At the college’s annual Veterans Day celebration, Vice President for Student Affairs and Student Success Sharon Wilson-Taylor thanked student veterans for the perspective they bring to campus life.
“When they come to our community of scholars, they bring so much,” she said. “It makes the campus smarter. It makes us see through different lenses.”
The celebration on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at the Student Center, which was hosted by Columbia’s Student Engagement and Leadership office, included a food spread, card-writing station and veteran art. It had one of the largest crowds in attendance in the past few years.
Several veterans at the celebration said they found art to be their outlet of expression. Victor Enriquez, a junior fine arts major, served in the Marines from 2008 to 2012. Enriquez’s artwork with themes of heritage, faith and reverence, were on display at the event.
Enriquez said he can be self-conscious about his veteran status at Columbia. He said that since Columbia is a liberal arts college, he sometimes has a stigma because of current tension in the country. He hopes that a group can be put together for veteran students so they have a place to connect.
“As far as a veteran presence here, we’re working to put something together,” Enriquez said. “It just doesn’t seem like there are very many of us. It’s not about how many people we get, but about sticking together and making sure that we know that we’re supported.”
Columbia used to have a chapter of the Student Veterans of America on campus, but it dissolved a few years ago after senior club members graduated. A designated vet lounge also closed.
Student veteran and senior film and television major Gonzo Gonzalez said a student group for veterans should come back because it could help students transition into college and continue with their creative discipline.
“If we actually had a community of ourselves here to push ourselves to do better and break out of that shell, out of that identity that we were given, and to find purpose and have faith in the work that we want to do, then we would be better geared towards success,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez served in the Navy from 2016 to 2021. He was happy the college hosted a Veterans Day celebration because it lets him see that there is a veteran presence at Columbia, important without a student organization.
Richard Laurent, a part-time instructor in the School of Visual Arts, was impressed with the event and the gratitude he received as a Vietnam veteran.
“I’m totally floored, I’ll be honest with you. The last time I attended a veterans meeting here was about 10 years ago, so this means a lot to me,” Laurent said.
Laurent served in the Army for two years after being drafted in 1971. He was part of defense intelligence and worked both in the Pentagon and the Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam. He hopes to bring an art presence to other veterans.
Cayla Thurmond, a first-year student double majoring in photography and business administration, attended the event specifically to write gratitude letters to veterans as a way of “thanking them for the things they’ve done.”
Kristi Beltran, director of Student Engagement and Leadership, said it was important to celebrate the college’s veterans.
“We’ve been doing a Veterans Day celebration for years now as an opportunity to get everyone together to honor our veterans, both the ones that are part of our Columbia community, but also representing veterans in our lives outside this community, in the Chicagoland area,” Beltran said. “We know that students that have served, that is like an integral part of their identity and who they are, and so this is just a small way to honor that here.”
Editor’s Note: Chronicle staff photojournalist Miguel Guerrero, a Marine veteran, photographed the event.
Copy edited by Matt Brady
