Page 7 - MGA Today - Fall 2016
P. 7

but a service center that partners with organiza-    “Middle Georgia State has long served veterans
tions that help veterans, provides space to them     who are pursuing degrees, but the services were
and collaborates with them to come up with           scattered among different departments. We’ve
holistic approaches to individual cases. It’s        pulled all those resources together so veterans
amazing synergy.”                                    don’t have to hunt and peck on our website to
                                                     find information they need.”
    Besides Ross, VECTR staff includes an
assistant director – Dr. Joe Richardson – and            Rojean Sanders, 33, is one of the veterans
several others with roles related to IT, education,  Lindsey works with, as is Almendras. A Macon
success coaching and standardized testing. Dee       native, Sanders tried three different colleges after
Lindsey, MGA’s executive director for Veteran and    graduating from Central High School but,
Military Services, and Dann Webb, CGTC’s             uncertain of what career she wanted to pursue,
executive director for Military and Veterans         joined the Army before completing a degree.
Services, have offices on their respective campuses
but also do much of their work out of the center.        Sanders suffered a serious in-service injury
                                                     due to an accident, which inspired her to return
    “I’m sort of the face of the University for      to school to become an RN. Eventually after her
veterans who come to VECTR,” Lindsey said.           discharge, she enrolled at Middle Georgia State,

                                                                                                 Article continues on page 8    t

Shown at the August 2016 ribbon cutting marking VECTR’s grand opening are Larry O’Neal, currently chief judge for the
Georgia Tax Tribunal; Gretchen Corbin, commissioner, Technical College System of Georgia; and Hank Huckaby, chancellor,
University System of Georgia. Others in the photo are, left to right, U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop; University System Regent Larry
Walker Jr.; Dr. Ivan Allen, Central Georgia Tech president; Dr. Christopher Blake, Middle Georgia State president; and
Patricia Ross, VECTR executive director. JESSICA WHITLEY

Fall 2016                                            MGA TODAY 7
   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12