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Southwestern College to enhance services for military veteran students

San Diego Union-Tribune - 8/30/2018

Aug. 30--Southwestern College has been awarded a $200,000 grant to expand services offered at its Veterans' Resource Center.

The funding from the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office will create a tutoring program and a part-time position for an outreach coordinator, among other services at the center.

"We want to improve and increase our services, and make sure that we have an adequate amount of space to support the high number of veterans we serve here," said Jonathan J.D. White, the resource center's coordinator.

Southwestern College serves between 1,600 and 1,700 veterans and military-affiliated students. The resource center has been open to veterans, military members and their spouses and children since 2014.

Patti Larkin, director of veteran services and financial aid, said veterans and military-affiliated students represent a sector of the population on campus that continues to grow. As a result, the Veterans' Resource Center has outgrown its space.

"We're kind of limited in the number of students we can serve," White said.

The center intends to expand its space to include study rooms and office space for counseling -- from transferring to a four-year university to taking advantage of benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Other plans include expanding the center's computer lab.

Administrators and staff are also looking at larger spaces on campus to relocate the resource center.

White said the outreach coordinator will allow more students to take advantage of the services available on and off campus.

"We want them to get as much help and assistance as they need, with a wide variety of programs that we're fortunate enough to have in San Diego that support our veterans and their families -- and active duty," he said.

The center is working with the college's Academic Success Center, which offers tutoring, to offer a program in which veterans can tutor other veterans.

Navy veteran Gregory John Jubinal, who studies automotive engineering, said the center offers students with similar journeys a place to congregate, feel welcome and build a community. Jubinal, 32, enlisted in the Navy in 2004 as a cook and was medically discharged in 2015.

Like other veterans, Jubinal started college years after he graduated high school.

"Coming to college 15 years later, there was anxiety, nervousness. I was feeling very overwhelmed," he said. "When I found out about the Veterans' Resource Center, I started finding people just like me, and it made the transition very well. I made a lot of good friends along the way."

The Bonita resident said the center is a popular spot on campus, which means it can get crowded at times.

"By getting the grant and expanding the Veterans Resource Center, I believe that it will give more opportunities to veterans and accommodate more veterans at the same time," he said.

Southwestern College is set to receive the grant in October and will work on expanding the services at the resource center this school year.

Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez

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