By: Imtiaz Haque
For me and many people, college life is incredibly monotonous, with traveling back and forth from home and class being enough to burn them out. However, my goal for Navigating NYIT is to show everyone that college is more than just struggle and burnout. Today, I interviewed one of the many student veterans at NYIT, Amadeaus Reeves. Amadeaus is a part of the Student Veteran Organization, also known as the SVO, which is a club for military-connected students, who are not just veterans but also family or friends of those in the military who are eligible to use the benefits of a veteran for college, to create a safe space where they can establish camaraderie with one another with the ultimate goal of helping military-connected students transition into college life. During the week of January 4th-6th, Amadeaus and some of the members of SVO here at NYIT took a trip to the SVA national conference where military-connected students come together to “share ideas, best practices, and network with student veterans, military-connected students, their families, supporters, and allies, as well as corporate, government, and nonprofit partners, and more” (a direct quote from the SVA National conference, also known as Natcon, website). Amadeaus himself met people from Hawaii and other states as well as representatives from big companies like Boeing or ComCast. Only 4 students managed to go this year due to COVID-19 causing many setbacks for many clubs including the SVO. However, Amadeaus told us that they are looking to bring more people next January as the club begins to regain its lost momentum. Speaking of regaining their lost momentum, the SVO has many events planned for this semester including, a trip to the Summit, a financial aid fundraiser for student veterans, and so much more that can all be found in the recorded interview with Amadeaus on the Manhattan Globe youtube channel. These events will be located mainly on the Manhattan campus however, that doesn’t mean that they’re not open to the Long Island campus. In fact, a lot of these events are made with the Long Island Campus in mind as the SVO actually includes students from Long Island and the NYC Campus totaling around 160 members. While wrapping up, I’d like to remind everyone that college isn’t just going to class, doing work, coming home to do more work, and repeating. We share these spaces with so many people of different backgrounds and I think it’s important to give respect and learn more about those around us, as they have done so much for us, that it’s the least that we can do for them. If you or someone you know is a military-connected student and would like to learn more about the SVO, there is a campus group for the SVO that all military-connected students are automatically signed up for. If you have any unanswered questions, please contact Joel Acevedo, who is the Associate Director of the Military & Veteran Affairs, at jaceve10@nyit.edu or come to the Military & Veterans Affairs office at 26 W 61st Street on the Mezzanine (floor marked M on the elevator)
With all of that in mind, be on the lookout for the video interview with Amadeaus and keep searching for that sweet sweet treasure