A Blank Check, Paid With Sacrifice and Service
Veterans Day at Community College of Philadelphia was a time to remember heroes, a number of whom are sitting in the classrooms, and juggling kids and books.
About 75 students, faculty and staff gathered in the Allen T. Bonnell Building lobby for a solemn ceremony on Veterans Day that recalled fallen comrades and sacred duty. College President Donald Guy Generals praised all servicemen and women as protectors of freedom.
“What is your definition of a veteran?” William A. Baas, vice president of Talent, Comcast Northeast Region and currently a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve. “Mine is simple. A veteran is that man or woman who raises his or her hand, swears an oath to the Constitution of the United States, and writes a blank check to the United States government for an untold amount, up to and including his or her life. Some cash it in and they get away pretty easily. For others, the amount they have paid is incalculable.”
Baas was joined during the ceremony by Angel Arocho, senior director of operations compliance at Comcast and a former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant who shared his personal journey of educational achievement; and Frederick Soejanto, a 2012 graduate of the College who serves as a medical logistics officer and, and who was recently promoted to Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Stephen Bachovin, coordinator of Veterans /Military Programming at the Veterans Resource Center, served as emcee.
During the ceremony, the College unveiled a new scholarship for veterans established by Drizin-Weiss Post 215 Jewish War Veterans. The $1,000 scholarship will be awarded to a student veteran this spring.
After the ceremony, guests feasted on cake and then some of the veterans attended a post-ceremony lunch and a Comcast jobs fair on campus. Servicemen and women often have a hard time finding a job once they come out of the military. Approximately one out of every two post 9/11 veterans will face a period of unemployment while transitioning into the workforce.
So the Veterans Resource Center and workforce development staff teamed up with Comcast Corp. on a jobs fair designed to create an employment path.
The fair concluded a day full of Veterans Day events.