JMU VALOR connects Dukes with military resources, support

Fourth year Pre-Law student Jordan Scott treats JMU VALOR like a second home.  

“I keep coming here daily,” he said. “It’s a nice space where I can study. We are a free space for students who also are military dependents. I’ve had a great experience at VALOR.” 

Previously located in Taylor Down Under, VALOR moved to its new home on the second floor of the Student Success Center over the summer. The bigger space allows guests to spread out, and it’s more accessible to students, staff and community members who can park at the Mason Street Parking Deck and use the skybridge to enter the SSC. 

“I love it,” Scott said of the new space. “It’s bigger; it’s more connected.” 

Describing VALOR as “a calming, quiet space,” he said the office provides free snacks, printer access and a massage chair, in addition to promoting camaraderie among veterans and service members. “I was looking for a certain veteran experience here, and VALOR did exactly that.” 

Scott joined the U.S. Air Force hoping to see the world, and he did. He served temporary duty five times in Las Vegas, Nevada, and once in Florida. He was also deployed overseas to Jordan and then near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. 

“That’s the highlight of my service … traveling around the world,” he said. 

He also knew that serving would allow him to pay for college. Through the G.I. Bill, veterans, service members and their qualified family members can access educational benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to fund college tuition, help them find the right school or training program, or receive career counseling. 

As a senior airman, Scott served as a weapons low crew member, loading bombs and missiles onto an F-15E. After five years at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, he left the military to further his education. At JMU, he’s studying Philosophy & Religion with a minor in Legal Studies and plans to pursue a career as a Judge Advocate General officer.  

“To come into college with that money and that drive [and] to have more of a networking space,” Scott said, “that’s like the perfect fit.” 

Hannah Hall, a junior Health Sciences major who plans to pivot to Business, has benefitted from educational and housing credits. “It’s pretty much been endless benefits,” she said. “You don’t even have to serve that long.” 

Hall, of Healdsburg, California, served in the U.S. Coast Guard as a yeoman and worked in personnel, pay and administration to provide benefits for service members.  

After she met her husband through the Coast Guard, they were stationed in Alameda, California, then moved to Portsmouth, Virginia. Leaving the military to pursue their respective degrees, they moved to Stuarts Draft, Virginia, and she transferred to JMU.  

Hall called the support she’s received through VALOR “incredible.” Upon arriving at JMU, she recalled, “Having VALOR was my space, my safe spot. It’s just a nice space to have.” 

Additionally, VALOR reduces the need for veterans to travel to a military base to view their accounts. “It’s helpful for those that can’t have access to base,” she said. “[VALOR is] a really nice home base to have on campus.” 

Camaraderie is a benefit that sophomore U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Jason Aidukaitis appreciated when he returned home to Harrisonburg, Virginia, and started at JMU. After serving in Okinawa, Japan, doing maintenance on night vision and other optics, thermal vision and missiles, he has found “a safe space” in VALOR. 

“They’re welcoming, and you don’t have to be a veteran,” he said. Some people he’s met are in ROTC or have accessed VALOR through their military family connections. 

Aidukaitis has been studying Engineering and Art, though he’s considering an Architectural Design major. After graduation, he might return to Japan as a civilian with the American Engineering Corps, or else join an architectural firm stateside.  

Through VALOR, Aidukaitis and Hall have participated in community and campus-wide events, such as running the flag at football games. 

“It feels like being part of the team, being on the field,” Aidukaitis said. 

Hall has helped place flags on the Quad in observance of Veterans Day. Scott, a second-in-command for the Student Veterans of America, has volunteered with JMU Homecoming events, helped with SVA meetings, trips and events, and marched with VALOR in a Veterans Day parade on Nov. 8. 

Last January, he traveled to the SVA National Conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he networked with other veterans.  

Not sure how he first found VALOR, Scott said he must have heard about it while searching out clubs. “Ever since then, I’ve just been hanging out there.” 

U.S. Army veteran Monica Pangle became JMU VALOR’s assistant director and first full-time employee in fall 2024. Since then, she’s seen the campus-based organization increase from about 1,500 to 1,800 members. She attributes the increase to more Dukes learning the educational benefits they have through the U.S. military and the resources provided at JMU. 

It’s “a big picture increase,” she said, having noticed boosts at other educational institutions, too.  

With many military parents reaching retirement age, she said military personnel and veterans have been advancing their own careers through greater education or helping their family members access available benefits. 

“As military members retire or leave their service,” Pangle said, “they can share their benefits with their dependents or use the benefits themselves.” In fact, she said, there are probably far more than 1,800 students at JMU who can participate with VALOR if they choose to do so. 

Having settled into VALOR’s new space, she’s working to further educate people about the resources available to students with a military connection.  

“We’re here to support them,” she said. “There’s a space for them.”  

VALOR also houses Rockingham County native and U.S. Navy veteran Brian Moyers, an affiliate with the Virginia Department of Veterans Services (DVS) who helps military-connected community members access benefits, primarily through disability and pension claims. 

A former aviation structural mechanic stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, Moyers left the military after four years, earned an associate and bachelor’s degree from Radford University, and then became a K-9 officer for 17 years before joining the DVS in 2019. 

“Probably the biggest thing for us was when the PACT Act started,” he said. 

The PACT Act, which began in 2022, has expanded healthcare and benefits to veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic substances, providing care and benefits for generations of veterans and their survivors. 

The law has given veterans more opportunities to start filing claims, Moyers said. 

“I get questions all the time from the older veterans about what the VALOR center is,” he said. “Not all the older vets were able to get that help. Things have really turned around and changed for the better.” 

It’s also rewarding for him to see older veterans chat with student veterans while at VALOR.

“I think it’s great for the students and the outside community as well,” Moyers said. “They’re able to tell their stories and have other veterans understand those stories.”