Establishing The Student Veterans' Center was a time consuming process. I did not realize how hard it really was until i talked to Dr. Ardiaolo. The difficulty was amplified by the fact it was done with absolutely no budget. For the center to even open its door it had to jump several hurdles. The fact it even opened shows the strong sense of community on the Winthrop campus. It took help from several people to make it possible. James Hammond, Katie Sardelli, Alicia Marstall, Residence Life, The admissions off, maintenance men, and custodians all made contributions. The things I learned while collecting this information makes me proud to be an Eagle. The tremendous show of support to our student veterans was astounding. During the open house the building was full of people out to support the opening. The Veterans Administration also influenced the opening of the center.
The main thing i took away from this project was the way Eagles help each other. Nobody had to take time out of their days to help, because they certainly were not getting paid for it. They had no other motivations to help, besides love for the campus, appreciation of student veterans, and fear of being fired by the Vice President (joke).
Although student veterans are a small minority on the campus with only 106 students, they still needed somewhere to go. Dr. Ritzer made an interesting comparison to student veterans gaining legitimacy like Greek Life organizations. This was an interesting comparison, because student veterans are like a fraternity or sorority. They are a pack of brothers and sisters with similar common experiences. The veterans' center now gives this close nit group a place to call to home. Would this have been possible with out all the help from the Winthrop community?
