Yellow ribbons worn in honor of more than 1,000 peers
While students may be “Rockin’ the Garnet and Black” in honor of homecoming week, they might also do well to add a yellow ribbon in honor of their peers who have served their country.
Nov. 11 marks Veterans Day, and rather than pay a day of lip service to the men and women of the Armed Forces, a new position within the Student Success Center has organized a week-long campus initiative to raise awareness on behalf of USC’s returned military members.
This year’s trial run of “Veterans Week” is spearheaded by Coordinator of Transfer and Special Student Population Services Paul Millard, who noticed a need for improved outreach efforts to student veterans beyond GI bill financial assistance. According to the Office of Veterans Services, the population of student veterans on campus has more than doubled from around 500 in 2009 to more than 1000 today.
“With the end of the Iraq war and the depletion of troops in the Middle East, we’ve had a lot of military come back ready to receive their education in order to support themselves and their families,” Millard said. “While there’s a lot of money out there to aid student veterans, our job is also to help them transition and succeed to graduation.”
The week began with a screening of “Saving Private Ryan” Monday night and will continue with a diversity dialogue Thursday night, where student veterans will share their stories of active duty and the readjustment to student life.
The week will conclude on Nov. 11, Veterans Day, with an afternoon reception for veteran students and their families on the third floor of the Russell House.
Millard hopes that these events, plus the distribution of yellow-ribbon pins throughout the week, will remind students and faculty of sacrifices and struggles of returned military.
“We have a moral imperative to help all types of students, and veterans are a unique group with unique needs,” Millard said. “Most come from very tight-knit communities in the military, but once they leave they’re platoon or unit, they no longer have that same support group.”
The formation of such a support group is the second goal of Veterans Week. Since its foundation in 2008, Student Veterans of America, a national advocacy network for college veterans, has gained chapters at nearly 350 schools nationwide.
Millard and fourth-year sport and entertainment management student Duane Randall, a former member of the US Army honor guard, hope to gain enough signatures by the end of the week to begin an official chapter at USC by spring of 2012.
Both military and non-military students can sign a petition of interest at any of the Veterans week events and in the Veterans Services office on the third floor of the Russell House.
“I think most of us are able to adapt in the school system, but I do miss the camaraderie of the military ... and being around people with a similar purpose,” Randall said. “[An SVA chapter at USC] would give former soldiers a better chance to interact with one another. Ultimately, it would give a fairly large group of students here a greater sense of belonging to the university because it shows that the university cares about them and that they can voice their opinions.”