Northern Michigan University work-study student Cali Hunter, left, goes over new forms for incoming veterans to fill out with Veterans Benefits Counselor Chelsea Wallner at the Marquette County Veterans Affairs office in Ishpeming. Marquette County Veterans Service Officer Craig Salo applied for and was granted work-study funding starting in January 2017. Hunter, who is active in the U.S. Army National Guard was hired in February. (Journal photo by Lisa Bowers)

Editor’s note: This story is the second in a month-long series of articles highlighting the work of the Marquette County Veterans Affairs Department’s impact on Marquette County veterans. The segments will run on consecutive Mondays.

ISHPEMING — The Marquette County Department of Veterans’ Affairs is responsible for helping more than 6,000 eligible veterans and their surviving spouses and children to collect government benefits.

Veterans who are eligible for a variety of assistance — including traditional benefits like education, vocational rehabilitation, medical, dental and hospital, burial benefits, and survivors benefits — can go to the Marquette County DVA.

Marquette County Veterans Service Officer Craig Salo and Veterans Benefits Counselor Chelsea Wallner at MCDVA have been operating the office themselves since Wallner was hired in 2015, but something was missing.

So Salo pursued a federal work-study program designed for veterans.

“I submitted our department’s application to become an accredited worksite to the VA Regional Office in St. Louis, and our selection has provided an enormous benefit to our veterans in Marquette County,” Salo said.

The program gives student-veterans the opportunity for hands-on work experience and a monthly part-time income while they are going back to school as part of the Post-9/11 GI Bill or other VA education benefit program.

“If you’re a full-time or three-quarter-time student in a college degree, vocational, or professional program, you can ‘earn while you learn’ with a VA work-study allowance,” according to the federal VA website.

Salo said the five-member Marquette County Veterans Affairs Committee received numerous applications for the position from qualified veterans.

Committee Chair George LaBlonde III said an MCDVA work-study employee who is a veteran in his or her own right is an integral part of the program’s success.

“I think it’s really important to do that,” LaBlonde said. “Because it’s veterans helping veterans. Veterans always understand veterans better, they understand their challenges, and this gives them a great opportunity to learn.”

Enter Cali Hunter, a 21-year-old Northern Michigan University student and active U.S. Army National Guard soldier who hails from Woodruff, Wisconsin.

Hunter, a multimedia journalism major, was interviewed by several members of the Marquette County Veterans Affairs Committee early this year before submitting her resume, grades and military service record to Salo and Wallner and subsequently being hired in February.

“She integrated into our office very quickly and has been doing a great job taking care of veterans, surviving spouses, and family members,” Salo said.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs fully funds the work-study position, Salo said. “Ms. Hunter’s position does not adversely affect our department’s budget which is funded by a Marquette County special millage. It has been a great addition to our department’s ability to conduct veteran outreach and serve the needs of our county’s 6,000 veterans.”

Hunter has been in the National Guard for almost two years after deciding to call up a recruiter on a whim in November 2015.

“I wanted to do something more than just go to school,” Hunter said. “The armory was just outside of my dorm, so I always saw the signs and the people moving the trucks and thought, “That looks kind of cool.” So I called Staff Sgt. Johnson, because he was a recruiter out of there at the time. And a week after that I was signing papers and two weeks after that I was enlisting into the Guard.”

Hunter spent the summer of 2016 in basic training and is now a 12 Romeo Interior Electrician. She attends one weekend drill per month and must complete two weeks of active duty per year.

“As a civilian you are never going to do things like throw grenades, but you know, you get to do that cool stuff,” Hunter said. “And I have met people from all over the world. One of my closest friends in basic moved from Africa to get her citizenship, so she joined the army to do that.”

Hunter said her experiences in the MCDVA office have been both uplifting and sobering.

“We deal with a lot of really difficult, sensitive situations,” Hunter said. “But also, you get to talk to all these veterans with all of these awesome stories. Some of them bring in pictures and stuff too.”

Hunter said one of the most important things about her job is it allows Salo and Wallner to provide one-on-one help to Marquette County veterans without interruption.

“It takes the workload off of Craig and Chelsea, too. Because if they have someone in their office — if they are working with a widowed spouse — and the all the sudden have to go and answer the door, it takes away from that one-on-one with that veteran or that spouse,” Hunter said.

Northern Michigan University Veterans Resource Representative Michael Rutledge, who employs three students in a similar program on-campus, said one of the benefits for students in the veterans work-study is that they can use their down-time in the office to study.

“One of the rules, is that if there is nothing in the office to do that is student-veteran related they can study.” Rutledge said. “They do have to stop what they are doing and help clients that come into the office, though.”

Although Hunter said the ability to complete homework during a work-study shift is appealing, the relationships she has forged with other veterans is an even more compelling reason to continue working at the MCDVA.

She said of her fondest memories to date is a volunteer experience at the Jacobetti (Home for Veterans) Golf Outing a few weeks ago.

“We got to be out there all day instead of being in the office. I was wearing my engineers hat, and I got all decked out for that. Talking to all the guys about being in the Army, a lot of them used to be in the same unit, or in the same battalion years before me. Some of them were even electricians,” Hunter said. “So I think just talking and sharing the stories there with the guys. Everyone was talking about Fort Leonard Wood and it sounded the same as when I was there. Just being able to share, and realizing that I share a lot of the same experiences at different times with people who are 50 years older than me, and that you can bond with them over your military experience. And that was a truly awesome.”

Hunter will be a guest writer on several stories in this series.

Lisa Bowers can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242. Her email address is lbowers@miningjournal.net.