Grand Rapids Community College alumna Amy Batchelder spoke about her military experience in front of many GRCC administrators and attendees on Nov. 13 in honor of Veterans Days.
Batchelder later led a Q&A panel discussion with GRCC’s Veteran Services and other GRCC faculty members to discuss how the college can support student veterans.
“My call to serve same in 2003 when my grandfather…was laid to rest,” Batchelder said. “He had served in World War II and for his service, he was given military honors at his funeral. Which includes a gun salute. And for every shot that was fired, I felt the reverberations through the core of my being and I knew that it was my turn to serve.”
Batchelder graduated from GRCC in Fine and Studio Arts in 2004 and later enlisted in the National Guard later that year. She spent the next eight years with the National Guard, serving four years in Michigan with the 1437 Engineer Battalion and the other four as a noncommissioned officer.
In 2011, she traveled to Reno, Nevada to serve in a medical unit, and trained in the Sierra Nevada Mountains while stating it was the “most fit time of my life.”
She would later develop breathing problems which resulted in Batchelder requiring a pacemaker which prohibited her from performing her full duties in the military.
“As I sat there in the doctor’s office in my military uniform and combat boots, they told me I needed a pacemaker, that my heart wasn’t functioning on its own well enough anymore. I didn’t hear anything else they said that day,” Batchelder said. “After having the pacemaker implanted, my first sergeant and commander told me that I could fight to stay in if that’s what I chose. But in a few weeks, it became clear to me that I wouldn’t be able to stay in…I couldn’t perform my duties the way I needed to and I wouldn’t be able to lead my soldiers the way the military needed me to…”
After spending several years working with veterans, Batchelder founded Veterans Rising, which focuses on creating a community of support and social engagement, in 2022.
After the speech, guests were invited to the Veterans Center to talk about the resources GRCC has for student veterans and discuss some suggestions to improve their experience off and on campus.
Here are some of the suggestions that were shared:
- Making veteran orientations mandatory to help student veterans get the resources they need and allow them to connect to other like-minded peers.
- Make classes more accessible for those working full-time or having a family.
- Allow veterans to bring family members or loved ones to make them feel more comfortable when on campus for the first time.
While these suggestions are not set in stone, they allowed staff and faculty to hear feedback on how to make GRCC a more welcoming and inclusive space for veterans. To find more resources available for student veterans at GRCC, click here.
