Michael Sanchez, a former aircraft electronic technician and former sergeant in the Marine Corps, found the Veterans Summer Bridge program exactly what he needed to transition to Cornell. “I was definitely not ready to just jump out of the Marine Corps and just straight into the semester,” he said. “It provided that buffer period for me. And, as far as it being virtual, … I was able to interact with my family and friends while still going to school, which was nice.”
As a transfer sophomore in the ILR School, Sanchez ’23 is thinking about a career in government in a service field where he can make a difference in people’s lives.
He began to think about applying to colleges when he learned about the Service to School program, a nonprofit that provides free college and graduate school counseling to veterans.
“Cornell was my reach school,” said Sanchez, a Texas native. “It was an I-didn’t-really-think-I’d-get-in kind of a deal. But I was paired up with a mentor with Service to School who was very helpful and they broke down those barriers for me – and it didn’t seem so far off.”
Sanchez, 24, said he had been nervous about making the transition back to academia and about the age gap with his fellow students. “It almost feels like a big family,” he said. “We’re in a group chat, we keep in touch, and I’ve made several friends, both in summer school as well as here. We have video Zoom conferences to get to know each other and to bounce ideas around about getting more veterans to Cornell.”
Cornell also offers the Fall Veterans’ Seminar (ALS 1100), a new course focusing on the sometimes difficult transition student veterans experience going from a military or community college setting to Cornell. The seminar explores the new identities student veterans may be struggling with; introduces them to available resources and opportunities, including career exploration; pairs them with mentors; and connects them with others on campus and in the Ithaca community.
Fisk’s team has created a new website for student and military-connected students at Cornell, at veterans.cornell.edu. She focuses on veterans’ support and advocacy, military appreciation, work/study positions and an increased social media presence. This site adds to existing online resources such as military.cornell.edu, for Cornell’s student, faculty, staff and alumni military.
Fisk regularly stresses to prospective students that a Cornell education is affordable.
“Cornell’s financial aid is really leading the pack,” she said, noting that student veterans can either use their G.I. Bill or a financial aid package constructed specifically for them. This can give undergraduates the option of saving their G.I. Bill funding for graduate school.
“So veterans can leave here with a fantastic education, and then go on forward and make an impact in the world and do good things,” she said.
Additional resources across campus include the Cornell Undergraduate Veterans Association (CUVA), which focuses on creating a community and supporting advocacy for veterans and helps with career focus needs; Fisk collaborates with the group often.
Fisk also said she enjoys a productive, beneficial relationship with the Cornell Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). “It’s an absolutely wonderful staff, and the officers and the enlisted folks there just couldn’t be more welcoming, approachable and open,” she said. “There’s no reason that fellow veterans and fellow active duty service members can’t have a great relationship.”