For student veterans, adapting from a life in the military to one as a civilian can be daunting, but Leah Sakacs hopes her Cal State Long Beach student organization can make the transition smoother.

Unlike the university’s Veterans Services, which helps students with, among other things, their GI Bill, Veterans Network, or Vet Net as it’s known on campus and is the CSULB chapter for the national Student Veterans of America, is not only a network of veterans on campus but also a link to local employers and professional organizations. Some services Vet Net offers include resume writing and career workshops, Sakacs said.

Transition help

“Military life and civilian are two different things. Veterans are trying to find a new sense of community and understand how their skills are useful in the job world,” said Sakacs, 28, president of Vet Net and a member of the Air Force Reserve. “We try to help with that transition as much as we can.”

Strive campaign

Five CSULB students are partners with Vet Net for Strive, a one-month campaign, ending March 15, that will bring awareness to the group and its services for student veterans. The students are sharing their stories to spotlight what they strive for in the community.

The campaign is part of the Bateman Case Study Competition, the national contest for Public Relations Student Society of America. The competition gives students an opportunity to apply classroom education and internship experiences to create and implement a public relations campaign.

Campaign events

The campaign will be highlighted at CSULB’s final men’s basketball game of the season at the Walter Pyramid on March 5 at 4 p.m. Student veteran Andy Meats will sing the national anthem while the Reserves Officers Training Corps color guard will present the American flag.

During the game, students in the crowd, with lettered card, will assemble the word “strive.”

The campaign will end with a Strive wall that will be created on the campus’ Friendship Walk Central on March 15 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Students, faculty, staff and community leaders will be able to pledge, “I STRIVE to support student veterans.”

Marshall W. Thomas, director of CSULB’s Veterans Services, said the campaign will help bring awareness of student veterans issues to the larger population.

‘Encouraged’

“I’m encouraged that there are groups who want to increase knowledge about veterans on campus,” he said. “It would be foolish to think that other students would know about the student veteran experience when so few of the population has served in the military.”

Sakacs hopes the campaign will help them reach more student veterans.

“It’s fantastic that we’re a part of this,” Sakacs said. “We’re trying to get our name out there.

“There are over 500 known veterans on a campus with 35,000 students,” she said. “It’s a challenge to find them.”

For more information on Vet Net, email the group at vetnet.csulb@gmail.com