Veterans fight new battles at home

Melrose resident helps win benefits and understanding

By Erin McCarthy
NYCity News Service

Omi Aguirre was studying for her associate degree from Hostos Community College in 2001. Then the Twin Towers fell. Six weeks later, she joined the Marines.

This fall, when Aguirre, 31, resumed her studies at Hostos, she felt like an outsider in a community of civilians. Like many veterans, she found herself struggling to get her government tuition benefits. She couldn’t focus on her studies.

But in late September, a student club changed everything.

Aguirre, who lives in Melrose, helped start the Hostos Community College Veterans/Reservists Club to raise awareness about veterans’ needs and to create a community for student veterans.

“The fact is when they come back, reconnecting can be a challenge,” said her mother, City Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroyo, at a gathering hosted by the club last month.

The transition to the classroom and to civilian life can be difficult, said Aguirre. She found it hard to focus on classes for her degree in liberal arts. Political discussions often meant she had to defend her role as a Marine. “Coming back to a school where there’s a very liberal mindset, you were fighting in class,” she said.

For some veterans, she said, it’s easier not to come back. “These are people with credits sitting in a college waiting for them,” said Aguirre, who is the club’s vice president.

Aguirre and her fellow club members, who now number 15, held their first major event, a meet and greet, in October. The club hosted veterans, reservists, recruiters and other students. Aguirre hoped the event would let other veterans do “recon” on the club, since they can often be shy about asking for help, she said.

The club formed in late September when several student veterans realized they needed help: They were still waiting for tuition money from the Veterans Affairs Department, and they needed it to pay for classes and books.

As part of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, veterans like Aguirre receive education benefits for tuition, books and some living costs. The New York State Veterans Affairs office was backlogged, with over 15,000 applications for benefits, said Charles Uwa, the Veterans Coordinator at Hostos. Meanwhile, some veterans were getting billed for their classes.

With Uwa’s encouragement, Aguirre and other student veterans formed the club to address the benefits problem. Ultimately, Hostos extended a tuition waiver for veterans until their benefits arrived, Uwa said.

Nearly 3,000 veterans and reservists attend school in the City University of New York system. Sixty-five veterans are students at Hostos, and for many of them, accessing benefits, managing coursework and adjusting to civilian life is difficult, said Uwa.

Though the school has had clubs for veterans in the past, this year’s club has been a dramatic change, Uwa said. “We were able to get people that were more concerned and more interested,” he said.

Any time the club can help a veteran, it does, said Michael Sterling, a National Guard veteran in his fourth semester at Hostos. The club is the starting point for veterans’ questions regarding college life, benefits and personal issues. “We’re trying our best to make sure the ones that we do know are taken care of and have a safe haven,” Aguirre said.

The club also offers a forum to help veterans cope with memories from their time in the armed forces. “We are able to talk to one another about what we’ve been through,” said Aguirre.

At their biweekly Monday meetings, veterans and reservists in the club discuss upcoming events, benefits and their mission: to raise awareness of veterans’ needs in the college community. Students considering the armed forces can get their questions answered there as well.

When Aguirre attended Hostos in the past, she felt that the school did not have a plan for dealing with veterans, she said. Now things are different. Hostos Community College President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez sat down with Uwa and club members in early November to hear their concerns and ideas. “The school has a genuine want to help out our vets,” said Aguirre.

As a result, said Aguirre, this time around she’s been able to focus on her studies. She plans to complete the credits for an associate degree by June. In the meantime, the club is planning to send money for USO care packages, and its members may take a trip together to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The club has made Aguirre’s first semester back since 2008 a busy one. “Hopefully it’ll slow down, because I have to start studying,” she said.

A version of this story appeared in the Winter 2009 issue of the Mott Haven Herald.

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