UNM Receives Grant to Staff Three AmeriCorp Members for a Year

Three Ameri­Corp mem­bers will be work­ing at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Vet­er­ans Resource Cen­ter (VRC) in 2013, and a fourth at CNM, thanks to a grant recently awarded to the New Mex­ico Col­lege Access Net­work (CAN). 

A first-year pilot pro­gram, UNM and CNM are the first enti­ties in New Mex­ico to receive Ameri­Corps mem­bers, which accord­ing to the National Col­lege Advis­ing Corps, is the first pro­gram of its kind: a near-peer advise­ment pro­gram for col­lege grad­u­ates to men­tor and advise cur­rent vet­eran col­lege students.

Ameri­Corp mem­bers com­mit to 1,700 hours of ser­vice. They pro­vide one-on-one advise­ment, includ­ing refer­rals to cam­pus and com­mu­nity resources; help nav­i­gate GI Bill ben­e­fits; sup­port work with UNM enroll­ment, finan­cial aid and advise­ment cen­ters, and any addi­tional resources to sup­port stu­dent aca­d­e­mic success.

Direc­tor of UNM Vet­er­ans Resource Cen­ter Mar­i­lyn Dyk­man said, “We hope this is just the first step in increas­ing the sup­port our stu­dent vet­er­ans receive. Our num­bers have grown rapidly over the years.”

In the 2012 fall semes­ter, UNM main cam­pus had 1,262 iden­ti­fied vet­er­ans and mil­i­tary fam­ily mem­bers uti­liz­ing some form of the GI Bill or other mil­i­tary ben­e­fits, bring­ing over $8 mil­lion in rev­enue to UNM.   

More vet­er­ans are expected to enroll at UNM in the next three years as troops return home and make use of their GI Bill and mil­i­tary edu­ca­tion ben­e­fits. Dyk­man said, “Grants received through CAN to sup­port UNM and other edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tions, help the Vet­er­ans Resource Cen­ter bet­ter serve vet­er­ans, mil­i­tary ser­vice mem­bers, spouses and other fam­ily mem­bers, and that’s the goal.”   

For more infor­ma­tion on the Veteran’s CAN pro­gram, con­tact Kather­ine Old­berg at (505) 345‑3344 ext. 13 or email to: katherine@collegenm.org