Oklahoma State University Opens Veteran Success Center
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Peer Advisors for Veteran Education (PAVE) program at OSU and NOC. The offices are also utilized by counselors from the Vet Center in Tulsa, who provide reintegration counseling to combat veterans at OSU and in the community, and by veteran service officers with Disabled American Veterans and veteran service representatives with the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, who both help veterans and their families file benefit claims. “Veteran students are the most nontraditional of nontraditional students,” Hansen says. “Not only are they older, but most have families, and a majority of them work to support their families. They have often experienced things in their lives that most of us cannot understand. This group of individuals has proven themselves in some of the most difficult situations a person can encounter, and they have developed strengths and leadership beyond their years.” Casey Patterson, president of the OSU Student Veterans Organization, says she didn’t know anyone when she moved to Stillwater after serving four years in the U.S. Marine Corps. The clinical psychology student started college in California, and says OSU’s Veteran Success Center offers “a place where you have something in common.” Steven Moody joined the United States Director of Transfer and Veteran Navy out of high school in Alvarado, Academic Services Amy Cole-Smith, right, Texas, “to get out of town.” Now he is and Veteran Student Academic Services studying accounting and aspires to be a Coordinator Rick Hansen presented OSU CPA, but sometimes he finds “I’m older Challenge Coins to OSU President Burns than my teachers.” After serving on a Hargis, left, along with members of the submarine, he says he has a different life OSU/A&M Board of Regents. The coins perspective than many of his classmates so are given to veterans and other individu“it’s great to connect with other veterans at als who have supported student veterans the center.” in their educational goals. University “Everyone here makes you feel wanted Marketing Senior Graphic Designer at the university,” Moody says. And Paul Fleming, a Navy veteran, designed that’s a goal of PAVE representative Zane the coins. he new Veteran Success Center provides a space for the veteran and other military-affiliated students at both OSU and Northern Oklahoma College to study or just gather and share information and experiences. “The center allows veterans to talk candidly amongst themselves as they make the transition from the military to student life,” says retired United States Marine Corps Captain Rick Hansen, Veteran Student Academic Services coordinator. The primary task of the Veteran Student Academic Services office is to coordinate with campus, community, state and federal organizations to provide services to more than 850 veterans and military-affiliated students at OSU. Offices on the third floor of the North Classroom Building provide space for student veterans who administer the
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Purple Heart University
Oklahoma State University is the first Purple Heart University in Oklahoma and the 25th nationally. The Military Order of the Purple Heart approached OSU in June of 2016 with the desire to recognize the university for OSU’s long affiliation with the military and continued support of veteran and military-affiliated students on campus and the ROTC programs at OSU.
Lovelace, who says awareness of veterans’ needs is critical. Lovelace, who is studying philosophy, says the battlefield and military service in general offer a very different world than the one student veterans find on the OSU campus, and that often makes their transition to college life challenging. Retention is key to veteran student’s future success. An emergency fund has been established to help student veterans get through education-ending situations. Donations to the emergency fund may be used to cover several types of expenses, including Veterans Administration funding shortages, assistance with rent and utilities, child care costs, unexpected personal or dependent medical problems, as well as groceries and fuel. Donations of any amount are accepted at osugiving.com/veterans. For more information, contact Rick Hansen by emailing richard.hansen@okstate.edu or calling 405-744-1390.