Fordham SVA chapter president, Emma Cassidy, was nominated as a finalist for Student Veteran of the Year and Chief Diversity Officer Rafael Zapata spoke on a panel for the two-day event—which included a keynote address by First Lady Jill Biden, Ed.D.

Biden thanked the veterans for their service and encouraged attendees to share their stories so that other veterans might view higher education as a way back to civilian life.

“I’ve taught many veterans transitioning from military service, worried that they might not adjust to civilian life, only to find confidence and purpose in the classes they take,” said Biden. “I’ve seen them not only adjust, but thrive and become leaders in their communities and that’s what we see in SVA’s award nominees today.”

Zapata, who spoke on a panel on leadership an diversity, said that the many SVA chapters reflected the diversity of those communities and hold the potential for forging racial harmony.

“The military is uniquely situated to bring people of all kinds together,” he said. “I can’t think of any other organization that can bring people together who have never encountered each other—even more than colleges and universities. The military looks more like this country than most institutions, and I think there are great possibilities in that.”

For her part, Cassidy, who took the helm of Fordham SVA in January, said she was surprised to be nominated. She deflected attention to her predecessor Matias Ayala who she said maintained community and provided ways for members of the group, known as RamVets, to connect virtually during the pandemic.

“I was surprised that it was me, and while I’m proud to have been nominated, there were others who made more of an impact,” she said. “If had been on the nominating committee I would have chosen Matias. I have very big shoes to fill.”

Cassidy said she has given little thought to her role as a woman leading the chapter, though she acknowledged the challenges she faced when she was enlisted in the Navy.

“I was proud to be a woman in the military, but I had to adapt to a male-centric work environment,” she said. “I definitely had some pushback on my attitude. I think they expected me to be much sweeter and demure, but I didn’t see much point of being that way.”

For now, she said, she’s focused on her new role and picking up several virtual events, as well as a few socially distanced in-person events. She noted that the group will hold a socially distanced volunteer effort to help pack COVID-19 relief boxes in Brooklyn at 11 a.m. on Feb. 27 in partnership with DreamcenterNYC. RamVets can register ahead of the event, and the rest of the Fordham community can join the vets by registering at the What Remains website and selecting the Harman Street locale from the dropdown menus.

“We don’t know where we’re gonna land right now with the new normal; we’d love to add more in-person events, but we’ll definitely continue online as well,” she said.

In addition to the volunteer event, the Department of Veterans Affairs will hold a virtual event to help Fordham veterans navigate disability benefits on Thurs., Feb 25 from 7:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Assistant Director of Military and Veterans’ Services Steven Hellman said student veterans can email [email protected] to set up and appointment to revisit an old claim or start a new one.

“It’s a pretty wild process to get your disability claim done on your own without a support system in place and luckily the VA is sending a team over to help all our vets one-on-one,” said Hellman.

Hellman said that veterans often experience delayed ailments well after they leave the military. He encouraged the notoriously self-sufficient vets to reach out for help when they need it. It’s a notion that Zapata touched on during his panel, by paraphrasing the poet Audre Lorde.

“Self-care is a revolutionary act,” he said. “Our existence itself can be revolutionary, that we are still here and we are still thriving—we have to do that.”

 

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David G. Bellavia, a 43-year-old retired staff sergeant from Lyndonville, New York, was an infantryman in the U.S. Army for six years. But what he is best known for is his role in the Second Battle of Fallujah in Iraq, dubbed Operation Phantom Fury, on the night of Nov. 10, 2004. In what was considered the highest point of conflict in the Iraq War, Bellavia almost single-handedly saved his squad in a dark building filled with enemy gunfire, in the process killing four insurgents and wounding a fifth. 

In honor of his heroic actions, Bellavia was awarded the Medal of Honor—the nation’s highest recognition for valor in combat—at a White House ceremony on June 25, just a week before his visit to Fordham.

“Fordham has six Medal of Honor recipients [among its alumni],” said Matthew Butler, the University’s director of military and veterans’ services and a former Marine, in his opening remarks. “So it’s a great honor to have a living American treasure with us today.”

Inside the Bateman Room in the Law School building, Bellavia spoke to an audience of approximately 50 people—the majority of them veterans—about his childhood, life and death on the battlefield, and what he hopes the future holds for veterans across America. 

Stories from Very Different Battlefields

His stories of the past, often told with a waggish sense of humor, brought both laughter and knowing nods from the audience, especially fellow veterans. Among those anecdotes was the time he took a hairdryer to boot camp. But some stories were tragic, like the time he lost his command sergeant major—his “surrogate father”—on the battlefield. 

Bellavia was born to a family of six in Lyndonville, a village located four miles south of Lake Ontario. He said when he was a child, his grandfather, a World War II veteran, would tell him stories about wartime—“noble adventures” about people fighting against evil and tyranny. 

It was a stark contrast to his early military years in Kosovo, where “evil” appeared in the form of chicken robbers.  

“I remember we would get a briefing like, ‘Mr. McMetty’s chickens have been stolen,’ and be like …  ‘It’s go time,’” he said in a hushed tone, as the audience laughed. 

But throughout his six-year military career, he endured far worse. Bellavia recalled the first time he was shot at. He felt a fluctuation of emotions: fear, exhilaration, anger.

Then there was the Second Battle of Fallujah. Fifteen years ago, in a military campaign to defeat the Islamic insurgents in the stronghold city, Bellavia found himself in a concrete building, engaged in close-quarters combat. 

“Fallujah was like the Superbowl of urban fighting … You’re shooting automatic gunfire at point-blank range in concrete structures. Everyone’s got a gouge, a wound, a cut. Glass, metal fragments—you name it,” Bellavia recalled. “Guys clearing out their eyes of glass and metal, and you’re constantly looking at that guy next to you. And no matter how bad they’re hurt, you just gotta keep … you gotta take the threat out. Whoever shot at us has to die, or we’re all gonna die.”

For a long time, he said, he hated the enemy. But eventually, he realized that he wasn’t fighting because he hated the “bad guys”; he was fighting because he loved the “good guys”—his country, his unit, and every parent to whom he made a promise to bring their sons and daughters home. And in the process, he saw his enemies in a new light. 

Respect for the Enemy

“I looked at the enemy with great respect. They believed in what they were doing. These men were giving their lives for what they believe in,” Bellavia explained. “I may not understand it. I’m not gonna stop shooting. But I respect the hell out of them.” 

In a conversation with the event’s moderator, Gerry Byrne, FCRH ’66—vice chairman of Penske Media Corporation and a Marine combat veteran who served in the Vietnam War—Bellavia also touched on the transition from the battlefield to civilian life.

“It’s one of the most difficult parts of being a veteran,” said Byrne.“When I came home from Vietnam, I literally got spit on in uniform at the airport. It’s something I’ll never forget.” 

But those Vietnam vets paved the way for later generations of soldiers, Bellavia said. 

“When I came home from the airport, I had two Vietnam guys crying, and they told me, ‘Welcome home, I love you,’” Bellavia said to Byrne. “It was your generation that made sure our generation was treated with dignity and respect that you didn’t get.” 

In the future, Bellavia said he wants to see not only more student veterans, but also more veteran professors, administrators, and CEOs—veterans “in the highest echelons of elected office, in professional work.” 

‘We Don’t Leave People Behind’

A U.S. Army veteran in the audience asked Bellavia for advice on another group of veterans—those who struggle with suicidal thoughts. Nearly 20 veterans commit suicide every day. 

“There’s a sense that we don’t belong anymore. There’s this idea that ‘Everything was easier when I was over there.’ I woke up, I had a mission, I had a purpose, I had a job, I was appreciated, I was respected. [Then] I come home, and everyone looks at me, waiting for me to snap,” Bellavia said, as several audience members held up their phones and recorded his voice. “But you know what? You’re a damn soldier … I wouldn’t expect you to quit on me when we’re getting shot at; I wouldn’t expect you to quit now. We need you. We don’t leave people behind in a firefight. [And] we don’t leave them behind when we come home.”

The inaugural Victory Bell ceremony is “something special to recognize our student veterans in a way that shows our gratitude for their service,” said Matthew Butler, the University’s director of military and veterans’ services. While ringing the bell, each veteran also wore a newly created medallion—given to all graduating veterans—that had just been conferred in a ceremony in Keating Hall.

The May 17 ceremony marked another effort to embrace military veterans and make them feel welcome and supported at Fordham, consistently ranked among the top military-friendly Yellow Ribbon universities by Military Times.

Butler noted that the Victory Bell is one of many military symbols around Rose Hill. Traditionally rung to celebrate Ram athletic victories, the bell was taken from a Japanese aircraft carrier and was presented to the University by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz in 1944 in remembrance of lives lost in the conflict.

The Victory Bell ceremony “recognizes more than just the completing of the requirements for your degree,” Butler said in the Keating Hall ceremony. “We recognize the whole person today. Today’s graduates are special,” he said, for taking the path of military service—“a path less traveled”—on their way to college graduation.

More than half of service members and veterans name educational opportunities as one reason for joining, he said, and noted the many first-generation college students enrolled in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies.

“Today marks the end of one chapter of our lives, and for most all of you, I suspect part of [your]continued journey is service—service to our nation, to our communities, to the men and women of the world. For we are men and women for others. It’s part of our Jesuit education and ethos,” said Butler, PCS ’17, a member of the Class of 2019 who is completing a master’s degree in nonprofit leadership.

Another speaker was Wesley Wilson, president of the Fordham Veterans Association, who described his initial trepidation at leaving the service. He wondered if anything else would be as fulfilling, “but Fordham quickly assuaged any of my concerns,” he said. “As you walk around campus … you quickly get a sense that there’s something different about Fordham.”

“The mantra of cura personalis, or care for the whole person, has given Fordham a very special place in my heart,” he said. “It was through Fordham that I was given the opportunity to continue serving—this time, my fellow student veterans.”

A Family Occasion

Nineteen graduating veterans, including Butler, took part in the ceremony, joined by friends and family members. Wilson had 14 family members make the trip from South Carolina for his graduation from the School of Professional and Continuing Studies with a bachelor’s degree. He ascended the steps to the Victory Bell with his 9-year-old nephew, Preston, who gave the clapper a good, strong tug.

Butler, invoking a common Jesuit expression, exhorted the graduating veterans to “go and set the world on fire.”

“Set it on fire with your continued service, with your compassion, with your conscientiousness, with your care for your fellow man, with the zeal that you learned in the military to take on all challenges, large and small.”

He named several new efforts carried out with student veterans’ help, like expanding the orientation for new student veterans from one hour to a full day and holding it at both the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses. Other initiatives include a student veteran career ambassadors program, a disability services program, and an online checklist for veterans making the transition to college.

Another new initiative provides services and support for student veterans’ spouses and children.

“A huge thanks must be given to our families, who support us through this academic journey,” Butler said. “Today we say thank you, because we couldn’t do it without you.”

Phillip Gregor likes to travel and he likes to take pictures. The former is something he is familiar with from his time abroad as a heavy equipment operator in the Air Force; the latter he’s learned at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS), where he’s graduating with a major in New Media and Digital Design. At Fordham, he got to indulge both passions by joining the Study Abroad program in Rome and Tokyo.

“Art is something I have always had an interest in, but had neither the time nor resources to pursue,” he said. “The G.I. Bill afforded me both.”

Gregor served just over six years on active duty and was deployed to Iraq for six months, though his permanent station was at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He also volunteered for a yearlong deployment to South Korea and was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant.

He said he was attracted to Fordham after seeing it listed as one of the top schools for veterans in the Military Times, an independent armed forces news source. This was important to him, since he had struggled with the admissions staff at another college he was considering.

“The counselor I had at another college didn’t have a grasp on how to work with veterans,” he said.

On arriving at Fordham, he was soon integrated into citywide programs for veterans. That connection provided networking opportunities and helped him begin to think about translating his military skills into civilian jobs.

He initially paired his art major with social work, but eventually decided that he wanted to stick with art and later pursue law. His photography work prepared him for the legal field, he noted, because it involved a lot of the same critical-thinking skills.

“Street photography for me requires a lot of observation, understanding, and anticipation of human behavior,” he said. “Improvisation and quick thinking are also necessary skills for good photography. All of those skills apply directly to the law and business worlds.”

Moving Past Health Challenges

Gregor worked with Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock, artist-in-residence in the visual arts program, both on campus and in Tokyo and Rome, where he spent one winter and two summers studying photography through Fordham’s Study Abroad program.

“His work harkens back to the golden periods of photos,” said Apicella-Hitchcock. “He shoots in a traditional mode, black and white.”

He called Gregor “a very modest guy” who reveals just “ten percent of what’s going on” in his personal life. Indeed, Gregor only mentions in passing the series of health troubles he’s had to grapple with while getting his undergraduate degree. Twice, he’s had to take a leave of absence for health issues relating to his time in the service.

“I started my education at Fordham while having severe medical concerns, at times thinking I was going to die; I pressed on,” he said, adding that his faith in God has been a source of strength.

“I have always been very committed to my Catholic roots and my faith has been the core of my success.”

Art in Place

As part of Fordham’s short-term faculty-led study abroad program, students can study in Rome during the summer and take classes in art history, visual arts, theater, or Italian. There are also opportunities to go to a host of other cities, like Tokyo. Professors often build their syllabi around landmarks and local museums.

Gregor participated in two summer courses offered abroad, but he first studied abroad in Tokyo during the winter session of 2015 with Apicella-Hitchcock. He later went to Rome to take photos in 2016 and again in 2018 to study art history with Jennifer Udell, Ph.D., curator of university art, and Joanna Issak, Ph.D., the John L. Marion Chair in Art History. He said he appreciated the art history classes for their immediacy and relevance.

“Every day instead of sitting in a classroom and looking in a book you’re actually there in front of the art,” he said. “You hear about the political campaigns of ancient Rome and how it relates to today.”

Even his required student presentations were done on location. He presented twice at the Vatican—once about St. Peter’s Baldachin, the bronze canopy over the high altar at St. Peter’s Basilica, and another time about the basilica’s facade.

“That was a memorable experience,” he said. “The ornate interior exudes a regal elegance.”

Trying Not to Be a Tourist

Gregor said he found Tokyo much cleaner and less chaotic than Rome, though adapting to their social norms proved a challenge when photographing people. He found this challenging, he said, as it made him feel more like a tourist and didn’t want his photos to appear as such.

“When you’re trying to let the experience saturate, your eye shifts from touristy to more of an intricate depth of the culture,” he said. “It’s just like in New York, you hit Times Square when you get here, but that’s not the culture.”

From Barracks to Museums on the G.I. Bill  

More than his photos, Gregor likes to talk about the journey. He gives credit to his professors and classmates for their support.

“Fordham’s faculty is phenomenal, the teachers really care, and the students are welcoming,” he said. “I’m an older non-traditional student and there’s not been one time in a class in Rome or Tokyo where I felt like an odd man out.”

Gregor will walk at commencement in May, but he’ll return to Rome over the summer to fulfill an internship requirement under the mentorship of Apicella-Hitchcock. He’ll be assisting the Study Abroad office to capture the student experience abroad. He plans to float between the theater, documentary photography, and art history programs to document their classes, update social media platforms, and create an archive for future publications.

On his return, he plans to apply to law school.

“I served my country, I was great with the standards, the conduct, and did very well on the professional military education,” he said. “That gave me the leeway to major in art and focus on Fordham’s core philosophy courses, and a lot of law schools are looking at students with more versatile backgrounds.”

On August 18, Wilson and the FVA attempted to make that transition just a little bit smoother. The student-led group held its most comprehensive veterans orientation to date, bringing together professionals from the Office of Military and Veteran Services; Career Services; VITAL; Fordham Libraries; Public Safety; and American Corporate Partners, a veterans’ mentorship organization, to provide resources and guidance to incoming student veterans.

Beginning early in the morning, departments from around the University made presentations and then fielded questions on everything from course requirements to the best places to eat. The new students then toured the Lincoln Center campus, boarded Ram Vans to tour Rose Hill, and took in a few more presentations. They capped the day by ringing the historic Victory Bell, an annual tradition signifying the start of vets academic careers. The group then boarded veteran alumnus Kentavious White’s party bus to celebrate the new school year on Arthur Avenue.

New Benefits Help Grow Veteran Community

Also working in the veterans’ favor, Fordham recently signed a new Yellow Ribbon agreement that authorized an unlimited number of seats to eligible incoming veterans. While Fordham has long covered all tuition expenses for eligible post-9/11 veterans and their dependants under the Yellow Ribbon program, there had been a limit on how many of these students the University could accept. The new agreement initiated by the University, coupled with the recently-passed Colmery Act (also known as the Forever GI Bill), helps expand benefits and education opportunities for service members, said Matt Butler, director of military and veteran Services at Fordham. For example, under the Forever GI Bill, veterans pursuing STEM fields who have exhausted their benefits can receive an additional $30,000 toward a STEM-related degree. The act also extends benefits to those who are still serving.

“In the coming two years, active duty service members and their active duty spouses can participate in the Yellow Ribbon program,” said Butler. “That also holds the potential to help us expand our veteran community here at Fordham.”

Butler said that in addition to providing transitional support for veterans, FVA also provides leadership opportunities within the organization.

Making the Transition Smooth

Fordham is home to nearly 500 student veterans, active military, and their dependants, with most of them studying at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies.

Because transition can sometimes be a delicate matter, the FVA is unlike most student organizations, said Wilson.

“I think it’s one of the most important student organizations here; it’s one that can’t fail,” said Wilson, who is a senior at Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies. “I don’t think it’s any secret that service members face issues with transition and that’s what we want to combat.”

Wilson said that his journey to a leadership role was an unexpected one. Now completing a degree in organizational leadership, as well as being a fellow in the Veterans for Global Leadership, run by a Fordham alumnus, he said that his penchant for leadership springs from military service.

“I’m not an anomaly, everybody in this room has the same potential,” he said. “Given the environment that we come from, all we just need a little push, a little bit of mentorship. If we can do that, then these guys will be killing it.”

Part of that mentorship and support needs to come from the civilians, which is most of the Fordham community, he said. Wilson cited great support from professors and staff at the University, in particular from Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. He recalled a conversation where Father McShane asked him tough questions and challenged him to aim higher.

“I was talking to Father McShane and he asked, ‘Well what do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘Well I wanted to be in civil service …’ and he cut me off. And he said, ‘No. You want to be governor of South Carolina,’” recalled Wilson. “That kind of encouragement reinforced what I learned in D.C. in Global Leadership. It made me think, ‘Maybe I am a little bit different and maybe I should be striving for those opportunities.’”

Wilson said that he hopes to make bridging the gap between civilians and veterans a cornerstone of the work done by FVA. He said that staff from Career Services and the Office of Prestigious Fellowships have been very helpful. But sometimes, he said, faculty and staff do not understand the vast experience of service members.

“I still think that they need a little bit of insight on the experiences that we have,” he said. “Every now and then, I’ll work with a civilian person who treats me as if I’m an 18-year-old college kid. When I was in the army, I was leading 12 to 15 soldiers, and now I’m out. I’m a civilian. But that doesn’t erase my experience.”

Wilson said he wants the Fordham community to respect the experience of service members in their midst and to tap into their abilities.

“We have to understand that these men and women have some of the best leadership experience,” he said. “They also have to understand some of our idiosyncrasies and what makes us who we are.”

Wilson, an organizational leadership major, recently returned from Washington D.C., where he was advocating Congress with fellow veterans affiliated with the advocacy nonprofit High Ground.

“They provide you with the ability to negotiate and get the message out there in a succinct manner,” said Wilson.

He and his colleagues advocated for an expansion of the Transition Assistance Program. Wilson is particularly interested in changing the transition process so that veterans are more familiar with all the college options available to them.

“I found my way to Fordham through an alumnus; he was my unit commander at West Point where I was stationed,” said Wilson. “He just planted the seed in my head, but I did the rest.”

Wilson said he went online and used the GI Bill Comparison Tool and found that as a Yellow Ribbon school Fordham has very competitive rates for veterans. Given West Point’s proximity to New York City, he was able to easily visit the Rose Hill campus as well. But aside from commanders, no one from the military had encouraged him to apply to a prestigious institution.

“There’s a stigma among some of us vets that we can’t be successful at a top-tier university,” he said. “The problem within the military is we’re not informed about our options.”

As a result, he said, many veterans simply apply to community colleges or fall victim to predatory for-profit schools.

“A lot of this comes from the fact that education is viewed by some vets as promotion points or just a piece of paper,” he said. “It has made us uninformed consumers of education.”

He said the responsibility of making veterans aware of their options falls not just on the military, but also to the colleges.

Wilson said he’ll be running for a leadership role at the Fordham Veterans Association next year. Right now, the group is focusing on better integration among veterans and the traditional student population, an initiative which he supports. In the future, he wants to help inform veterans know that Fordham and its peer institutions are for them.

A 1965 Distinguished Military Graduate from Fordham College at Rose Hill, Hyland was named to the Fordham University Military and NYC Army Reserve Officer Corps Hall of Fame on Nov. 5, following a special veterans Mass at the University Church. Both the Mass and Hall of Fame ceremony were organized by the Fordham Veterans Alumni Chapter, which helps to support and recognize veteran students and current ROTC cadets at the University.

“It’s extremely important for us to be able to learn from what other generations in the military have gone through, and come together as a community,” said Kevin Knightes, a student at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) and president of Fordham Veterans Association.

A Brutal Attack

The son of Irish immigrants, Hyland was commissioned as a second lieutenant during the Vietnam War. He said he was attempting to help a wounded soldier get onto a rescue helicopter when he was shot in the stomach in a brutal attack that left him incapacitated.

“It was a miracle that I actually lived,” said Hyland, who was awarded the Silver Star in 1968 and numerous decorations and medals, including a Purple Heart and the Vietnam Service Medal.

He underwent countless surgeries in Japan and the United States, where he said he had to learn to talk, walk, and write all over again. Still, he was determined to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a lawyer.

“A lot of people told me that I couldn’t do that, but the more they told me I couldn’t, the more I said, ‘I’m going to do it,” he said.

Hyland, who recalled he’d shrunk from 205 pounds to 96 pounds after the war and had to walk with a cane, enrolled in Fordham Law in 1965. He went on active duty in 1966 before returning to the law school in 1969. Though he struggled with constant pain and a short attention span, he went on to earn his law degree with support from a few of his law “buddies” who would study with him in the library and encourage him to persevere.

“I had a difficult time, but five fellow students adopted me and got me through,” he said.

A Talent for Litigating

After graduating in 1971, Hyland served as an assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office and became a special trial counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission in New York City. A fellow of the leading legal association American College of Trial Lawyers, he has served as a successful litigation attorney at Wilson Elser, where he has worked for more than 30 years and currently serves as managing partner.

John D. Feerick, dean of Fordham Law from 1982 to 2002 who got to know Hyland through his litigations, said Hyland’s journey from the military to law was profound.

“It’s really wonderful as a former dean to hear these types of stories,” he said. “What he describes about the law students makes me proud of our school.”

According to Matthew Butler, PCS ’16, director of Military and Veterans Services at Fordham, the University has more than 400 veterans.

“It’s a number that continues to grow, and that’s something we should all be very proud of,” he said.

“My fears of becoming homeless were ignited as I proceeded through the process of retirement,” she said. “This propelled me to make a difference rather than becoming a part of the problem.”

Today, as a student majoring in nonprofit leadership at the Graduate School of Social Service and the Gabelli School of Business, she is doing just that.  She recently founded D’ St. Aubyn’s Cause, which seeks to diminish the rate at which veterans, single parents, and the elderly fall victim to homelessness.

Her efforts have not gone unnoticed. She is one of three students selected to be part of the 2017 cohort of the Veterans in Global Leadership (VGL), a nonprofit program founded in 2015 by Jayson Browder, PCS ’13. The program helps student veterans prepare and apply for prestigious internships, fellowships, and scholarships. Browder was a Fulbright scholar and a U.S. Presidential Management Fellow at the White House.

Browder said most of the VGL participants have held leadership positions in the service, but may not be finding similar opportunities in civilian life.

“They’ve implemented foreign policy abroad and have been tasked with solving complex problems,” he said. “Now that they are back from the longest wars in our nation’s history, they’re looking to solve more problems and create an impact in their communities here in the states and abroad.”

Other fellowship awardees include Robert Molina and Kevin Knightes. Molina served in the Marines as an aviation logistics clerk. He is currently pursuing a double major in political science and economics. He is also the communications chief of the Fordham Veterans’ Association.

Knightes is a U.S. Navy veteran who served four years as an active duty Hospital Corpsman Pharmacy Technician. He is now an undergraduate at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies pursuing a bachelor’s in Middle East Studies, with minors in Arabic and philosophy. He is the president of the Fordham Veterans’ Association.

“I found that VGL aligned with my goal to continue service, but it will also introduce me to a vast network of like-minded people to share resources with,” said Knightes.

Harper’s said channeling her fears into starting an organization to help others has been rewarding.

“A program like VGL can certainly help make an achievement more attainable,” she said.

-Veronika Kero 

Today there are more than 400, said Matthew Butler, PCS ’16, the newly appointed director of a campuswide veterans support program, Military and Veterans Affairs.

Butler, a former Marine and graduate of the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS), is the first to fill the new role. In his new position, he will help coordinate veterans services on all three campuses—from writer’s workshops in Westchester to a Fleet Week Career Fair to be held on Memorial Day weekend at the Lincoln Center campus.

Butler said there are many reasons for the surge in veterans enrollment at the University, not the least of which was the Post 9/11 GI Bill and Fordham’s participation in the Yellow Ribbon Program. In addition, the University picks up the cost of fees not covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

As a student majoring in organizational leadership at the PCS, Butler said he detected a veteran’s theme when he read the story of Homer returning to Troy in the Odyssey.

“I was taken aback,” he said. “This is a guy that’s dealing with PTSD. His experience was life altering and couldn’t be ignored, and there were lots of examples where people didn’t understand him when he was trying to relate to them. It felt familiar.”

In his new role, Butler will bring all the veterans groups, whether for business students, law students, or alumni, under one umbrella organization, the Fordham Veterans Association. He hopes to create a unified veterans voice for all campuses.

Butler said he understands firsthand the difficulty of transitioning back to civilian life.

“When you join the military, you become part of something that is greater than yourself,” he said. “When you leave, it becomes about trying to find your way back to home. But it’s never the same.”

He believes that higher education is the best way forward for most veterans.

“Higher ed helps because it gives you the opportunity to solidify the skills you gained in the military.”

Most veterans think that what they did in the military is ordinary, he said, because so many of their colleagues performed similar functions. But operating equipment worth tens of millions of dollars is hardly an everyday experience for a person in their early twenties, nor is living overseas as many veterans do.

“When you combine that extraordinary experience and discipline with the resources from the University, like our corporate partners, then you can graduate someone that companies want to hire,” he said.

He noted that veterans bring a worldly perspective to their classroom peers, enriching class dialogue and creating greater understanding among veterans and civilians. This is true especially with regard to many misconceptions that compound transitioning to civilian life.

“There are so many stereotypes about vets, and a lack of understanding about what those serving actually do on a daily basis,” he said, noting that only 12 percent of veterans see combat. “PTSD is not specific just to combat; it happens in other situations, like transitioning to New York City from an Air Force base in Japan.

“It’s like Homer’s trip back to Troy,” he said. “He finds challenges along the way and even comes home to challenges. Ours is really an epic story of trying to come back home.”