Serving the Community

The day was hot even though it was well into October, but it didn’t seem to faze Darren Green as he sprayed down the freshly tilled plant beds.  

Little white signs poked out from the dirt inside the raised metal garden beds to mark the kinds of plants that will grow there — radish, lettuce, celery and other vegetables. 

“Last weekend we went and got the compost. We got, boy, was it 12 bags of compost? 14? Something like that,” Green said. “This week we’re getting all these planted, and hopefully they’ll be ready to donate to the Tarrant Area Food Bank.” 

Green is a student worker at the South Veterans Resource Center and president of the South chapter of the Student Veterans of America. The SVA has been planning community projects like planting food to donate to local food banks and volunteering at the nearby veterans home. 

“This is Mark and Derek’s baby. I’m just here to support,” Green said. 

SVA vice president Mark Power and secretary Derek Cloutier, both student veterans, bring two different types of experience to the project. 

Power has a passion for gardening and is pursuing a degree in applied science and horticulture. He has been gardening his whole life. 

“I got more plants than you could probably count,” he said. “Anything that I try to do, I usually incorporate nature in some form or try to because of the healing properties of it.” 

Power said he came up with the idea for the community project because he and the Veterans Resource Center wanted to give back. 

“And what better way to give back than to feed people,” he said. “To be able to come together as a community and be able to feed people is just a beautiful idea.” 

Before coming to TCC, Cloutier did non-profit work in Boston for 10 years and built a community where veterans could share their lives in a judgment-free zone. His work was built around using traditional and unconventional therapy to help veterans with addiction. 

Cloutier said he doesn’t see that kind of community here in Texas. 

“That’s what we want to kind of accomplish,” he said. “Bringing the veteran community more together with this SVA chapter, and doing good with it, and helping more vets.” 

Green said a lot of student veterans like him try to find opportunities for community outreach. 

“The whole reason why we put it together is just to give the veterans that are here a place where they can do not only community outreach, but some sort of therapy through that community outreach,” he said. “SVA just kind of gets us all together.” 

SVA is a national non-profit organization that addresses the needs and concerns of student veterans in higher education. With almost 1,600 chapters across the nation, the organization has been on South Campus since the Veterans Resource Center was established. 

 

Veterans counselor Valerie Groll has been at the Veterans Resource Center since it started as a pilot program on South Campus in 2013. She said the center works hard to serve the veterans who come in and help them navigate things like how to use their benefits. 

 

“It’s important when the veterans come in here that, first and foremost, they feel welcome in here. That this is a safe space for them, but they feel welcome. And that they leave with an answer,” she said. 

Green initially started his studies at TCC on SE Campus. He said he came to the South Veterans Resource Center because he wasn’t getting the answers he needed about his scheduling conflicts at SE. 

“That’s how I met Valerie,” he said. “She helped me out of a really bad spot, and so I just started coming here, just because it’s a welcoming environment.” 

Before coming to TCC, SVA senator Steven Heathman worked on wind turbines and would climb 300 feet every day. When he realized that he didn’t love the work he was doing, he made the decision to go back to school after more than a decade away. 

“I was tired of climbing towers. I felt like I wasn’t seeing my kids all the time,” Heathman said. “I had to make my choice.” 

Heathman chose TCC South Campus because it was the first place that came up when he searched for the best schools for veterans. He chose to pursue a degree in political science because of his interest in politics that started when he was in the Army during the Obama administration. 

“I think every veteran, when they get out, they try to find their purpose,” Heathman said. “We always try to find the first or the second thing that attracts us, and a lot of the times we come in with little hopes or those dreams that we have when we was kids.” 

Heathman doesn’t regret his decision to go back to college. He said his best advice to student veterans is to never be afraid to ask questions, no matter how much experience they have.

“We stall out,” Heathman said. “Every veteran stalls out. We can see that. And if you feel like you’re stalling out at the point, ask us, talk to us and we can help you.” 

Power said a lot of veterans struggle with feeling isolated after their service. Community projects like the ones the Veterans Resource Center and the SVA take on can help veterans reconnect with others and give them a sense of purpose. 

“It brings the ability for them to connect and come together and rebuild,” he said. “It gives them the ability to get out of the house when a lot of vets are isolated.” 

After more than a decade at the Veterans Resource Center, Groll is proud to be working with student veterans. 

“Our veterans have some amazing lives — during their service, but then after their service, how they want to continue to serve,” she said. “There’s just something about the training that ignites, and it never gets extinguished.”