When leaving combat zones for classrooms, veterans must transition from military to student life, and Veterans Services is helping.

The university was awarded the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Veteran Education, making it the first university to receive the honor twice. The university was the first to receive the award after its creation in 2010.

Simon Wlodarski, chief of staff of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, presented the framed certificate to interim Provost Susan Ford in front of the Travelling Vietnam Wall Exhibit Thursday.

“SIU has really developed some best practices that other universities could mirror,” Wlodarski said.

He said schools are nominated each semester by their veteran communities and evaluated by the success and benefits of their programs. The department awards one university statewide each semester.

“For this particular semester, SIU’s most successful merits are how they … help [students] decide what they want to do and then successfully graduate through that degree program,” Wlodarski said.

President Randy Dunn, who attended the ceremony, said SIU Veterans Services gathers resources from across campus to give veterans a “one-stop-shop” for all their needs.

“They’ve been in the military, many of them have been serving in war zones, and they have very little patience and very little desire to sit and visit 10 offices to get a question answered,” Dunn said. “They’re looking for an institution that’s responsive, that can give them clear direction, and to get questions answered so they can get about the business of getting their degree.”

Coordinator Paul Copeland said the services have accomplished many initiatives in the past year, such as an alumni constituency group and a reception for veterans during Homecoming weekend.

“We have just started taking current students and assigning them as peer advisers, so we’ll have some current students who are interested in helping the next generation of students become successful,” he said.

Copeland said there are 643 student veterans on campus this year.

Dan Perritt, a senior from Des Plaines studying history and political science, said he contacted Veteran Services and it helped him understand the transition process before he came to the university in 2011.

“Transition happened very steadily,” he said. “The first semester is typically the most wavy when you’re going from an active duty mindset from the military because you’re goal oriented. You’re mission oriented more than anything else.”

Perritt said switching to civilian life was difficult, and he had to change his mindset from expecting objectives to be given to him, to pursuing his own objectives and education.

“It’s a slow progression from what you were, into shaping what you want to be,” he said.

Shortly after he came to the university, Perrit said he started working for Veteran Services as a VA work-study to help veteran students undergo similar mindset changes.

“Giving them that mission is imperative … because when we leave it’s kind of like this whole wide world is out there, but you don’t know what to do with it,” he said.

Marissa Novel can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @marissanovelDE or at 536-3311 ext. 268.