The JCC students who attended the conference were; chapter president Daniel Gonzalez, Mackenzie Thayer, and Devin Baden, along with the chapter advisor, Don Pool. Students from JCC have attended the conference for the last three years since an SVA chapter was established on campus, after striving to attend for the last four years. Gonzalez said it has been a long process to get the local chapter affiliated with the national organization, but one they felt was super important to bring both knowledge and resources to the local area for veterans and student veterans. He credited multiple people for working to get a strong chapter started on campus, and for Pool and the students involved to keep the work going and getting the chapter to where it could attend the conference.

“It took many years of faith, dedication and hard work and a lot of different transitions and a lot of different work by a lot of different people to make this happen,” Gonzalez said. “There’s been significant amounts of fundraising. There’s been a lot of back and forth on whether or not this is something that is appropriate for the community because of the cost, so there’s been a lot of obstacles the veterans have had to overcome over the years to get affiliated.”

Now with the chapter being affiliated, chapter members have had the chances for other trips such as going to Washington DC to the National Headquarters, along with regional summits, leadership fellowships, and Gonzalez said hopefully Washington Week as well. Washington Week is where, Gonzalez said, students get to go on Capitol Hill to talk about pending legislation and why they should pass, such as the Major Richard Star Act, which would allow veterans who were forced to medically retire due to combat or combat-related injuries to receive their disability compensation and full retirement pay without offset, according to the Wounded Warriors website.

SVA does work like this, also working to empower student veterans, assist them with utilization of their benefits and improving said benefits for the next generation. The organization also provides fellowship and helps student veterans find employment after graduation, including in ways such as a job fair that Gonzalez said was held, along with other programs.

Pictured are Mackenzie Thayer JCC student veteran, Johnny Vargas Tik Tok social media influencer and SFC US Army, Daniel Gonzalez Student veteran of American chapter president , and Devin Baden Student Veteran during the SVA National Conference.

At the National Conference itself big name organizations attended and were involved including Disney, TikTok, Bowing, LinkedIn and more that were key sponsors and speakers. Google also made a big special investment this year, which Gonzalez said was “extra special”, making a $1 billion investment this year along with giving every veteran student who attended the conference a brand new Google Pixel 10 smartphone. Google has also opened training and coursework to student veterans for free to get additional skillsets on their resume.

“More organizations are making investments into veterans because they recognize that the skillset that veterans already have is very difficult for them to put on paper for a resume,” Gonzalez said. “But, this helps veterans in the fact that they have something tangible that they can put on paper for a resume so they can show ‘hey, this is something I knew how to do. Now here’s the proper name for it, here’s the civilian speak so I can transition into the civilian sector, be successful, get a job, and move on with my life and my career’.”

Other organizations that have been big sponsors include TikTok, Johnson and Johnson, and Disney. These kinds of connections help veterans in the area get more resources and have access to their benefits. Other National Conference activities include a round table discussion with the New York City Department of Veteran Services, on the ongoing crisis of some veterans choosing not to identify themselves as veterans anymore in the current generation, something that Gonzalez said has changed over the years. While they are not sure why some veterans are choosing not to, Gonzalez said another goal of SVA is to reach out to these hidden veterans and get them involved and tell them their options.

“It’s a little bit of a crisis because you have 66% of veterans who don’t even identify, and we have a ton of Iraqi war and Afghani freedom, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are just not identifying,” Gonzalez said. “Disconnection can lead to isolation, isolation can lead to depression, depression can lead to a whole slew of things and we’re trying to correct those issues.”

The goal is to intervene before the veteran gets to the point of suicide or homelessness. SVA also does advertising work, as the Veterans Association has no line in their budget for advertising to tell veterans how to access their benefits, leaving the advertising up to SVA, the American Legion and Veterans Of Foreign Wars.

Other National Conference activities included round table discussions, meeting and networking with other schools that attended of the 1400 schools globally that have an SVA chapter, learning more about benefits, and a legislative portion to discuss items that SVA is trying to improve. This includes that currently student veterans have trouble with their military transcript that includes all of the coursework that is done during their time in the service, which are then not often recognized at colleges, meaning the veterans have to spend more money from their GI Bill benefits to take these same classes again.

Students also had town halls, met with VIPs, and heard from medal of honor recipients who talked about what it takes to move forward and live with honor after being in the service, earning their medals and their experience.

For the other students who attended, the conference was an important experience.

“I wanted to go for the experience and to learn things that can help my school and me in the future,” Mackenzie Thayer said. “It’s a really good stepping stone for the Student Veterans of America and if you are able to go you should utilize it. You meet a lot of people and it helps grow both you as an individual and the school.”

For Devin Baden, there were two main reasons to go to the conference; to represent JCC and tell others about what the club is doing along with the college’s programs and faculty, and to learn from people at other schools like Ohio State, Oregon State, and Baylor, and learn how they are supporting their veteran student population and their school as whole and to bring that home.

“And that is why I think it is so important to work hard so we can go to NatCon, it’s not just an opportunity for the people attending to network and grow and learn, it’s an opportunity to work with other people on improving our college and community,” Baden said. “And when we get enough passionate people together, they can solve any problem and amazing things can happen as a result.”

For chapter advisor Don Pool, the event was important for the students to be able to network with over 2,000 other students and advisors, and to get a lot of information on how to successfully run a chapter, engage with veterans across campus and connect with other students as well.

“It also helps with career building,” Pool said. “And it’s important to recognize the hard work that these students put into being able to go, raising over $6,000 to send themselves to the conference this year, which they started doing already last January.”

Gonzalez said they received a ton of information over the four days of the conference, including the in-house VA clinic that was there that allowed students to have a one-on-one evaluation and sign up and receive their benefits right then and there.

SVA is not for just student veterans but military aligned students as well, including spouses, children, and veteran caregivers. The organization is open to the veteran community at large.

For more information on the JCC SVA chapter contact Pool or Melissa Hoyt at Military@sunyjcc.edu, or Gonzalez at gonzalez@jamestownny.gov.