This Veteran’s Day week, the Student Veterans Association (SVA) is offering students and staff a chance to say thank you to the military community with their Salute to Service event on Greene Sreet.
The table, which will be open every day this week from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., allows anyone and everyone to come learn more about connecting with veterans who are now students. Those who come by the table can also help assemble care packages, sign thank-you cards and take pictures for social media to share along with Veteran’s Day posts.
Second-year public relations student Dani Goodreau, who serves as president of SVA and is herself a seven-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, explained that the week-long event offers a myriad of ways for students to show their appreciation.
“It’s a campaign to bridge the gap between regular students and student veterans,” Goodreau said. “So what we’ve done is — everyday we’ve had different things going on. We’ve had Thank a Veteran, our Instagram and ‘If you could say one thing to a veteran here at USC ... what would you say?’”
Despite the variety of ways to give back, Goodreau feels it all goes back to the organization’s central goal of supporting student veterans.
“What we want to do is show the university, 'Hey, we’re just like you.' We share the same interests, the same hobbies," Goodreau said. "We may be a little bit older and have gone a few different places than you, but we still want to learn from them (students). And we want them to learn from us."
First-year exercise science major Brooks Herring, who chairs SVA’s Professional Development Committee, is a six-year veteran of the US Navy and was an Army civilian for two years, shared similar sentiments.
“We want to spread the word, and we definitely want to get some thank-you cards and care packages out to our fellow service members,” he said.
Herring also noted that events like these help other student veterans find out about SVA and all it can offer them.
“We want to spread the word about the SVA to other veterans to let them know there is a place where they can come and associate with other veterans who understand,” Herring said. “It’s the same classes — the same school — same as everybody else, but it’s just a little bit different for us, and we want to make sure that all the veterans know that there’s a place where you can come.”