Orientation Targets New Student Veterans



Student veterans & OCC staff celebrate the Veterans Resoure Room opening.

Student veterans will be front and center at a special orientation for all OCC veterans to take place Monday.

The event will take place 4-7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 5 in Room G240 of the Auburn Hills campus. It will include a special welcome from the Auburn Hills president Dr. Gordon May and various presentatives from veterans groups and OCC support services.

OCC alum and student veteran Cristy Burchartz is excited that OCC is enhancing its services for student veterans. The co-founder of the OCC Student Veterans Association helped advised OCC administrators on what services are important for student veterans.

Those needs vary from the typical students’, Burchartz says. Many veteran students are adjusting to life after the military, have benefits available that differ from other students’ and need special support sorting through military benefits, financial aid and disability services.

“OCC is making great strides,” she said. “The veterans-only orientation is a huge step.”

Katherine McMullen, Director of Student Services on the Auburn Hills campus, says OCC has about 500 student veterans and the numbers have been climbing.

Planners have a robust lineup of services available at Monday’s orientation to include representatives from the Student Veterans Association, the OCC Counseling Department, Academic Support Center, ACCESS, Financial Aid, Library Services, Placement Services, Veterans Affairs, Student Life, Recruiting, OCC faculty, the Pontiac Veterans Center, Oakland County Veterans Services Division, and the Disabled American Veterans Association.

“We hope to answer as many questions as we can and to streamline their transition to OCC,” McMullen said.

“We will talk about how to navigate student services, registration, records, about classroom success skills and how to be prepared for the fall,” McMullen said. “We hope to get valuable feedback on how we are doing so that we can keep improving services.”

“We recognize this valuable group of students and want them to know we value their service and want to provide them the skills they need to transition back to life after the military,” she added.

For more information and to RSVP, email ahorientation@oaklandcc.edu.

Visit the Student Veteran Association at Oakland Community College Facebook page here.