New Saint Rose hall for veterans
The College of Saint Rose keeps getting to be a better place for students who are veterans.
The college will dedicate a new residence hall specifically for student veterans at 971 Madison Ave., Albany at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
The generosity of the Massry Family, which includes Saint Rose Board of Trustees Vice Chairman I. Norman Massry and Trustee Julie Massry Knox, as well as the support of Tri-city Rentals, made the renovation of the Veteran Residence possible, said Jennifer Gish, assistant vice president for marketing and communications.
Recently, the Massry Family also gave Saint Rose a $100,000 gift to support scholarships for veterans whose education at Saint Rose was not fully funded by their military benefits. Additional donors later matched their gift.
The Veteran Residence, a Victorian-style house, has six large bedrooms and two and half bathrooms, as well as a shared kitchen, living room, and laundry facilities.
“It is important to my family to support those who have proudly served our country as they transition from military life to student life,” said Massry. “We felt the Veteran Residence at Saint Rose was a great way to help aid that transition and encourage student veterans in their pursuit of higher education.”
The house is for both men and women. Veteran students also are able to live in the house all 12 months of the year, rather than having to leave for the summer.
The Veteran Residence is not far from the college’s Veteran Center at 967 Madison Ave.
“When we dedicated the Veteran Center in November 2015, it became a hub where our student veterans and students who are military family members gather, study, and feel part of a special community within the larger Saint Rose campus,” said Saint Rose President Carolyn J. Stefanco. “We want to continue to build upon our efforts to value the unique experiences military-influenced students bring to Saint Rose by providing additional spaces that meet their needs.”
Martin Dinan, director of veteran enrollment for Saint Rose, a retired Army colonel and veteran of three wars, said the residential option helps to ease the transition from military to civilian life.
“A lot of our veterans are coming right off of active service,” Dinan said. “It’s hard to transition. Something that’s veteran-specific helps them because they’re already used to working and living among each other.”
Among the house’s first residents is Jevon Schmitz, a 26-year-old, a first-year student in the Huether School of Business, who served eight years in the Army as an airborne infantryman. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 and 2014.
Schmitz is currently in a Reserve Officer Training Corps program and plans to return to the military after graduating from Saint Rose.
“(Choosing to live in the house) came down to my age and the new mentality I picked up when I was in the military,” Schmitz said. “I wasn’t fully adjusted — even though the Army gives you two weeks of adjustment training. I didn’t want to risk going into an environment with 17and 18-year-olds and losing myself, if that makes sense.”
For the ninth consecutive year, Saint Rose has been named a Military Friendly School by Victory Media, publisher of “GI Jobs” and other publications for military personnel. The college also has been ranked No. 1 among “Gold Standard” private colleges with fewer than 10,000 students for the third year in a row.
volunteer award
Michael Marko of Malta, a tour guide and maintenance volunteer with USS Slater, a Navy destroyer escort museum berthed on the Hudson River in downtown Albany, received the Capital Area Chief Petty Officers Association Volunteer of the Year Award.
Marko, a former destroyer escort sailor himself, was honored during a ceremony aboard the USS Slater during a 243rd birthday celebration of the Navy on Oct. 13.
The Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which the Continental Congress established on Oct. 13, 1775, by authorizing the procurement, fitting out, manning, and dispatch of two armed vessels to cruise in search of munitions ships supplying the British Army in America.
Marko’s navy ties go back to a week after graduating high school. He enlisted upon graduation. He served four years on USS Brough DE-148 and USS Peterson DE-152. At the time he was involved with Operation Deep Freeze, spending much of his time in Antarctic waters. He then spent the next 14 years below the waves on submarines, eventually becoming a senior chief fire controlman. He served aboard Triton SSRN586, a twin-reactor nuclear sub and the first vessel to circumnavigate the globe while fully submerged.
USS Slater museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday through Nov. 25 and will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. For information, call 518-431-1943 for more information or visit http:// www.ussslater.org.
News of your troops and units can be sent to Duty Calls, Terry Brown, Times Union, Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212 or brownt@timesunion.com.