Air Force ROTC Lt. Col. Mike Connelly, center, and Capt. Todd Jagodzinski talk with retired Army and Air Force veteran Robert Henicky Wednesday evening in Bessey Hall for the MSU Student Veterans and Service Members Welcome Reception.
After being released from six years of service in the Navy this June, going back to college wasn’t on the top of Patrick Powers’ to-do list. But when he started weighing the benefits of the new post-9/11 GI bill that went into effect last year, he realized he couldn’t turn down the opportunity.
“It’s a great program,” said Powers, an electrical engineering senior.
“They give compensation for the highest in-state (public university) tuition and a housing stipend, as long as you’re a full-time student.”
Powers is one of a growing number of student veterans on campus, said John Pedraza, disability resource coordinator for employees and psychiatric disability specialist at the Resource Center of Persons with Disabilities.
The center held a Student Veterans and Service Members Welcome Reception on Wednesday at Bessey Hall.
Pedraza estimated 25 to 30 student veterans would attend.
“We wanted to have an event to thank and welcome student veterans and the student veteran population here at MSU,” Pedraza said.
“They’ve done so much to serve our country and it’s just a small way of recognizing all of that, that sacrifice to help all of us.”
Pedraza said there are at least 200 student veterans on campus, many of whom need assistance segueing from the military to college.
Representatives from the Office of Financial Aid, Counseling Center and Office of Study Abroad, among others, were invited to the event, he said.
“Now that we’ve been to two wars in the past seven years or so, these are young men and women who have seen things your typical college student doesn’t see or live through — battle, all things related to being deployed as service members,” Pedraza said.
“They have unique needs transitioning to being a college student and the typical college student life.”
Dave Locher, president of the Spartan Armed Forces Council and MSU chapter of the Student Veterans of America, said the groups serve as a welcoming committee for student veterans entering college.
“We give help with aid, getting into classes and helping create that social network and comfort zone,” Locher said.
The groups hold community service opportunities and social events such as fishing trips to help veterans connect, he said.
“Since the new GI bill came out, more people are attending school,” Locher said.
Powers graduated from MSU with a bachelor’s degree in telecommunication, information studies and media in 2003 and said coming back to school was a different experience after serving in the military. Expectations are a little different in the service, he said.
“Here, there’s more freedom as far as getting to class on time and things like that,” Powers said. “There’s more order and accountability in the Navy.”
Powers, who served on the USS Michigan for four years, said he’s benefitting from the discipline he acquired in the Navy as he works toward his second degree.
The GI bill gave him the pick of attending any public university across the country, but he was happy to choose MSU, he said.
“It’s good to be back,” Powers said. “I bleed green.”
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