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July 18, 2012
A local former Marine and current National Guard officer is using his leadership skills to guide troops through new territory – Nicholls State University.
“Right now, we have 195 veterans enrolled at Nicholls,” said Gilberto Burbante, the university’s first coordinator of veterans’ services. “I had about six or eight more veterans come by in the last week to check out the campus because they had heard that we are a very military-friendly school.
“I think the number of veterans enrolled at the university will continue to grow as the wars wind down. I hope we will get more veterans in here, taking advantage of all the military benefits at Nicholls,” he added.
Burbante, a Morgan City native and 2011 Nicholls government graduate, will serve as an advisor for all current and former military, help set up the Veterans’ Lounge in Shaver Gym, establish group counseling for veterans and get the university’s Veterans’ Club more involved in the community.
Prior to hiring Burbante, Nicholls’ records department handled veterans’ affairs.
“My main focus will be to make sure that all veterans attending Nicholls have been certified by the [U.S.] veterans administration so that they can receive a housing allowance and have their tuition paid,” Burbante said. “I hope to mentor veterans attending school and help them get involved in the community and school, outside of the military environment (they have been in).”
Burbante served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2002 to 2006, including three tours of duty in Iraq, and has been in the National Guard since 2007.
“I want to give back to the veterans at the school,” Burbante said. “I wish I could have had someone like that, a military veteran as an advisor, when I was a student here.”
‘The diversity of the military environment, working with people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds and different countries will help me to understand each individual and their personality and help them adjust to being in a civilian community,” Burbante said. “I want to help them with big and small details. Sometimes knowing the small details, like if they saw combat or lost fellow troops, helps to shed the brightest light.”
Through counseling sessions, which will be hosted in the Veterans Lounge, Burbante hopes to help veterans overcome depression.
“Statistics show that every 80 minutes, a veteran commits suicide,” Burbante said. “I want them to know that they are an important part of the community and want to see them transfer their leadership skills from a military life to a civilian life.”
Counseling services will be provided by the university, and Burbante is seeking additional support from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Meanwhile, Burbante said something as simple as telling a veteran that his or her service is appreciated can make a difference.
“Thank a veteran when you see one,” he said. “It will make them smile and cheer them up.”
In addition to providing a place for counseling sessions, the lounge will have televisions and sofas and will serve as a place for veteran-students to relax.
“I remember how boring it got in the barracks sometimes,” Burbante said. “We want to create a relaxed atmosphere. Veterans have been in the professional atmosphere of the military and this will be a place for us to hang out, a place to call our own. We will hang combat photographs and pictures of our brothers and sisters who have fallen in combat. It will be a home away from home.”
As work on the lounge continues, Burbante will seek input from other veteran-students to find out what they would like in the center. The space will also provide a permanent place for the school’s Veteran’s Club to meet.
“The club is very active,” Burbante said, who is a past club president. “It has a Facebook page, and members regularly participate in charitable events in the community, like the recent breast cancer walk.
“I would also like to see the veterans on campus get more involved with older and elderly veterans in the community,” he said.
He has plans to continue reaching out to local veterans of World War II, the Gulf War, Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War, as well as to provide leadership to veterans on campus. Burbante said similar efforts have earned Nicholls recognition in G.I. Jobs magazine as a “Military-Friendly School” for four consecutive years.
Gilberto Burbante Headshot 2012 (Photo by MIsty Leigh McElroy/Nicholls State University) 6/7/12
