Junior Moreno, who graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver in spring with a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and is a Veterans Certifying Official of Veteran and Military Student Services, remembers the moment he first felt he belonged at the University.
“I knew I wanted to go to school but had no idea how to use my military benefits,” Moreno said of his mindset in 2019, when he was fresh off an Army deployment to Iraq. “I was walking through Tivoli, came into the (Veteran and Military Student Services) Center and met Carlos Nevares (a 2020 MSU Denver graduate with a bachelor’s degree in History). We started talking about our military service, our backgrounds and favorite sports teams, and I knew at that point that I was in the right place.”
Now, the boot is on the other foot for Moreno. He hopes the Veteran and Military Student Services Center can provide a sense of community for Roadrunner veterans and military-connected students. He also aims to be the encouragement someone else needs, like what Nevares was to him.
“The best thing veterans can do is come by the center,” Moreno said. “I understand their frustration with the issues of transitioning from military to civilian life, especially when it comes to being on campus and in classrooms with students who are sometimes 10 years younger. So with this current position, I have more of an understanding of what our student veterans need academically to achieve their degrees.”
Veteran and Military Student Services Center
LaChaune DuHuart, an alumna who earned a Master of Social Work degree in spring and is an assistant director for Student Recruitment, says Moreno’s experience is not unique.
“We provide not only information and assistance on an array of education benefits,” she said, “but also offer a satellite food pantry, tutoring, workspaces and events framed around veteran and military benefits such as housing, career and financial assistance.”
Among its primary services, the center:
- Assists Roadrunners through the transition from military to student life.
- Provides information and assistance from the enrollment process through graduation.
- Helps students maximize the use of education benefits.
- Removes barriers to retention for veteran and military students.
- Informs the campus community about ways to support veteran and military students.
- Advocates for veteran and military students.
- Refers veteran and military students to campus and community resources.
Most Roadrunner veterans know about the center through its primary mission: the accurate and timely certification of educational benefits. But the center can also build community and camaraderie for almost 850 veteran and military-connected students, who compose around 5% of the University’s student body.
“I would want student veterans starting here at MSU Denver to know first of all that they have an office or safe haven where they can be around fellow student vets who are dealing with the same issues and know that we have been there ourselves so he or she is not alone,” Moreno said.
Veterans Day events
- Join director John Valadez for a screening and discussion of “American Exile,” a film about brothers Manuel and Valente Valenzuela, who both volunteered and fought in Vietnam before being deported.
- Join all three Auraria Campus institutions for a ceremony honoring people who have served in the U.S. armed forces. Retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Michael Dumont will provide the keynote address, and each campus president will give brief remarks.
