From Adriana Leal, Director of the Military & Veteran Center at UIW: “Phillip Rangel has done an amazing job establishing the PAVE program at UIW. In the past year, he’s done great work bringing awareness to PAVE on campus by conducting regular outreach and giving presentations to various departments on campus. He continually works to promote PAVE by recruiting Peer Advisors and recently sent over 13 letters to potential donors. He participated in an HSI Career Collaborative Student Panel to bring awareness for employers recruiting veterans. Most of all he has the most incredible drive, passion, and heart for serving veterans I have ever seen. Phillip will speak to our students at any time of day for as long as it takes to help a student. He has spoken to students in the late hours for over an hour. He is continually innovative, thinking of ideas on how to best serve students. At the very start of the recent situation in Afghanistan, he immediately knew we had to reach out to our student veterans with support. He began taking action by crafting a letter of support with our counseling department. He also is a great leader and works to take care of and support all our Peer Advisors. We are so lucky to have his passion and dedication at UIW.”

From Phillip Rangel: “My proudest accomplishment is being part of the team developing the UIW PAVE Program during a historical pandemic which impacted societies around the world. The entire program reached out to multiple university departments, educating their staff about the benefits of the program while learning ourselves. Every outreach was conducted virtually until the Fall 2021 semester. The buy-in from other department leaders, staff, and professors was essential to the success of PAVE at UIW, and I enjoy facilitating a wonderful group of Peer Advisors: Jessica Quintanilla, Omar Ozuna, Jeffrey Neal, Robert Greener, and the wonderful PAs who came before. I am not a person who is a title seeker, especially when it comes to facilitating a group of Peer Advisors dedicated to helping our peers, student veterans. We are all leaders in the UIW Veteran Community, because stepping up and facilitating the PAVE Program at UIW to serve others is what we do together!