Vicki Terronez with her award
Kirkwood’s Vicki Terronez is an army of one as the school’s certifying official
Kirkwood’s Veterans Affairs Certifying Official Vicki Terronez has been around the military most of her life. Some of her family members were in the armed forces. It’s her experience and appreciation of the sacrifices soldiers give that help her to understand the needs of vets seeking an education. That’s why Terronez is the right person for the job.
Everyday her schedule is jam-packed with appointments to help veterans in need of assistance at the college. For every veteran that she takes under her wing, Terronez certifies their enrollment each semester, verifies the courses taken pertain to graduation and monitors satisfactory academic progress. In addition, there are many other aspects to her job ranging from reporting withdrawals to Veterans Affairs to processing tuition assistance. Sometimes it can be a lot to sort through for just one of her clients.
However, her hard work has paid off in more ways than one. Terronez’s dedication has helped Kirkwood achieve the coveted status of being a military friendly school. This, along with other successes, is the reason the college honored her at an awards ceremony by giving her the Kirkwood Community College Distinguished Service Award for 2013. But Terronez is not looking for recognition. She’s looking to assist those veterans in need of help at the school. That’s no small number of people.
“Right now we’re at about eight hundred vets for the spring semester,” said Terronez. “We’ll probably have about a thousand for the year. Actually, there are probably more vets attending than I know about because they’ve already used their benefits or they expired.”
Word of the help that Terronez offers is apparently spreading. When she took over as the V.A. representative there were around 200 vets enrolled at the college. Last year, she helped more than 750. According to her, there are a few reasons for the rise in enrollment numbers.
“The reason we have so many vets here is because of the smaller class size, one-on-one instruction and the faculty and staff are aware of the classroom needs of veterans,” said Terronez. “We also have a person here that takes care of every aspect for them, which is the whole focus of the One Stop department. Not every school has a full-time person dedicated to veterans needs.”
In her 32 years at Kirkwood, Terronez has proven time and time again her dedication to veterans. The program has grown exponentially from where it was when she took over. She created the Veteran’s Lounge in Iowa Hall where vets can have some camaraderie and network with each other. She even provides snacks for those she serves.
Her number one goal is to make sure that those that come to her get what they need from Kirkwood to succeed. She doesn’t do it for recognition or awards despite having a few in her office. Terronez is serving her country. The only difference is, unlike the veterans she helps everyday, her theater of operations is academia.