Veteran Services: Saving Military Personnel Time and Money

The Veteran Services department at PVCC offers an array of resources and comprehensive services to students who are veterans or dependents of veterans. The Veteran Services page, which is located here. The Veteran Services department at PVCC is notorious for ranking highly amongst other schools in the Military Friendliness® and Acceptance categories.

The Veteran Education and Transition Service (VETS) offers free information sessions via Zoom for new military students who are interested in using their VA Educational Benefits at PVCC. In the online session, advisors will lead the attendee through the application process for admissions. If you have questions about; Military exceptions for residency requirements, placement assessments, financial aid advising, career services, disability services, or credit for prior learning, the information session is a great place to start. 

For specific instructions on how to set up a web conference, contact Jackie Fisher at jfisher@pvcc.edu. 

I recently sat down with Cecelia Lightfoot, a retired U.S. ARMY veteran with over 20 years of service. Lightfoot attended PVCC for one year in 2012, before transferring to a 4 year college where she received her Bachelors of Science degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. I’d like to disclose that Cecelia Lightfoot is my mother, however, she agreed to answer all my questions honestly and professionally.

I asked Lightfoot about her experience working with the Veterans Services office. 

“The Veterans services staff was very supportive and knowledgeable. They had experience dealing with prior military personnel […] they were so welcoming,” she said. 

Lightfoot went on to emphasize the importance of the Veteran Service staff understanding how military people thought. 

“They understood that I wanted to attend school while also working a full-time job and raising a family,” she said. Lightfoot continued, “As a military vet, they offered me the option to apply my military education benefits package to pay for my schooling.” 

I then asked her what her overall thoughts about PVCC were, and she said the following, “You have great instructors and professors, who may have taught at Universities before. I liked that PVCC was geared more towards the independent individual, the go-getter type who’s looking to make a career. That was really refreshing as an older student” 

As the interview came to a close I asked Lightfoot one final question. I asked her how she would rate the Veterans Services department at PVCC on a scale of one to ten. 

“I’d give them a 10 out of 10. There’s structure at PVCC, yet it’s informal which is something that I really liked. They helped me build my own study plan too.”