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Veterans Resource Center reports rising benefit use, outlines outreach and events
Summary
The Governors State Veterans Resource Center reported an estimated 287 student veterans, 173 benefit recipients and a 19% increase in benefit recipients year over year, and described staffing, programs and upcoming events supported by AmeriCorps VISTA.
Angelica Damiani, program director of the Veterans Resource Center at Governors State University, told trustees the center supports student veterans and military‑connected family members with benefits processing, campus programming and community outreach.
Damiani said the center is located in the Goodman Malmeth Technology Building and is staffed by the program director, a program administrator (Paige Stolkowski), four VA work‑study students funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and an AmeriCorps VISTA member, Bianca Tolbert. She described work to improve data collection and said the center currently estimates 287 veterans enrolled at the university, 81 dependents and 173 students actively using VA benefits. "This is an estimated headcount because we need to improve our data collection a little bit," she said.
Damiani said the number of benefit recipients rose 19 percent this year compared with last year and noted Will County has more than 25,000 veterans and 422 veteran‑owned businesses. She described planned activities including a veterans graduation celebration April 24, a Veterans Week resource fair and recurring "coffee chat" and "Talk It Out Tuesdays" events. The center also plans to expand community programming with partners such as AllenForce and to pursue outreach that could increase enrollment and retention.
Why this matters: Student‑veteran services can affect access, retention and completion for nontraditional and military‑connected students. Better tracking of veteran status and benefit use can inform recruitment, advising and shared services across the university.
What happened next: Trustees asked about trends and data collection; Damiani said tracking improved this year and that she is collaborating with admissions and campus data governance to refine reporting.
