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KEANmag
Service &
Sacrifice
Kean University underscored its commitment to student-veterans on
Veterans Day, with the opening of the Veterans Services Lounge in
Willis Hall. The grand opening came on the heels of a Veteran Small
Business Forum, conducted by U.S. Senator Cory Booker, at the North
Avenue Academic Building (NAAB). All in all, November was a good
month for the more than 300 veterans at Kean, as the University laid the
groundwork for continued support of veterans in their academic, social,
and post-military service pursuits.
“The Lounge is a good example of how student leaders can impact the
services that we provide,” said Jeffrey H. Toney, Ph.D., Provost and Vice
President of Academic Affairs. “The president of the student veterans
group, and some of her fellow student-veterans, approached us and
said, ‘We want a space on campus that is just for us.’ We worked with
them to create the Veterans Services Lounge.”
That student was Kimmarah Casey, who heads the University’s Military
and Veterans Club. She envisioned a place where Kean’s former
servicemen and servicewomen could relax, study, and bond over their
shared experiences.
“The objective of the Veterans Lounge is to help people transition from
military to civilian life. It’s also there to help us succeed academically,”
said Casey. “You don’t know the person who’s sitting in the corner?
You could just start up a conversation, because as a military member
to another military member, you always share that camaraderie. It’s a
connection we all have.”
With computers and a television, the Lounge is a perfect place to hang
out, study, and socialize. Staffed part-time by Academic Specialist Daniel
Colangelo ‘16, a United States Air Force veteran and Kean alumnus, the
Veterans Services Lounge is also where student-veterans can receive
tutoring, attend workshops, and obtain assistance in working with veterans
services offices on campus, as well as at the state and federal levels.
Colangelo, who fought his way back from a Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder diagnosis after being injured in the 1996 terrorist attack at
Prince Abdul Aziz Air Base in Saudi Arabia, graduated from Kean with
a Bachelor of Science in Analytical Chemistry. Of his time at Kean,
Colangelo says, “It truly takes a village to raise a man,” and he savors
the chance to be part of the supportive Kean community that helped to
“raise” him, by assisting the University’s current student-veterans.
“Our goal is to let them know about all of the different resources that
are available to them, and to try to make them as successful as possible,”
he said. “At the end of the day, we want every single veteran to have the
same opportunity – to come back to school and better their lives.”
Providing opportunity for veterans, and support for their civilian lives,
was also the theme at Senator Booker’s “Veteran Small Business Forum.”
Hundreds of veteran entrepreneurs and small-business owners, as well
as veterans who hoped to start businesses of their own, came to NAAB
on November 10, to learn about digital marketing strategies, capital,
government agencies that support veteran entrepreneurship, supplier
diversity programs, and military base contracting.
Kean Honors Veterans
