The Rutgers University Camden Office of Veterans Affairs along with the Student Veterans at Rutgers Camden student club provided me with the support I needed to be successful in college.
Several years ago when I made the decision to go back to college, I was unsure if I could be successful. At the time, I was already in my mid-twenties and had gone from serving as a Marine Corps Combat Infantryman in Iraq and Afghanistan to doing several manual labor jobs. So the thought of writing papers and taking exams definitely intimidated me. However, from the first day I stepped foot on campus prior to the start of my first semester, Veterans Affairs Director Fred Davis ensured me that I would not be alone in my quest to become a college graduate.
Rutgers Camden through its Veterans Affairs office provides student veterans with the necessary resources to be successful in college. Resources such as its own new student veteran orientation gives student veterans their own allotted time to pick classes in a pressure free environment and allows them to interface and network with fellow new student veterans. Rutgers Camden is also one of the fiew universities in the state that has its own student veteran's lounge. This provides yet another venue for student veterans to network and make friends. It was by spending time in the lounge that I became more involved with the Student Veterans at Rutgers Camden, the schools very own student veteran club. Moreover, by becoming more involved with the student group, my college tenure suddenly had a deeper purpose. In the end, not only was I able to successfully graduate, but I graduated cum laude with an employment opportunity waiting for me after graduation made possible by the contacts I made through the Rutgers University Camden Office of Veterans Affairs.