Gonzalez took a lobbying trip to the nation’s capitol before the government shutdown to advocate for help from senators and those in power in regards to the needs of college students who are veterans or who have children. Gonzalez is currently a student at Jamestown Community College working on getting his Registered Nurse degree. In October 2023 he became involved with the JCC Veterans Club, as he is also a veteran, and at the end of 2023 he took over the role of chapter president. Through this he was also introduced to the national organization, Student Veterans of America, and also became the president of the JCC chapter of that organization.

His responsibilities with these organizations brought him to the national conference of Student Veterans of America in Colorado Springs in January where he learned about the work the organization does and some Supreme Court decisions that they have been a part of, working to get benefits for veterans back and ensure things they are unable to obtain such as child care and eliminate hurdles preventing them from using their GI Bill, along with other issues such as health care.

“Once I learned all of the facets that Student Veterans of America did then I kind of wanted to get more involved in the community service aspect of it,” Gonzalez said.

In July Gonzalez was given the opportunity to attend a regional summit in Pittsburgh of the Northeast chapters, where a total of 40 colleges attended. He was able to bring the JCC student experience to that group and show what they have been seeing and the ideas they had to eliminate some of the problems veterans face. At that conference, Gonzalez said some of the facilitators expressed that they were impressed with him and how he was able to show how he wanted to accomplish these ideas, and invited him to Washington, D.C., to speak about student veterans and parent students. The organization put him in contact with another national organization, Today’s Student Coalition, and Gonzalez went to Washington, D.C., with their executive director Tonya Ang.

Gonzalez said he hopes legislation will be crafted from their visit that helps students who come after him to have the help that they need.

SHARING HIS STORY

Gonzalez said during this trip he attended multiple meetings, including with senators.

“It was actually quite wonderful to go to their offices and speak with their staff about my story and the issues that not only veterans face but parents who are students, the hurdles and issues that they face that prevent them from completing their degrees,” Gonzalez said.

The day concluded with a round table discussion, and Gonzalez said he went with three other students who all discussed what it was like to have children while trying to earn their degrees and the difficulties that they face in doing that. He expressed that being able to do that was a wonderful experience, especially with everything congressional leaders have going on right now, such as a pending government shutdown.

Some other items discussed were the financial components of being a student parent along with food insecurity, childcare provisions, issues with military transcripts and discrepancies there.

Daniel Gonzalez, left, will be returning to DC in October to continue this work. Submitted photos

“I think this caught a lot of people’s attention; part of my story is, I was trained as an EMT and then I was trained as a licensed practical nurse in the military,” Gonzalez said. “So, I had to go through anatomy and physiology twice for both of those certifications. And now that I’m pursuing my RN degree, I had to take it a third time, because unfortunately my college doesn’t recognize my anatomy and physiology classes that I took while I was in the military.”

To Gonzalez, this is an example of fraud, waste and abuse, and is also a disservice to the American people paying tax dollars to have examples of stories like this where military members have to take a class again that they already have the knowledge of and proved themselves proficient in because their military transcripts are not accepted in multiple schools.

This can affect people on the civilian level as well, he added, as sometimes when students transfer from one college to another they can find that their credits from some classes do not count. This area specifically, Gonzalez said he thought gained them some traction on Capitol Hill. Over 25% of students across the nation right now have children, he said, adding that these types of issues are not affecting one small group of people, and that he hoped they made good headway in speaking with senators about them.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKED

Taking these issues to Washington is something Gonzalez said he felt was important to do because it is not often people can get the opportunity to truly demonstrate their abilities.

“So when that opportunity arises that you are able to do what you love and what you know, you’ve got to be ready to take on that responsibility,” Gonzalez said. “So when the opportunity presented itself to me, I made myself as prepared as I could be to take this on.”

This opportunity is also something Gonzalez said he never thought he would be called upon to do, and was ready to simply focus on working as an RN and with patients. When he was given the opportunity to do more and advocate for others who were struggling, he said he felt he needed to do it, especially as one of the core fundamental values of being a nurse is advocating for patients.

“I’ll advocate for the community that I fall into,” Gonzalez said. “I feel like, yeah I’m a student parent and student veteran, yeah I will advocate for that community if I can help, absolutely I’ll do it.”

Following the Washington, D.C., visit, Gonzalez hopes legislation will be crafted to continue to help so people can keep receiving things like SNAP, citing it as one of many issues coming from the recent “Big Beautiful Bill”, and one of the critical resources for people that is looking to be removed. As a veteran, Gonzalez receives $674 a month from the military that is meant to support everything for the month, which he added is not enough to cover everything anywhere that he knows of. Even in Jamestown, rent costs a month are much higher than that. Obviously, he said, the amount is supposed to cover working as well, and he said both he and everyone he talked with that shared their stories on Capitol Hill are employed, working 40 to 60 hours a week but still do not have food security or cover basic needs.

“I’m hoping with the stories we told about our experiences that we are able to continue that funding and show why SNAP and WIC are not handouts, they are hand ups,” Gonzalez said. “They are there to help an individual get through the hard times where they are able to become self-sufficient and supportive.”

This also helps give back to the community as a whole, as these people are then able to get jobs and pay a higher tax bracket and overall contribute to the community. Gonzalez will be returning to DC in October for a leadership conference with Student Veterans of America to continue to work to help craft legislation and be involved in communities.

“The big thing is that I am not doing this for me, in the sense that I need more money, no, because by the time these changes are enacted I will have graduated and be long down the road,” Gonzalez said. “I’m more focused on the people coming behind me in the next five or 10 years, and ensuring that they don’t have the same struggles as the stories that I heard up there on the hill. That’s really, really important, that I’m setting the next generation up for continued success, so that they are able to achieve their maximum potential, their hopes, dreams and aspirations and so they are able to be wonderful citizens in this country that we all live in. That’s the biggest thing, that’s why I do it, that’s why I do the work.”