 we will be distributing at least $1 million in community resources through the local community services board for expanding health care treatment as well as treatment for substance abuse," Mead said of her program.
According to Mead, there are other states that have similar programs but there is not a specific model to duplicate. "We need to learn what the needs are for the young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan . We need to learn basically how to reach out to them so we can provide the services they need. We certainly don't want to duplicate anything that is already available from the Veterans Healthcare Administration or from the Department of Defense," Mead said.
Stinson summed up the program, saying, "This is a good opportunity for Longwood. Regardless of politics, these are our students, members of our community, and they have specific needs that we can meet. It's important to identify these veterans and just say 'Welcome home' and to identify their spouses and dependents and say 'This community can assist you.' It's a personal issue, a college issue and a community issue."
For more information about Longwood Student Veterans visit their Web sites at http://www.longwoodstudentveterans.org
