From Dante Strother, Veteran Services Coordinator, Wayne State University: “Carissa is a difference maker in our Student Veterans Resource Center. She never hesitates to provide fellow student veterans with support whenever she notices they enter our doors — even if that means just giving them a smile along with friendly conversation. Carissa is deeply invested in building up the veteran community of learners here at Wayne State, which is felt by each person she interacts with. She is involved on-campus with the ‘Peer Assisted Learning’ department as a cell biology Learning Assistant. So not only does she contribute greatly to veteran student support services (VET-SSS), but also the institution at large.

Carissa has been instrumental with reinvigorating the PAVE program here at WSU. Often filling in the gaps where myself, our VSC, has needed attention the most. Whether it be team member recommendations, or identifying dates for our PAVE team meetings, she has proven to add value to any situation in front of her. Carissa boldly embraces the core values of peer support in all that she does.

One of her recent accomplishments is bringing in new Peer Advisors! Carissa has taken what she’s learned from the previous year and molded those lessons into where we intend to go in the future: to strengthen the bond of our campus community.”

From Carissa Bennett: “Our PAVE team here at Wayne State has been relatively small since I joined as a Peer Advisor over a year ago, but in the last few months we have worked hard to recruit more Peer Advisors in order to better support our students. As of this fall semester, I am proud to say that we have welcomed five exceptional new peer advisors to our PAVE team! I have been truly amazed by the energy and level of dedication that all of our Peer Advisors have demonstrated in these first few weeks of the term. Many of them completed their training and began their outreach all within about a week period, and they didn’t skip a beat! I am proud of the accomplishments we have made not only in growing our campus team but also in developing a collaborative and positive team culture. I feel honored to be a part of our PAVE team and am excited for what’s to come!

My favorite part about being a Team Leader is hearing about the “wins” from students and Peer Advisors. A “win” may be a student responding to an outreach email for the first time, or hearing that a resource that one of us recommended to a student helped them in solving an issue they were experiencing. No matter how small the win, seeing that student veterans are benefiting from the work we do through the PAVE program makes it all worth it.”