Helping student veterans navigate the next chapter

SAGINAW—Road dust swirls around our vehicles as we take the quick journey from Kelly Parrott’s house to the plot of land she plans to turn into a respite and source of nourishment for veterans.

All that’s there now is a sign that reads Project Dandelion, which is a local nonprofit. But Parrott casts her eyes around and talks about the gardens and gazebos she will build to help veterans transitioning from the military to civilian life like she did.

“We are going to have veterans, as well as members of the community, out to plant vegetables, fruits, herbs, and do check-ins and talks about what the community needs,” she said.

Parrott, who just wrapped up her Bachelor of Science in health care administration, is now working on her Master of Public Health at the University of Michigan-Flint. She credits the UM-Flint Student Veterans Resource Center for helping her as a first-generation student to navigate her education.

“The Student Veterans Resource Center made it honestly a breeze for me because they were able to say, ‘We’ll handle this for you,'” Parrott said. “It was the University of Michigan that was embracing me.”

The center has assisted hundreds of veterans since it was established in 2009, said Helen Budd, program manager for the Student Veterans Resource Center.

The center was formed by a group of university staff and student veterans who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan to “provide a one-stop location for student veterans to get admissions and benefit support and get the camaraderie that they didn’t have anymore after leaving the service,” Budd said.

The center served 285 veterans last year—an 18% increase over 2024. And the program has been recognized for 11 years running for its commitment to serving student veterans with the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency’s Gold-Level school designation.

That designation also is shared by the Ann Arbor campus, which serves about 430 veterans a year, and the Dearborn campus, which serves more than 117 veterans each year.

“Our student veterans have encountered some challenges along the way because transitioning from military to civilian life is not easy,” said Budd, who believes veterans deserve prompt responses. “But thanks to the services that were provided here, they were not given the runaround.”

Hard years, fragmented services

Josh Rutledge, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, projects the first slide of his Powerpoint on a large expanse of white space at the Midland VFW. He graduated in the spring from UM-Flint with a Master of Public Administration.

Now a field representative for Safeguard Veterans, which is a one-year pilot program funded by the U.S. Office of Veteran Affairs’ Office of Suicide Prevention. The mission is to address the veteran’s suicide crisis and its underlying causes. The military estimates that roughly 22 veterans commit suicide every day. Saginaw is one of six cities nationwide where a one-year pilot is being researched.

He shares all of this information with the nearly 20 veterans assembled at the VFW hall. His 21-year military career along with 10 years spent as a deputy in the Midland County Sheriff’s Department, adds to his credibility as does a long stretch of unemployment.

“When I came off active duty in 2010, the recession had just happened. Everybody was afraid to employ veterans. PTSD got a bad rap,” Rutledge said. “I was unemployed for three years. So I mean, it was not a great time in my life. I had a brand new daughter, my wife, we moved around. So that’s really hard on somebody. I didn’t want other veterans to struggle the way that I struggled.”

Rutledge, who retired from the National Guard earlier this year, said one of the challenges that veterans face is the plethora of resources around that want to help them. Only they don’t know about them or those resources aren’t able to connect with veterans.

“Which is why I’m talking to you guys, right? The support systems are fragmented. A lot of veterans are scared to also interact with the VA, especially from my generation,” Rutledge said. “So I don’t have any money to give to anybody. I don’t have another program. I’m just trying to get veterans to the resources that are already existing in the community that they might not know about.”

Budd at UM-Flint did the same thing for him. Rutledge said Budd reached out to him immediately to help him enroll and get financial assistance.

“Originally I joined the military, like a lot of people my age, to help pay for college. But when I was trying to get the paperwork filled out for my undergrad degree at my reserve unit, they didn’t know how to access any sort of veteran resources,” he said. “At that time, I did not get any financial assistance for college.”

His master’s degree experience at UM-Flint was a lot different thanks to Budd’s efforts. She clearly explained the benefits he qualified for, what the deadlines were and how to sign up or register.

In his first semester, his unit was about to mobilize and his father got sick—so classes were a struggle. Budd reached out to him out of the blue to ask how he was doing.

Budd ended up advocating on his behalf with some faculty to ensure he was going to be OK and get back on track.

“After that, everything clicked and I think I got all As in my classes from there,” Rutledge said. “I don’t think I would have gotten my degree without the Student Veterans Resource Center.”