The Veterans Club became an offi­cial Registered Student Organization last spring, which is open to all stu­dents who wish to join.

The pres­i­dent of the Veterans Club is Steven Neshkoff and the vice pres­i­dent is Brian Nanko.

Jean Bennett, Advisor of the Veterans Club and for­mer vet­eran, said not only can stu­dents who have served in the mil­i­tary branches join, but all stu­dents on cam­pus as well.

Bennett said there are cur­rently 10–15 mem­bers in the Veterans Club. She also said the num­ber of mem­bers varies from meet­ing to meeting.

“We started last week, every­one is wel­come to come to the meet­ings and join us,” said Bennett.

The Veterans Club holds their meet­ings on the last Monday of the month at the AMVETS Post in Big Rapids at 5:30 p.m. and on cam­pus in the Supportive Education for Returning Veterans (S.E.R.V.) room in the Rankin Center on Thursdays in the last week of the month at 6 p.m.

SERV is a pro­gram the Veterans Club just started this semes­ter, said Bennett. She added that the pro­gram orig­i­nally began at Cleveland State University.

“It enables vet­er­ans com­ing onto cam­pus to assim­i­late into the aca­d­e­mic envi­ron­ment more eas­ily,” said Bennett.

The over­all ideas of the orga­ni­za­tion are to help out stu­dents who have served in the mil­i­tary by doing things like mak­ing sure they receive all of their G.I. benefits.

“They have more things in com­mon with each other than other stu­dents,” said Bennett. “Their out­look on life is dif­fer­ent than others.”

Bennett said since some have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s good for them to talk and be able to relate to each other.

During meet­ings, Veterans Club mem­bers plan events and hold gen­eral dis­cus­sions such as what they did dur­ing their time serv­ing in the military.

Currently, the Veterans Club is plan­ning upcom­ing events that they will be coordinating.

“They’ve been talk­ing about doing things in the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans and local vet­er­ans,” said Bennett. The mem­bers have also dis­cussed ship­ping care pack­ages to those who are cur­rently serv­ing in the military.

Bennett said the idea to start a Veterans Club at Ferris was brought up by cur­rent pres­i­dent, stu­dent and for­mer vet­eran Neshkoff. Veteran Coordinator Paul Langdon also helped out with set­ting up the organization.

“It’s a way to honor our vet­er­ans,” said Bennett of one of the organization’s purposes.