��Vlog��ýLR receives grant to renovate Student Veteran Center

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 17:03:50 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has been awarded a $9,963 grant from and to renovate space on campus to create a Student Veteran Center. ��Vlog��ýLR was one of 50 universities to receive a grant of up to $10,000 to build or renovate centers for veterans attending college. Student Veterans of America and The Home Depot Foundation awarded a total of $422,747 to the universities. “Veterans have always been an important population of the ��Vlog��ýLR student body,” said Kathy Oliverio, director of military student success for the university. “With expected growth of the veteran student population and the needs that the veterans have, the grant will allow dedicated facilitates, staff, and training to help ��Vlog��ýLR expand the services that are available and better serve a growing population of veteran students.” ��Vlog��ýLR is home to nearly 1,000 student veterans. The Student Veteran Center will serve as a centralized location where veterans can socialize, study, and get information about the many resources available to them. The center will house a veteran student support team that includes representatives from the offices of admissions, records and registration, transfer student services, financial aid and veterans benefits, academic advising, student health, mental health counseling, career advising, disabilities resource center, and ��Vlog��ýLR’s military student support organization, Students Affected by the Military. The center will ensure student veterans are successful by engaging them in community service, empowering them to complete their degrees, and providing the connections necessary to gain employment after graduation. The center also will create a heightened awareness and sensitivity by helping faculty and staff achieve a better understanding of a student veteran’s unique needs. “Many veteran students face challenges that most other student populations do not,” Oliverio said. “The majority of ��Vlog��ýLR’s veteran students are first-generation college students. Typically, this means there is a lack of a support system when it comes to the unfamiliar college environment. Additionally, veteran students oftentimes endure stressors related to their military duty, such as traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.” Student Veterans of America and The Home Depot Foundation launched thein 2014 as part of the Student Veterans of America mission to provide veterans with the resources, support, and advocacy needed to succeed in higher education and following graduation. By the end of 2016, 111 campuses in 40 states will have earned more than $970,000 benefiting more than 53,600 student veterans. Renovations for the new Student Veteran Center will take place this summer and fall. ��Vlog��ýLR plans to open the center in a to-be-determined location on Friday, Nov. 11, in celebration of Veteran’s Day. In the upper right photo, Kathy Oliverio, ��Vlog��ýLR director of military student success, stands at VFW Post 9095 in Little Rock. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/��Vlog��ýLR Communications.

Winding road leads to med school for ��Vlog��ýLR graduate

Shanna Fitzgerald — Tue, 17 May 2016 16:46:58 +0000

On her way to a bachelor’s degree, Raegan Austin attended six universities, served eight years in the Air National Guard, and switched career focuses three times. Right out of high school, Austin, an upstate New York native, planned to study art history so she could land her dream job: curator at the . It wasn’t just her top career choice, it was her only career choice. As Austin recalls, however, “1998 Raegan” struggled to adjust to higher education and being away from her friends and family. In fact, her academic performance suffered to the point that her first university essentially kicked her out of school. “I know I’ve come a long way since then,” Austin said. “I’ve learned a lot about myself.” Now, she’s a spring 2016 University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate, earning her bachelor’s degree in biology. She excelled since transferring to ��Vlog��ýLR in 2014 and will enroll in medical school in the fall. Instead of working in her favorite fine arts museum, as the military veteran once planned to do, Austin intends to become a physician in the Air Force. Following her first-year of college, Austin joined the Air National Guard and enrolled in a two-year school. Her military experience helped her realize just how big the world was and that maybe it was too early to confine her aspirations to curator of an art museum in Boston. While serving in the military part time, she turned her career focus toward marketing, working a full-time job in the industry while taking courses for a marketing degree in the evenings. Her husband, Michael, serves in the Navy, which means Austin has had to transfer to multiple schools as Michael’s job took him from base to base.

Raegan Austin, a 2016 ��Vlog��ýLR graduate, poses with her husband, Michael, and daughter, Ridley. Contributed photo

The couple spent time on both coasts and in Guam before Michael was stationed in the Little Rock area. After taking some time away from school to raise her daughter, Austin changed her academic goal to a biology degree while her family was living in Guam. She enjoyed the coursework but wasn’t convinced she wanted to become a doctor. “The idea of being responsible for patients’ health was way too daunting at first,” Austin said. Her confidence grew as a result of her academic performance, and gradually, a medical career didn’t seem out of reach. After she transferred to ��Vlog��ýLR, she found faculty members and advisers who were dedicated to helping her succeed. “I chose mentors that really got me and saw that my path was very different from anyone else’s,” Austin said. One of those ��Vlog��ýLR advisers, Dr. Johanna Miller Lewis, associate dean of undergraduate programs and pre-professional health adviser, was particularly impressed by Austin’s determination. “She immediately stood out to me for her initiative to complete college, her maturity for realizing that she wants to become a doctor of osteopathic medicine, and her organizational and time management skills to attend college full time and make excellent grades, while simultaneously raising a family,” Lewis said. While Austin enrolls this fall in the inaugural class of the in Jonesboro, Arkansas, her husband and 8-year-old daughter, Ridley, are likely to move to the West Coast as part of Michael’s next military assignment. The temporary separation will be difficult, but Austin said she will have her parents’ support. One of the benefits of moving to Arkansas has been the close proximity of Austin’s mother and step-father in St. Louis. Looking back, Austin is amazed at how far she has come and the change in direction her path took. “There were several times in my 20s when friends from high school were graduating college, but I wasn’t there yet, when I said that a degree was ‘just a piece of paper’ and that I didn’t need that to feel whole,” Austin said. “Now that I have completed my degree, I know that it is not just a piece of paper representing checked boxes, but it is a symbol of this customized experience that was very worth the journey. “My diploma isn’t the same as any other — mine is different because it represents my own adventure.”

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ýLR receives grant to renovate Student Veteran Center

Winding road leads to med school for ����Vlog��ýLR graduate

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ýLR receives grant to renovate Student Veteran Center

Winding road leads to med school for ��Vlog��ýLR graduate