For the first time ever, the Student Veterans of UNM will sponsor scholarships for two student veterans starting in the summer semester.
Zack Mutchler, president of Student Veterans of UNM, said the scholarships are important to supplement the financial assistance the government gives to veterans.
“Even with the amount of financial assistance we get from the government, with the Montgomery and GI bills, there’s still always a need, with the current economy, for a little bit of extra money to help out (and) pay the bills or buy books, or something of that nature,” he said.
Eric Ross, a member of the student veteran organization, said the two scholarships have different criteria.
“We have a merit-based scholarship, and a general scholarship, which is really a need-based scholarship,” he said.
Ross said he doesn’t yet know exactly how much money will be available in the scholarship fund, but they already have several thousand dollars in the fund.
“I don’t want to give an actual dollar figure, because the fund has money in there now, but as far as how much we can actually give out, it depends on how much funds are in there,” he said. “Since the scholarship has just started, we’re able to afford to give out scholarships. We just haven’t figured it out.”
Recipients of the scholarships have not yet been chosen. Applications are available at Svunm.edu, and the deadline is March 15.
Ross said the scholarships can help students whose GI Bill benefits run out before they can graduate.
“Those GI Bill benefits, they don’t last forever,” he said. “They end, typically, after 36 months of usage. So once the veteran has exhausted those 36 months of GI Bill benefits, they’re left to fend for themselves, basically.”
Ross said the scholarships are awarded on a per-semester basis.
“That’s kind of one of the unique things about our scholarship, is that we’re going to award it every semester,” he said.
This scholarship is the first scholarship created by a student organization at UNM in more than 50 years, Ross said. He said all money collected for the scholarship comes from fundraising done by the Student Veterans.
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“Economically, we can’t give scholarships if we have no money for it,” he said. “We had to fundraise. Our organization is very strong in community service and fundraising.”
The Student Veterans will not keep the collected money themselves, Ross said. Instead it is being managed by the UNM Foundation.
“It’s not like this scholarship is managed by us in some separate fund,” he said.
Ross said they’ve had “plenty of inquiries” about the scholarship, but no one has turned in an application yet.
Mutchler said the goal of the scholarships is to provide benefits to veterans that otherwise may not be available.
“That’s kind of why we support these scholarships, is to make sure we can help them in the broadest ways possible — as opposed to traditional scholarships — which have fairly stringent rules to them,” he said.
*Student veteran scholarship application
Svunm.edu*
