UNIVERSITY OF
MICHIGAN
Student Veterans’ Corner
From the Veterans and Military Services Program, 1100 LSA Building
Volume 2 Issue 1
February 2014
—Message from the Program Director
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
What is
P.A.V.E.?
2
Vocational
2
Rehabilitation
VA Healthcare 3
Enrollment
Academic Tips 3
and Tricks
Student Vets
of America
4
Finding a Sense 4
of Belonging
I am excited to re-launch our
monthly newsletter at the
Veterans and Military Services
Program! Our program and
its mission has grown since it
was established in 2008 and
now includes outreach,
mentoring, advising, data collection, surveys,
government relations, collaborations with other
universities and still includes our main goals of
helping to serve you – our current
students. This year we have expanded our
services to provide career connections, to work
with the Depression Center on a program
called P.A.V.E., and on an expanded orientation
for our undergraduate student veterans. The
future holds more focus on families and more
outreach and programming for female veterans
and for graduate students. It has been a
great first 5 years of this program and I look
forward to exciting and challenging years to
come. Last, I want to thank you for your service
– from one who served a while back. As I have
gotten to know student veterans and those still
in the military I am constantly honored and
humbled to be in this line of work.
I hope that I and this office can help you in your
success at Michigan. Please let me know how I
can be of assistance.
Student Veteran Events Recap: Fall 2013
This Fall was a great semester for UM
student veterans!
September marked the beginning of P.A.V.E. at
UofM, providing one-on-one mentorship
between new and current student veterans.
Also in September, a few members of the SVA
(including yours truly) attended the Walker,
Michigan Warrior Dash. After defeating several
obstacles and completing the 3-mile track, the
vets enjoyed a nice cold beer.
Getting hosed down with cold water
afterwards was less enjoyable.
Veterans Week went off without a hitch, as did
the SVA Wheelchair Basketball Game. The
Navy/Marine Corps team won again, defending
their now 3-year winning streak against Army/
Air Force.
Here’s to a great Winter Semester!
~Tim Nellett, Veteran Student Contact Coordinator
Did you get your free money? (FAFSA)
It’s not a scam! The Free Application for
Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is available for all
students attending college.
No, your status as a veteran does not harm
your chances; if anything it improves them..
Your use of the G.I. Bill also does not negate
your ability to receive federal student aid.
Veterans Connection
www.vets.umich.edu
Filling out your FAFSA merely ensures that
you have the ability to receive scholarships
(and loans) that may be available to you.
Typically these will be processed before your
Veteran’s Benefits, but once they have,
whatever is left behind (assuming your tuition
is paid up) goes into your bank account!
While filling out a FAFSA does not guarantee
funding, there isn’t any downside to applying.
Don’t wait to apply and risk missing out on
funding. Fill out your FAFSA today!
https://fafsa.ed.gov
Page 2
Student Veterans’ Corner
What is PAVE?
• Do you have questions about tutoring or academic advising?
VA Important Numbers
Suicide Hotline
1-800-273-8255
VA Main Benefits Hotline
1800-827-1000
VA Education Hotline
1888-442-4551
VA Monthly Certification
Hotline
1877-823-2378
Health Care
1877-222-8387
Life Insurance
1800-669-8477
Making the transition from military
to campus life isn’t easy. To help student veterans access the resources and
support for your specific needs, one of the
resources offered at UM is the PAVE
(Peer
Advisors for Veteran Education) Program.
PAVE connects student veterans like you
with trained Peer Advisors, who are veterans who have already made a successful
transition to UM and are knowledgeable
about resources on and off campus.
• Do you have a problem that requires legal
resources?
• Do you have questions about how to submit a
VA claim?
• Are you struggling with depression? PTSD
symptoms? Substance abuse?
Every student faces challenges and has questions. PAVE offers help for student veterans
from student veterans.
If you would like assistance in any situation,
A PAVE Peer Advisor can help you answer please contact us at any time at
questions like these (and more):
[email protected], 1-855-822• Are you accessing all the financial aid/ VA PAVE, or visit www.paveoncampus.org.
benefits you’re entitled to?
Facebook: www.facebook.com/paveannarbor
Vocational Rehabilitation (Voc Rehab)
Are you leaving Active duty on a
medical separation, or are a Veteran
who has a service-connected disability? If you don’t currently have access to
the G.I. Bill Benefits, or they are about to
expire, Voc Rehab may be able to help
pick up the slack!
VetSuccess (Vocational Rehabilitation &
Employment) is VA’s comprehensive program for Service members leaving active
duty due to medical issues and Veterans
with service-connected disabilities.
Veterans Connection
www.vets.umich.edu
The program provides services leading o
employment or help for individuals to live
more independently. These services include vocational counselling, training, career placement, and special rehabilitation
services available to eligible active duty
Service members, veterans, and dependents.
Please contact Reginald Rogers, VetSuccess
Counselor, with any questions or concerns you
have about your VA
benefits or vocational goals.
ph: 313-408-7263,
email: [email protected].
Volume 2, Issue 1
Page 3
Enroll in VA Health Care Benefits!
Healthcare has
undergone some serious
changes lately.
But Umich veterans are
uniquely positioned to take
advantage of excellent, local,
and free healthcare right
here in Ann Arbor!
Did you know that as a
veteran, you may qualify for
5 years of free VA
healthcare services
immediately following your
discharge from active duty?
Don’t wait. All you need to
do is enroll!
For more information,
contact Brittany Powers at
734-548-3452 or
[email protected]
Ann Arbor VA Medical
Center
2215 Fuller Rd
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
734-769-7100
Some Academic Success Tips and Tricks
Get Psych’ed! With Dr. Eric Fretz
Research in educational psychology has
a lot to offer college students, and student veterans are no exception. Here
are some tips to consider as you enjoy the
start of Winter term.
· Cramming and all-nighters are time wasters! Distributed practice is MUCH better
than massed practice. Studying a half hour a
day for 7 days will most likely be more effective than 7 straight hours of studying the
night before the exam. Don’t procrastinate! Spreading your studying out is EFFICIENT! PLUS, top performance comes from
being well-rested!
· Highlighting is less effective than you might
think. The majority of highlighter use in
education is pointless. If you are doing
more than highlighting an occasional keyword, you are probably wasting your time
(and ink). Marking up your text with questions and diagrams is helpful, but colorizing
50% of your text usually does very little for
you.
· The more you can engage and work with
the material, the better you will remember
it. Re-organizing your notes, making concept maps, creating diagrams and summaries, are all effective ways of “constructing”
your knowledge.
Interested in more interesting tidbits?
Check out Learning to Learn: The Skill and
Will of College Success by Vanderstoep and
Pintrich, available at Hatcher!
February Calendar of Events
Please go to http://events.umich.edu/ to see all that is happening at U of M!
Student Veterans’ Corner
Page 4
background and experiences. Not only does
the group aim to provide intercommunity
Transitioning from the military to college support to returning veterans, it also serves as
life can be a daunting task. Many veterans
a recreational social outlet to help student
may find the slew of financial and logistics
veterans form new networks and feel a little
burdens in an unfamiliar environment and the
more at home .
loss of their personal social network to be
Please e-mail the President of the Association
overwhelming. Fortunately, they’re not alone.
Will Kerkstra directly to express interest in
The Student Veteran Association, a student getting involved.
group established by student veterans, is a
community where
William Kerkstra, President
newly transitioned
[email protected]
veterans or even senior
Or
student veterans can find
EMAIL: [email protected]
a meeting ground that
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/svaum
brings them into contact
SVAUM WEBSITE:
with individuals of similar
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/svaum/home
Student Veterans of America-UM Chapter
Office of New Student Programs
Veterans and Military Services
SVA President Will Kerkstra on Reintegration
Veterans Connection
www.vets.umich.edu
Veterans, here we are. Many of our
goals are being met as we transition from
our warrior culture to our highfalutin lifestyle as Wolverines. As many of you have
realized there is no shortage of wonderful
volunteers and programs aimed to help us
during our transition.
psychological necessity, which when satisfied can
help foster a healthier self-esteem and dramatically improve the quality of life. Simple concepts
such as attention, affection, and affirmation are
often found in group atmospheres. If you’re new,
try out several groups and decide which best fits
your personality.
However, through all the noise there is one
psychological factor that affects all veterans
which I believe is not being adequately discussed. A sense of belonging is a powerful
Whatever you’re into these days, find a group
which gives you the attention, affection, and affirmation you deserve and then give back by adding
value to your group
~Will Kerkstra
Like us on Facebook!
www.facebook.com/svaum
If you have any suggestions on how to improve our newsletter, or would like to
contribute to the next issue, please email the Military and Veteran
Student Contact coordinator at [email protected]