Weston Polaski is the secretary of the Student Veterans Club (SVC), and has been an active officer in the club for over three years. He served in the United States Marine Corps as an infantryman from 2005 – 2009. He served in the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Charlie Company (1st Marine Division) and deployed to Iraq from March-October 2007. Weston is currently majoring in history and secondary education. After graduating from NEIU this 2012 Spring semester, Weston hopes to teach history at the high school level.
Armando Corral is the SVC’s Vice President, and on the executive board of the International Business Conference as well as the Council of Clubs. He is a junior, majoring in Business Management. Originally from Chicago, Armando served in the Marine Corps from 2004 – 2008, complete with an eight month deployment to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. During his time in the Marines, he developed the Marine Special Operation Command in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. After graduating Armando hopes to work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Marlene Julye is a social work major and the President of the SVC. She served in the United States Navy as a MH-60s helicopter mechanic from 2004 – 2008 with a deployment to the Persian Gulf in 2008. Along with being a student Marlene was also appointed to the Student Veterans of America 2012 National Leadership Council. After graduating in May 2012 Marlene will pursue a career in Military Social Work.
Rebecca Rodriguez is the SVC Outreach Coordinator and is married with 2 children. Rebecca served in the U.S. Army for 20 years and again in 2007. Before attending NEIU, Rebecca earned her Associate’s degree in Dietetics, and is currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science. Along with going to school, working, taking care of her family Rebecca is also an assistant troop leader for a Girl Scout troop for her daughters.
In addition to participating in the various events, one of her main responsibilities is trying to connect with more Veterans on campus and spread the word about the club. With this in mind, Rebecca created a Facebook page so we can share information with the others in the club as well as fellow NEIU students. Rebecca also publishes information about upcoming events using the events option on that page.
The Student Veterans Club is an official chapter of the Student Veterans of America, and is open to all student veterans and veteran supporters. The goal of SVC is to function as a means for veterans to transition into civilian life, help the community through volunteer work, and to help support the troops overseas. Established in 2007 the SVC has done many activities to become involved in not only the school, but also the community. SVC aims to encourage its members to participate in various volunteer work as well as the numerous veteran activities SVC hosts.
Membership is open to anyone, and we welcome anyone who would like to support our club and veterans as a whole. Some of the annual events SVC hosts are the Veterans Day celebration, where we honor those present before us as well as those still serving, and Hikes for the Homeless, where we walk as a team from the campus to downtown Chicago handing out donations to the city’s homeless.
This past summer we hosted a 9/11 Remembrance 5k where we raised almost 2k to donate to charities that help service members and their families. We have bake sales every month, featuring goodies that are handmade by our members. Our upcoming events will be our Honoring Women Veterans luncheon and paintball trip in March and our annual Hike for the Homeless ending with a family BBQ in April. For more information and to keep up to date on everything please visit our Facebook Page: http://tiny.cc/NEIUSVC SVC Events: http://tiny.cc/NEIUSVC-Events. Or email Veterans-Club@neiu.edu.