Bunker Hill Community College Opens Veterans Center
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Bunker Hill Community College will dedicate its new Veterans Center in a ceremony at noon, Wednesday, November 17, 2010, in the main lobby at the Charlestown Campus. Since the passage of the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Act of 2008 (also known as the “Post-9/11 GI Bill”), the number of veterans at the College has more than doubled to 367.
Speakers at the event include: Student Veterans Club President Michael Roche; James Wright, Ph.D., President Emeritus of Dartmouth College and a national leader in helping veterans attend college; and Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D., a MacArthur fellow and author of two books on combat trauma. While president of Dartmouth, Wright began visiting wounded veterans at military hospitals to encourage them to continue their education. In a separate presentation, at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Shay will discuss what communities can do to assist returning veterans. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the C202 auditorium at the College.
The new Veterans Center provides a central place where College staff can assist veterans in working through the processes involved in obtaining educational benefits. Students have access to a fax/copier, computers, a printer, comfortable chairs and a reading area. With the help of a $50,000 foundation grant, the College constructed the Center over the summer.
“The Veterans Center reflects the College's commitment to veterans and military personnel by providing the information they need to know in order to pursue higher education with the benefits earned during their service,” said Stephen C. Roy, the College's Veterans Representative and advocate. “Now, veterans can sit down and apply for some of the many military education benefits, federal or state,” added Roy. “We offer a "one-stop shop" where they can do everything at once rather than making multiple trips to other offices at the College.” The College has also added staff to help veterans take advantage of the new GI Bill benefits, and developed a seminar designed for veterans titled: “The Military: Before, During and After.”
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About Bunker Hill Community College
Bunker Hill Community College is the largest community college in Massachusetts, enrolling approximately 18,000 students annually. BHCC has two campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, and a number of other locations throughout the Greater Boston area. BHCC is one of the most diverse institutions of higher education in Massachusetts. Sixty-five percent of the students are people of color and more than half of BHCC's students are women. The College also enrolls nearly 600 international students who come from 94 countries and speak more than 75 languages.