OSWEGO — SUNY Oswego, Jefferson Community College (JCC), SUNY Canton, and SUNY Potsdam will use grant funding to help student veterans at JCC transfer to Oswego, Canton, or Potsdam. The effort seeks to “strengthen transfer pathways and foster academic success for student veterans,” according to SUNY Oswego. The SUNY Impact Foundation awarded a grant of […]
OSWEGO — SUNY Oswego, Jefferson Community College (JCC), SUNY Canton, and SUNY Potsdam will use grant funding to help student veterans at JCC transfer to Oswego, Canton, or Potsdam.
The effort seeks to “strengthen transfer pathways and foster academic success for student veterans,” according to SUNY Oswego.
The SUNY Impact Foundation awarded a grant of $70,400 from the U.S. Ambassador Carl Spielvogel Fund for Veterans to fund an academic-support proposal that the schools jointly submitted.
The grant will span four semesters and includes the hiring of a dedicated tutor to work specifically with the student-veteran population on each campus in an effort to “increase their comfort of use of academic-support services and assist in their academic adjustment,” SUNY Oswego said in a release.
In addition, JCC will provide space at least twice per semester for SUNY Oswego’s veteran and military-services coordinator to hold office hours to meet with prospective JCC student veterans and discuss transfer options with travel covered by the grant.
With the funding, SUNY Oswego will host prospective JCC student veterans on their respective campuses once per semester.
The colleges say they will also create transfer pathway materials specifically for student veterans and promote institutional services available to student veterans
The grant funding will allow the schools to assist student veterans in developing academic skills and confidence and “encourage persistence to complete their academic goals.” The effort involves advising on the coursework requirements at both the two-year and four-year academic programs while “establishing a rapport” with campus veteran-services coordinators early in the student veterans’ academic career through the JCC office hours.
Four-year campus visits will “ease the transition and prepare for a confident transfer” from JCC to SUNY Oswego, Benjamin Parker, veteran-services coordinator at SUNY Oswego, contended.
About the grant
SUNY on Veterans Day announced grants from the Ambassador Trustee Carl Spielvogel Fund for a total of 11 campuses to boost education opportunities for more than 12,500 military students and their dependents statewide.
The fund began with a “generous” donation (amount undisclosed) by Ambassador Spielvogel, who serves on the SUNY Board of Trustees and is a veteran himself having been a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and a member of the U.S. Army.
H. Carl McCall, chairman of the SUNY board of trustees, described the grants as “one more way to give thanks to those who have served and those who continue to protect our country.”
