Mercy students, alumni, staff, faculty and community partners gathered over Zoom on Tuesday, November 9 to celebrate Veterans Day and honor the sacrifices made by our country’s active military members and veterans. The virtual event was hosted by Mercy College President Tim Hall and facilitated by Edie Magnus, executive director of media and innovation at Mercy College. The program featured government and nonprofit leaders shaping the region’s veterans’ services, as well as Mercy College faculty and alumni who lead veteran programs.
During the event, Hall affirmed Mercy’s commitment to ensuring the success of its student veteran population: “…we’re dedicated to helping them transition from soldier to student by providing them the resources, assistance and encouragement they need to make that decision.” He noted that as a designated Yellow Ribbon School, Mercy provides veterans with funding to obtain a high-quality private school college education. Hall also highlighted several Mercy initiatives that have shown to help veteran students find success – the dedicated veterans’ centers on Mercy’s Bronx and Dobbs Ferry Campuses and the College’s nationally recognized PACT mentorship program.
In addition to Hall, speakers included Sgt. Andrea Molina, USMC OIF 1&3, director of Veterans Services and Vet2Vet for Family Services of Westchester and Lt. Col. Aaron Leonard, director of the Military and Veteran Outdoors Coalition for the Sierra Club. Molina gave an overview of the Vet2Vet program, which focuses on peer-to-peer suicide prevention and reactivation into the community, while Leonard discussed the physical and mental benefits veterans obtain from outdoor enrichment.
Mercy alumni U.S. Marine Corporal Viviana DeCohen '16, M.S. '18, Director of the New York State Division of Veterans' Services and Sergeant First Class Rivera Hector Rivera ’21 also spoke to the needs of veterans in the higher education setting and how Mercy supported their assimilation to college.
In addition, visiting professor Brian Kelly discussed how the Department of Criminal Justice Homeland Security Track provides opportunity for veterans to transfer their military knowledge into the classroom, and Associate Professor William Farber educated attendees about Mercy’s Veterans to Math Teachers’ Program. The National Science Foundation-funded program recruits United States Military Veterans and retrains them for new careers as secondary mathematics teachers in high-need schools throughout the United States.
The event ended with speakers and attendees offering their sincere gratitude to our country’s veterans and acknowledging the great work being done at Mercy and in our communities to service a population so deserving of support.