Saint Leo University Opens Military Resource Center for Students

From Saint Leo University:

Saint Leo University’s military community has a new place to call home. The Military Resource Center, located in Apartment Building 4 in the former Lakeside Room, will serve as a gathering place where student-veterans, active-duty and reserve service members, and ROTC cadets can relax, study, meet with advisors, and receive help from external support centers.

On Thursday, August 25, Pamela Martis, new director of the Office of Military Affairs and Services (formerly known as Veteran Student Services), hosted a welcome orientation at the Military Resource Center. New and returning student-veterans, military family member students, and ROTC students, as well as faculty and staff, were welcomed to the MRC.

Martis, a retired U.S. Army colonel, and staff assistant John Morgan, who also is a student veteran, invited many guests to provide information about programs and support services available to the Saint Leo students.

From Career Planning to the Office of Accessibility Services at Saint Leo, to outside groups such as CareerSource Pasco Hernando, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Pasco County Vet Center, and the Disabled American Veterans, students learned about what services they can obtain. Guests discussed veteran educational benefit programs, employment opportunities, counseling services, and student success.

The new Military Resource Center is an example of Saint Leo University’s commitment to serving the military. The university began educating military personnel on base at Avon Park, FL, in 1973. Since then, Saint Leo has been committed to providing education to active duty military, reserves, veterans, ROTC, and their families at University Campus as well as online and at the more than 40 education centers and offices—many located on military bases.

Martis plans to continue that culture of support with the new Military Resource Center. The Office of Military Affairs and Services also will support Operation Stand Down, scheduled for September 29 to October 1, at Veterans Memorial Park in Hudson, FL. The office will collect donations of new socks, which will be distributed to homeless veterans during Operation Stand Down.

Photo courtesy of Saint Leo University