SMC Receives $200,000 Grant To Increase Support For Veterans

SANTA MONICA, CA – Santa Monica College received a $200,000 grant from the California Community Colleges Board of Governors to expand support services for SMC's Veterans’ Resources Center. Fifty nine of the 90 California community colleges that have these centers dedicated to helping active duty service members and veterans transition to and succeed in college received a total of $8.5 million in grant money, the SMC press release said.

The grant was awarded to colleges that qualified through a competitive process and SMC received the maximum amount.

“For almost a decade now, Santa Monica College has been actively seeking ways to support student veterans, to go beyond ensuring that they are compliant with Veterans’ Administration regulations and focus on ensuring that they are also successful at SMC,” said Dr. Kathryn E. Jeffery, SMC Superintendent/President. “Our dedicated counselors and staff — led by current faculty leader Elaine Morton and retired VRC faculty leader Linda Sinclair — have truly proven that at SMC, we care deeply about our student veterans and are willing to go the extra mile to see them succeed.”

SMC has enrolled nearly 1,000 student veterans each academic year for the past five years, according to SMC. The California community college system, composed of 73 community college districts and 115 colleges, enrolls roughly 80,000 veterans and active duty service members every year, the press release said.

The SMC Veterans’ Resource Center is where student veterans have access to academic tutoring and counseling, a computer lab, therapy, and referrals to community resources and other veteran-serving programs in the West Los Angeles area, the press release said.

“Let’s just say it was kismet,” said VRC faculty leader Elaine Morton. “We had been discussing providing additional services to student veterans since an internal ‘program review’ in spring 2018, and less than two weeks later, the Chancellor’s Office announced the grant.”

The SMC Veterans’ Resource Center will use the grant funds to help increase the number of student veterans who successfully make progress each year toward their educational and career goals. The center plans on developing a “military-to-academics” transition workshop; organizing a student support group, networking events, and other services exclusively for female veterans; hosting transfer advisors and veterans resource staff from four-year colleges and universities in the region, especially from those to which large numbers of SMC students transfer, the press release said.

“Making a deeper investment in our system’s Veterans Resource Centers runs hand-in-hand with our Vision for Success,” said California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley, in a Sept. 27 press release announcing the recipients of the grant. “The boost in these resources will certainly contribute to the overall success of our student veterans.”

For more information on the SMC Veterans’ Resource Center and all its services, visit www.smc.edu/veterans or call 310-434-8260.

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