2023 Veterans Day Event Recording Transcript

This is John Dunlap. Once again, good afternoon. My name is John Dunlap. And I am the Chief Human Resources Officer at the UMass President's Office. Thank you all for joining today's event, which is being held in honor of Veterans Day. This event is sponsored by the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Team within the UMass President's Office. As the first order of business, on behalf of all employees in the UMass President's Office, I would like to express our gratitude to our colleagues who have served our country in the military.

They include Brian Burke and Joshua Stockwell in the Office of the General Counsel, John Dawson, in UITS, Samuel Burling in internal audit, Elijah Collins, who is a member of the Employee Services Team, and Nakarla Haughton an intern in UPST. Thank you all for your service. The purpose of today's presentation is to educate participants about the extremely important work that is taking place on our campuses to support veterans and their families.

Our distinguished panelists include Shelly Scott, the Associate Dean of Students at UMass Dartmouth, Dr. Janine Wert, Director of Veterans Services at UMass Lowell, and Lovelle Seymour, the Veterans Resources Center Coordinator at UMass Boston. Prior to turning the event over to our panelists, I would like to review a few event logistics. This event will be recorded and posted to our public facing site for future reference. Captions and a transcript are being provided by a certified real time captioner.

If you have any technical issues during the event, please send an individual direct message to John Dawson through Zoom. As with all DEIA events, this is a time to learn, share, and ask questions. After our three panelists have finished their presentation, we will invite you to ask questions. At that time, if you have questions, you may post a question via chat for everyone to see, use the Raise Hand feature in Zoom to ask a live question, or direct message John Dawson with an anonymous question.

It's now my pleasure to introduce our first panelist. Our first panelist is Shelly Scott. Shelly is the Associate Dean of Students at UMass Dartmouth with 30 years of experience working in higher education. An award winning educator and mentor, her work includes supporting and challenging all students, especially first generation, computer, transfer, veterans, and students with prior military or reservist service and their families.

Shelly is known for her work ethic and dedication and uses her positive attitude and energy to develop strong communities and leaders on campus. She is inspired daily by her amazing husband and their three children and their three grandchildren. In her free time, she likes to travel, garden, and cheer her family on at various sporting events and artistic performances. Welcome to you, Shelly.

Thank you, John so much. And thank you all. It's a pleasure to be here today to talk about Veterans Affairs system wide and especially at UMass Dartmouth. I appreciate the opportunity to be grouped with my esteemed colleagues in Boston and Lowell. So thanks today. I have entitled the presentation Now, Better, Next because what I'd like to do is share where we are right now with veteran, prior military, and reservist services on our campus, how we can be better, and then where we're going next.

So you'll see on this cover slide, that is an event that we had called Grub and Gather entitled by our student veterans. We'll talk more about that later. But that was our October event. Next slide, please. So who we are, it's great to start there. UMass Dartmouth is a National Research University. We have 7,400 total students combining undergrads and graduate students. We have about 140 Corsairs who report or utilize military benefits.

We know our total number is likely higher because not all of our military affiliated students report or use benefits. We are happy to say we're also a military friendly school. And we work hard to make sure that is the lived experience of our students, not just something that we can post up on our web page. OK, next slide. Thank you. So now, where are we now? What I'm sharing here with you are some photos of our veteran and Military Lounge/Veteran Center.

That is on the ground floor of our Campus Center, which is a very central building on campus. Both this space and the Veterans' Reading Room, which you will see in a couple of slides have been outfitted with a prox card reader, which we find is very effective in respecting the space of our student veterans on campus. These two spaces are designated for them. And so all of our military affiliated students are granted card access. So they only need to use their card at the prox reader to get into this space.

And they very much appreciate that it is set up this way for their enjoyment. So right here, you'll see some of our veterans who are actually in the space when we took this photo. And yes, you see a really large TV. And there's a lot of events informal and more intentional that happen in the space. To the right, you'll see the kitchenette, which is hugely popular. And we work with the veterans as far as what we should be providing in this space that's going to promote their success.

Next slide. A little more about the Veterans' Resource Center, we were very fortunate last April to have the center open due to donors that really saw the need and took action. So you'll see pictures of the donors, Janice Reynolds as well as Armond and Ed Houde, who really made this happen and listened to what the needs were. We know it's best practice to have space for veterans on campus. And this made the dream into a reality.

What's not on this slide, it's hard to quantify. We didn't take pictures of this. But what you should know is this space brings people together. I've seen it myself as I'm getting to know the veterans and the students that are using the space. I met Andrea and Gina, who connected through spending time in the space and had not known each other prior. And for them to be able to connect as women in service was very important for both of them.

We recently spent time walking at the Veterans 5K, which I'll talk about in a moment. And they really shared a lot about their personal experience in the military and how they connected to support each other. So that's an important thing that isn't necessarily on a slide. But that really gets at the crux of the need on campus. Similarly, at this center, I once-- this-- just a few weeks ago, was bringing a prospective student who had served our country around campus and answering questions.

I brought him into the center and introduced him. Again, there were fellow veterans in the space. And they jumped right up, stood up, and welcomed him, asked what branch of service he served in, and we're just very welcoming. And this prospective student, who I'm sure has seen and endured much, based on what he told me, began to cry. And they were happy tears because he felt so immediately enveloped in that feeling of community on our campus. So without this space, which really states our values, we wouldn't be able to do these important connections.

Next slide, please. As promised, here are some photos of the Veterans' Reading Room. That is our other designated space on campus. This is on the third floor of the Claire Carney Library. And so this is a prime spot for studying, getting homework done, preparing for midterms and final exams. And again, that prox reader really does help to maintain the space for this population of students who should have precedence at this space.

Next slide. All right, so also now, we have some important tools on campus that we're using here at UMass D. We do have-- you'll see these photos of the orientation booklet that we hand out during our specific veteran orientation. We also, we do that on campus and as well as have a veteran web page as part of the UMass Dartmouth online presence that provides a lot of information. We also have an online module as students onboard.

And there is a specific veteran track to our online module called Corsair 101. Each of the slides for the veteran track were written with current student veterans and our certifying official to make sure the information made sense and flowed for those folks coming in. Our students who are veteran prior military reservists enjoy priority course registration, which has just started, I think, yesterday on campus. And that really helps them prioritize getting the classes that they need to finish their degree in a timely manner.

It's great that they get 20% discount on parking. Many, if not, most of our military veterans are commuting to campus. And so that's very helpful. And another tool is our Race for the Veterans 5K, which is only two years old but has been a great way to promote community and connect on campus. And here's a slide with a little more information and some visuals about the UMass Dartmouth Race for Veterans 5K. An important piece is that this is hosted by SAIL, which is our Student Activities Involvement and Leadership Office, not by the Veteran Affairs or Associate Dean's Office.

And what I love about this is that creating a supportive and validating community is not just the work of one office. And so by Student Activities creating this event and promoting it and working with other offices on campus, it's a really nice way to show that we're all in this together. These are photos from this past year's event. And we're happy to say that so far about $3,000 has been raised and that we are looking to use that to help UMass Dartmouth veterans in need, so more to come on that.

OK, people, this is the heart of what we're doing and why. And so Kristina Leonardo, you'll see they're surrounded by the gold frame. She is our certifying official. She has been here such a long time and makes each student veteran feel seen and heard and supported as they are using different benefits. It can be very confusing. Kristina's always got their back with that. On the left-- oh actually, I'll cover this first.

So Student Veteran Association, I'll go over a little bit more. But they've been in existence on our campus since 2012 and have partnered very well with other student organizations and with the administration to create a welcoming community. Our veteran assistants are on that bottom left slide. So that is Mel, Brian, and Spencer. These veteran assistants, I think they would do this even if it wasn't paid. But this is an initiative that is funded by the federal government.

It's separate from any university funds. And the things that we've already been doing on campus are pretty great like the monthly Grub and Gather, which is just a chance to have lunch and connect with one another and talk about what's going on and what's coming up, anything anyone needs help with. Different sponsors will provide lunch. And we promote it pretty well on campus. And it's open to faculty, staff, and students who have served.

We have weekly staff meetings talking about all things veteran. And certainly, I am prioritizing, as is Kristina, spending time in the lounge in the Veterans Center as well. Next slide. So our Student Veterans Association, some great photos of what they've been up to, that blue slide in the center is at our local bowling establishment, wonderful, yes, in New Bedford. And so we had an event where folks were bringing things for a package drive.

And then what you'll see is to the right the deployed Marines in Afghanistan who received those very packages. And so it was a very important and impactful night. We had a great social evening. But we also were able to let our troops know that we have them in top of mind and heart. To the left, you'll see those two photos. That is a more recent event that the Student Veterans Association did ax throwing in Rhode Island, which was who doesn't love ax throwing, right?

Next slide. And so how could we be better? I've sort of honed it on to two things that I think really speak to the needs of our students. We know it's best practice to have a full time dedicated professional position to serve the community. Right now, it's my honor to serve, to direct our Veteran Affairs on campus to work with the SVA to supervise the veteran assistance. But as an associate dean of students, there are other responsibilities that also take my time.

So I would love to see us have a full time position working both in admissions to onboard folks as well as to be a support throughout their years on campus. Secondly, and I think at least one of my colleagues will talk about this. It would be great for us to be able to develop a formal mentoring program to help our new students with their upper class students or alumni who have just been in their shoes. We know that peer connection and support is something really valuable for our students.

And next, what we are working on what's in the hopper already for UMass Dartmouth is a directory of all faculty and staff who are veterans, prior military and reservists, to build community to let folks know that we see them and to maybe surprise some of the students to understand that our faculty and staff are more than just their current position and can be great supports.

Secondly, UMass Dartmouth Student Veterans in Need Fund, based on the earnings of this 5K that we've had two years in a row, the student veterans have asked that we focus those funds to students on our campus in need. The first year it was actually donated to a veteran related cause, which is also excellent. But we are developing a process and criteria where we can have veterans in need apply for funds and then direct those in that way.

And finally, discussing possible on-campus housing, if you've ever been to our campus, we do have a townhouse portion of campus. That's called Cedar Dell. And recently, we have started to repopulate that area with graduate students. I think it's a very powerful suggestion that we could offer a veteran and veteran family living opportunity on our campus here in Dartmouth. So those are three of the things that we are hoping to bring to fruition next at UMass Dartmouth. Thank you.

Shelly, thank you so much. That was great. And thanks for all the great work you're doing down at UMass Dartmouth and for being with us today.

Thank you.

It's my honor to introduce our next panelist. Janine Wert serves as the Director of Military and Veteran Services at UMass Lowell, where she designed and implemented the Military and Veteran Services Program. With the support of the administration, faculty, staff, and students, she has increased military members and student veteran enrollment significantly over the past 12 years. Janine is familiar with military life as a military spouse, daughter, and parent of military service members.

She has both a personal and clinical understanding of the challenges and opportunities present in military service and the transition to civilian life and has served over 30,000 military veterans throughout her career. Janine earned her master's in social work from Ohio State University. And after that, she earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Florida. She holds a doctorate in executive leadership from the University of Charleston.

Her doctoral dissertation focused on leadership and team dynamics in special operation teams in life threatening situations. It's our honor to have Janine with us today as our second panelist.

You are on mute, Janine.

Thank you so much for saving me. Thank you, everybody. I'm honored to be here. I hope that I can highlight some of the work that we're doing here at UMass Lowell and also share with you some of the progress that we've made working with our military connected students. We were established in 2011. President Meehan at the time was the chancellor of UMass Lowell and was very instrumental in starting our Office of Military and Veterans Services.

We support all military connected students, faculty, and staff associated with the university. This includes those who are veterans, active duty, National Guard, and reservists and their family members. We currently serve over 1,350 military connected students annually. And recently, we were able to institute a liberal military connected student policy, which was approved and actually made more broad by the Faculty Senate.

All of our students associated with our military connected office enjoy waived application fees and priority course registration, including our veterans and their family members and those still in uniform. We established a process to expedite certification so that we can ensure that our students receive on time payments from the VA. Next slide, please. Our approach to serving our students is based on the transition success model. And this relies heavily on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Over the years, we've added the growth mindset and mental toughness to just prepare and get our students thinking about how they would meet challenges and obstacles. Our office's motto is that we empower our students to be successful personally, academically, and professionally. And this model has been absolutely critical to developing programming to help that.

Next slide. So we start with a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. If you're familiar with Dr. Carol Dweck's study and writings, this will be very familiar to you. And rather than having obstacles and challenges be something that are disabling, it actually becomes something that's empowering and enables the student to apply new skills, learn new skills, and move forward in their academics.

Next slide, please. Same with mental toughness used often by Special Operations and other parts of the military to manage arousal control and help folks have tools to be successful. Next slide. Financial stability is absolutely critical for our students to remain in school. We are an inner city school. And many of our students are socioeconomically disadvantaged. So we have developed programming that will help support them stay in school and stay pursuing help them continue to pursue their academic goals.

And so these are programs that we've really worked hard to develop. We have a 0% loan and grant fund, and actually it's a loan fund. Our students are able, if they face financial distress, that they're able to apply for these loans. And it enables them to continue their studies rather than leave school and find employment in the meantime.

Next slide. Medical and mental health is absolutely foundational for our students in order for them to move forward in their transition from their military careers to their academic careers and then go on to their professional careers. UMass Lowell is one of the only universities in the United States that enjoys five major VA medical centers within 50 miles. And it's very much a help. We have a community-based outpatient clinic 2 and 1/2 miles from our office.

And we have a Lowell Vet Center literally across from part of our campus. I'm a former VA social worker. And so I am also able to help route our students to the risk center, which is the War-Related Illness and Injury Study Center. There are four across the nation. And that helps with differential diagnosis if they're having problems with either medical or mental health.

Next slide, please. This is where our programming started. Social support is critical, and actually is a resiliency factor in offsetting suicidal ideation. And it increases engagement and minimizes isolation in our students. So we started with our office and lounge. We have a orientation dedicated to military connected students. We have a Student Veterans of America program. We have peer-to-peer mentoring. And we have peer cohorts within majors.

We started a Military Ball in 2011. And we have a Military Alumni Hall of Fame that is part of that ball. We are a founding members of the SALUTE National Honor Society, which is the only National Honor Society for veterans in higher ed across the nation. So these are some of the programs that we've instituted. At graduation, all of our veterans, including faculty and staff wear aiguillettes on their left shoulders over their hearts. And if they're part of SALUTE, they wear their honor cords.

We wanted something that people could see from any place in the Tsongas Center, which is our hockey arena. And lots of times, stoles are covered by other stoles, and it's not obvious that students are military veterans. Next slide, please. Academic support is why we're here. We developed informal cord cohorts within majors. And so we now have students that take classes together every semester.

And even though it's not a formalized program, they found themselves studying together and really bonding together throughout their time here at UMass Lowell. We have a peer veteran tutoring program run through my office. We also have our University Academic Support that's amazing. And we have deployment policies and withdrawal assistance.

Next slide, please. And so this is our goal, right? We want all of our students to find career employment and be successful in their professions. So we work very closely with our Career Services. We partner with 50STRONG. If you're not familiar with 50STRONG, I encourage you to reach out. Google them. They have an amazing program, 100% virtual, and they connect student veterans and family members to have senior hiring managers across the nation.

EDGE4VETS is a more local program. They just had their seminars at Draper Labs last Monday. And this is a day long seminar that helps our students translate their military experience into language that civilian HR managers better understand. And then we work closely with individual companies that reach out to our office and want to specifically hire our veterans that are for either co-ops, internships, or career employment.

Next slide, please. So this is our transition success model. This is how we've served our veterans since 2011. We have incredible success stories. Lovelle is about to share with you what UMass Boston does. Shelly's been doing this for a very, very long time and has been the advocate and the voice of student veterans at UMass Dartmouth, and I'm very honored to join them today. And I hope that this presentation was helpful for everybody. Thank you.

Janine, thank you very much. That was great. And thank you for being with us today. It's now my honor to introduce our third and final panelist, Lovelle Seymore. Lovelle is an Air Force veteran who served our country honorably for two tours at Hanscom Air Force base working as an airman in the NATO and General Officer Protocol Office. After her tour at the Protocol Office, she finished her last tour of duty at the Air Force Research Laboratory, where she was an information manager.

During her time there, she mentored young airmen and was an active member of the Air Force Sergeants Association. In 2022, Lovelle was awarded a commendation for spearheading the first ever Women's Veteran Roundtable Discussion during which she moderated a panel of six distinguished veterans. She received the 2023 Outstanding Service Award from the Commissioner of Boston Veterans Services and from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu for her outreach to veterans in Boston and the surrounding areas.

Lovelle is an adjunct professor of interdisciplinary studies and the Veterans Resource Coordinator in the Office of Veterans Affairs on the Boston campus. Prior to this position, she was Assistant Director of Undergraduate Affairs for transfers and for veteran recruitment. Please welcome Lovelle Seymore.

Thank you, John. I'm grateful to share this platform with other dedicated veterans offices, and I've learned from them as well. Thank you to the DEIA team for their outstanding efforts and organization to make this project a success. And welcome everyone. Thank you for taking time to join us today. It's my pleasure to virtually invite you to our campus, to learn what we are doing, and perhaps share some information with someone who's looking to know more about veterans' benefits.

The Center of Excellence for Veterans is a virtual combination of different offices that are dedicated to help serve veterans. Next slide. Every year, our campus welcomes over 600 veterans, National Guardsmen, reservists, active duty service members, dependents and spouses. We disperse over $4 million annually in GI benefits. How do we serve and support our veterans and military community?

Next slide. We have four entities created uniquely to serve our veterans, the Office of Veterans Affairs, the Student Veterans Center, the William Joiner Institute for War and Social Consequences, and the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions for Veterans Recruitment is a position uniquely created to support our veterans and military members. Next slide. Today, through the lens of our veteran students' journey, I'm going to share some of the services and programs UMass Boston provides to our veterans.

Anthony Martin, he goes by Tony, is a service-connected veteran who served honorably in the Coast Guard, Army, and Air Force, National Guard. Next slide. Tony was asked to be the Speaker for his graduate commencement ceremony in 2021. I quote his words.

"Little did I know as a young man growing up in one of the most impoverished communities at the time, Houston, Texas, in a single parent household with a mother who worked two and three jobs to make ends meet and an older sibling who was mentally ill, a university like UMass Boston would shine its bright light on me and have such a profound influence on my life some 1,800 miles away." In the summer of 2014, Tony was unemployed from his job as a music director at his church.

He was ready for a change. The below photo is just showing some members coming to our table at our Stand Down event. He had seen a flyer for the Stand Down event being held for veterans in Boston. He decided to attend. Next slide. UMass Boston hosts an outreach table at this annual event. There, we provide recruiting and academic advising. Tony visited the education tent where the Upward Bound program had a table. Tony was recruited to our Veterans Upward Bound fall class.

"In the fall of 2014, I embarked on a journey that would profoundly alter the course of my life. It was during this transformative period that I registered for the Veterans Upward Bound program, an opportunity that not only opened doors, but also paved the way for my educational and personal growth." As a side note, Veterans Upward Bound was housed at UMass Boston from 1972 until 2017. And it was to help Vietnam veterans to transition to post-secondary education.

Tony completed the four month intense Veterans Upward Bound academic boot camp of science, math, English, social studies, and a language course. Next slide. In the spring of 2015, Tony matriculated to UMass Boston. His federal education GI Bill benefits were exhausted. The Office of Veterans Affairs has a provision that once a veteran has exhausted his federal benefits, we can supplement the cost of his tuition by granting a welcome home bonus, which is capped at $1,200 per semester.

Additionally, we applied the veteran's categorical tuition credit to his bill. UMass has an emergency aid fund administered through the Office of Financial Aid to assist students with financial hardships. Next slide. In addition, UMass partners with local veterans agencies and services. We were able to refer Tony to the Boston Shelter for Homeless Veterans, where he was able to receive services for permanent housing.

Our office also connected him to the Boston Office of Veterans Services. There, he received additional financial and medical supports through the Massachusetts General Law Chapter 115. Next slide. Tony disclosed that he is a service-connected veteran. Unbeknownst to him, he was eligible to apply for an educational benefit called Chapter 31, Veterans Readiness and Employment. This is a benefit exclusively for disabled veterans.

The Office of Veterans Affairs helped him submit his application. He was approved. His tuition and fees would be guaranteed through the completion of his master's degree along with a stipend. Once his finances were secured, he immersed himself in our campus culture. In the fall semester of 2015, he was elected as a Senator of the undergraduate student government.

Next slide. Tony flourished here at UMass Boston. One day, he came to our office expressing a need for on-campus VA mental health care services for veterans. We organized the committee, inviting the Dean of Student Affairs and the University Health Care Services to create a roadmap to pilot the service on campus. From September 2016 to fall, 2021, we hosted VA mental health care counselors and case managers on campus to meet with our students. We discontinued this program once counselor appointments were no longer being scheduled.

Next slide. Tony received accommodations from the Ross Center for Students with Disabilities, which allowed for his successful completion of his undergraduate degree and his acceptance and completion of a master's program. I just wanted to take a moment to highlight who the Ross Center founder was. Her name was Lillian Semper Ross. She's pictured above here with her feet propped up. And she was a student at UMass Boston in the late 1960s, decades before the Americans with Disabilities Act became law.

Before that act, there was nothing to prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs and schools. And Mrs. Ross was the founder to make sure that students already, at that time at UMass Boston were being served. Next slide. In 2017, Tony was the recipient of the Alumni Relations Scholarship, which is awarded each spring semester to up to $3,000.

Tony commented, "These scholarships are a testament to the association's commitment to nurturing the academic and personal growth of UMass Boston students." Next slide. And just would like to put a caveat on this, as well. I had to take out an additional 15 slides of other awards and scholarships that Tony has received through UMass Boston. So there's so much more that Tony has done here at UMass Boston that we weren't able to capture.

In the fall of 2019, Tony began his master's program. He applied for a graduate assistantship at the William Joiner Institute for War and Social Consequences. He was approved and had the unique opportunity to contribute to their mission. Next slide. The Joiner Institute mission is to enhance veterans' opportunities and create spaces for veterans to gather for activities, such as career success workshops, writing workshops, and music classes.

Additionally, the Veterans Administration Work Study program, VA Work Study, is administered at the William Joiner Institute for War and Social Consequences. The William Joiner Veterans Excellence Award program highlights and honors a veteran every month. At the end of the year, they organize a gala to honor the year's recipients and our student veterans. Next slide. This is just the winners of last year, the award winner from last year's-- the Veterans Excellence Gala we'll be hosting next year in March.

Tony is an alumni of the Student Veterans Center. The Student Veterans Center is co-located with the Joiner Institute on the 10th floor of the Healey Library until next spring when their newly renovated space in the McCormick Center will be completed. Access and communication are critical to our veterans' success. The Student Veterans Center has a student elected board as well as a veteran faculty liaison who is an Army National Guardsman, Professor Paul Dyson.

And there is an administrative staff liaison, John Sears, who is the Director of Off Campus Housing. He is an Army veteran. Students' direct access to both faculty and staff provides our students with a voice of guidance. Next slide. Our Student Veterans Center partners with the Women's Veterans Network to March in the Saint Patrick's parade. The Student Veterans Center, they're involved with so many different veterans' projects. It's really exciting.

They're always willing to help our office whenever we reach out to them. Next slide. They volunteer with the Wreaths Across America. They organize event gatherings, and they support one another with their academic challenges. Just as was mentioned, at UMass Lowell, we have peer-to-peer support. We do have Edge2Vets coming in as well to help support our students as well with their career decisions and create spaces for camaraderie.

Next slide. And they try to have a potluck at least every three weeks, whether it's just a coffee hour, a potluck, they're always gathering together. And it seems that food is the common denominator. Next slide. Every year, the Office of Veterans Affairs hosts the Veterans Day event for 200 plus student veterans. Their families, alumni, and Gold Star families, we host in different venues. This year, we will be touring Boston Harbor on the Odyssey yacht.

During this event, we share a meal, listen to a keynote speaker, award scholarships, and give door prizes to our students. Tony was a recipient of the Kyran Kennedy Memorial Scholarship. Next slide. Chief Warrant Officer Kennedy was a member of the 101st Airborne Division who was killed in a Blackhawk helicopter crash on the 7 November, 2003 in Tikrit, Salad ad Din, Iraq.

Next slide. And this is last year's event. We had it at the JFK Presidential Library. Our keynote speaker was a Vietnam chaplain, Father Kennedy. And this is just some pictures from the event. Next slide. And every year, we also honor those veterans that we had lost the year before in our program. Next slide. Fall of 2021, Tony graduates with a master's of science. And he receives his second honors cord, just as UMass Lowell does as well. We would like to recognize our veteran students as well for their service.

Tony was accepted to Vermont Law and Graduate School for the fall of 2023. This is the number one school of environmental law in the country. He is a proud alum of UMass Boston. Next slide. And this is, you can see of the veterans cords. It's not very good picture but were interspersed all throughout.

Next slide. In conclusion, the Office of Veterans Affairs is the nucleus of the Center of Excellence. Serving our veterans is our highest priority. Through fostering positive relationships with the Bursar's Office, Financial Aid Office, the Office of the Registrar, and the Advising Office, we can triage students' challenges effectively and expediently. We continue to be ranked as a military friendly school. We are currently working with the Office of Student Housing to build a database for veterans looking to share housing with other veterans.

Next slide. This past November 3, we had a bench dedication ceremony for fallen airman Tech Sergeant Jeffrey Smith. Next slide. Excel High School Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, the Junior ROTC, the pride of south Boston posted the colors for the event. Next slide. Campus Catholic Ministry gave a blessing. And the Director of the Office of Veterans Affairs and his assistant folded the flag.

Next slide. Below is the beloved mother, Joan Seymour, a fallen Tech Sergeant Jeffrey Smith of the Air National Guard. After the ceremony, we hosted a luncheon in our alumni lounge for her and the other Gold Star mothers in attendance. Next slide. And that was the bench dedication invite. Next slide. I'm happy to introduce you to UMass Boston's newest addition to the family. His name is Beacon. And he is a working therapy dog. He visits classrooms, offices, and patrols the corridors.

Next slide. Thank you. Thank you for joining me for our virtual tour through UMass Boston. And Tony is just one of thousands of students that, if I could highlight all the stories and what an honor it is to serve them, it would really help everyone to understand the critical job that our offices on each campus really how we do make a difference in our veteran students' lives. So I'm very grateful to be here. And again, thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you, Lovelle. That was wonderful. I had been telling people that the planning team was extremely excited about our panelists. Now, I think you can all see why we were extremely excited about all three panelists. At this point in our event, we would like to open it up for questions. We do have just about 10 minutes for that. As a reminder, questions can be provided in the following three ways.

You can post a question directly in the chat. You can use the Raise Hand feature in Zoom to ask a question in a live question, or you can direct message John Dawson with an anonymous question. John has kindly agreed to moderate the question portion of this presentation. So at this point, we welcome questions.

Very good, well we already had one in the chat from a while ago. But the question was, what is the role of a VA certifying official?

OK, and I'll turn that over to whoever wants to take that.

I can certainly add a little bit. And then Lovelle or Janine, if you want to add. The certifying official works out of the registrar's office and is a key liaison between the VA and the various different benefits that different veterans, prior military, and reservists can use to pay for their education. So there are a whole host of different ways and different benefits depending on how a student has served.

And so the certifying official receives documentation to certify that the student should be receiving those benefits, advises the student on how that works, what that means as far as their onboarding to the institution, getting registered for classes. So I'll leave that there as a general understanding. And I'm sure Lovelle or Janine will have more.

Sure, I can add to that. The certifying official makes sure students gets paid. [LAUGHS] Basically, the bottom line is the certifying official certifies enrollment of students using the benefits, the post 9/11, the waiver certificates from the National Guard, the tuition assistance from the reservists. They are the central point of contact with all, like Shelly was saying, with everyone else to make sure the veterans get paid.

That's the bottom line. That's how critical, I mean, BAH for Boston is $4,188, OK, plus your tuition and fees. If our certifying official is not on top of that, that falls to the student. They're not going to have money for their rent. They're not going to have money for their food. So it's the certifying official is the most critical choke point for the student's success financially, emotionally, everything because if that gets screwed up, they have big problem.

And at UMass Lowell, we have everything co-located. So our school certifying officials are part of our office. When students walk through the door, we do on-demand service to all of our students. They can walk in any day, Monday through Friday during business hours. They're going to talk to a school certifying official. Our other jobs are to make sure that our students are using their benefits in the best way for them and also to make them aware of VRE, which is voc rehab and employment.

Vocational rehab, they've changed their name, but VRE and huge, huge benefit that so many of our students and veterans are not aware of at all. And so it really is that person becomes critical to a student's academic success and for their financial stability.

OK, I don't see any more in the chat. If anybody wants to raise their hand, we could go to you. We'll do it in order. Anybody have any more questions?

I think I see a question in the chat from Sam. Sam, did you want to ask you a question?

Yes, sorry. I was trying to figure out how I raise my hand, and was like, oh, I can just put it up. So thank you to all three of you. I really appreciate both what you're doing and sharing exactly what you are doing. I know as a veteran, one thing that always interests me is sometimes the random funny stories I can tell people that surprised them about my experiences. So I was curious if one of you might share a random story that surprised you that a veteran told you or in dealing directly with the Veteran Affairs in higher education.

Well, Sam, you know what a barracks lawyer is. And a barracks lawyer in the military is somebody who thinks they know everything, and they really know very little. And they mislead their peers in ways that you can't even imagine. And so we've been surprised by some of the stories that some of the things that people think are true that are absolutely not true. And we just, where did you get? Why? That's not even close, right?

So sometimes, we're really surprised at the lack of understanding and knowledge that some of our veterans and active duty reservists and National Guard members have about their educational benefits. And it's hard to say whether it is their TAP class. They weren't paying attention. For those of you that are not veterans, a TAP class is the final training that you have as you leave uniform. And it's supposed to help you navigate your transition the best that you can.

It's very long and sometimes not very exciting. And so you might say that some people don't really pay attention. So it's this were they told? Were they not told? Did they not absorb the information? We have some folks that walk in the door and don't even know what question to ask, Sam. So sometimes, it's kind of questioning them and leading them to see what benefit they really are entitled to or whether they do qualify for a higher level benefit, and they're just not aware of it. So it's not really funny, but some of the stories from the barracks lawyers are hilarious. And that's all I have to say on that.

Thank you, Sam with just four minutes left, I'm wondering if our other panelists have anything to add to that.

I have a great story to share. I have a great story really quick. So a lot of our veterans who are using a post 9/11 GI Bill, post 9/11 GI Bill is the GI Bill that pays out basic allowance for housing, and it also pays for your tuition and fees, OK? Because your tuition and fees are being paid for, students didn't think that they were eligible for FAFSA, OK? FAFSA in post 9/11 do work together. You're still eligible for financial aid, which is Pell Grants, free money, and student loans.

So I had this one student come into my office. And he said to me, he was very angry. He says, I'm getting a hold on my WISER, which is a student portal because my financial aid isn't completed. I'm getting post 9/11 GI Bill. Why do I have to do this? So I sat him down. We sat down, and he wasn't working, OK? So he had zero income. When we got finished with his FAFSA, he was going to get the maximum. He was going to get like $6,200 every semester.

So with that, once he started getting that money, he started getting that money, he was able to buy his girlfriend an engagement ring. So all because everybody else was telling him the same thing what Janine was saying. No, you're not eligible for FAFSA. You're not eligible, but that is a total misconception. It's the barracks lawyer. But it was really funny. He said I-- he was so apologetic and everything but it was very cute.

Shelly, a one minute ad from you or...

Really quick one, this was a surprise, but a pleasant one. Hanging out in the veterans lounge a couple of weeks ago, one of our students mentioned with the kitchenette, it would be great because at another campus, she had gone to, if everyone could have their own mug and keep it in the kitchen. So don't you know, I didn't realize that this would be a thing that the student veterans were interested in. And they all perked right up.

And so I ordered on Amazon one of those huge mug racks that goes on the wall. Because we have no funding to add to the kitchen to add cabinets or anything. And we've got it put together the certifying official's husband, Kristina's husband put it together for us. And we've just got to get it up on the wall. And we're going to do a program where we take plain white mugs and personalize them with paint so that each student veteran can paint their name on there, have it hanging in the lounge, which I think just speaks to how at home they feel, and that they really want to make the space theirs.

That's great. That's awesome Thank you. And Sam, thanks for that question. So at this point, I want to thank all three of our panelists Shelly, Lovelle, and Jeanine for joining us today to talk about the services that you provide for veterans on the campuses. Thank you also to the President's Office DEIA team for sponsoring the event and to our Event Planning Committee, which includes Sam Burling in Internal Audit, Candyce Carragher in Academic Affairs, John Dawson in UITS, Mike Greer in Innovation and Technology, Jacquie Kittler and Cheryl Millett in Human Resources, and a special thank you to Tina McClung for providing captioning services. Once again, thank you, thank you, and thank you, and have an enjoyable Veterans Day, everyone. Bye bye.

Bye, everyone.