Monday, October 11, 2010

Veterans Forum At MCC October 13

The McHenry County College student veteran organization and the Veterans Network Committee of Northern Illinois at McHenry County College will host a McHenry County veteran’s forum from 6-10 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13 in the college’s conference center, Building B, 8900 U.S. Highway 14, Crystal Lake.

The event’s format will consist of presentations on a variety of topics of interest to vets who may need help or information on where to find resources. Resources covered will include VA Medical, the Veterans Administration, the Veterans Assistance Commission, MCC Financial Aid, employment assistance, and women’s veteran issues.

Most veterans do not know what benefits they are entitled to,” noted Don Curfman, the MCC Faculty Advisor for the college’s student veterans organization Chi Gama Iota (XGI). “This forum will bring the Federal VA, state, and the McHenry County organizations together for one-stop shopping for veterans of all ages.

The VA Hospital from North Chicago will also be here, and numerous politicians will be on hand to thank the veterans and their families. The partnership with the Veterans Network committee will enable MCC to broaden the scope for all veterans.”

The forum is free and open to all veterans, family members and friends. Following the presentations from 6-9 p.m., there will be a question and answer session from 9-10 p.m.

MCC was recently designated as a Military Friendly School for 2011 by G.I. Jobs magazine, which honors the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools that are doing the most to embrace America’s veterans as students. Schools on the list include state universities, private colleges, community colleges and trade schools. The common bond is their shared priority of recruiting students with military experience.

According to Lynn McCabe, a coordinator in Financial Aid and Veterans Services at MCC, the college has 103 veterans/veterans dependents registered and certified for collecting Federal Veterans Benefits.

Schools on the Military Friendly Schools list also offer additional benefits to student veterans such as on-campus veterans programs, credit for service, military spouse programs and more. Criteria for making the Military Friendly Schools list included efforts to recruit and retain military and veteran students, results in recruiting military and veteran students and academic accreditations.

G.I. Jobs (www.gijobs.com) is published by Victory Media, a veteran-owned business which also publishes “The Guide to Military Friendly Schools,” “Military Spouse” and “Vetrepreneur” magazines and annually rates the nation’s “Military Friendly Employers,” “Military Spouse Friendly Employers” and “Best Corporations for Veteran-Owned Businesses.”

For more information, contact Don Curfman at (815) 455-8731 or email him at dcurfman@mchenry.edu.

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