Patrick Fergus
@Fergus5Fergus
On the phone with an army recruiter, Jacquelyn Wolf was in a state of confusion. She had already served seven years as a respiratory therapist in the Air Force, and was attending community college in Hawaii.
“I was like ‘I’m already in the military, what are you doing?’…they were like come to the dark side, we got cookies kind of thing,” said Wolf.
She had first enlisted in the Air Force at the age of 17, after her father who was in the reserves developed a plan to pay for a college education. Wolf would serve, and use her GI Bill in order to pursue her passion.
The GI Bill provides a range of benefits to veterans and their families to assist them in paying for education, getting jobs and buying homes. Every year, hundreds of thousands of students rely on this aid to afford tuition, fees and housing allowances.
Wolf ended up continuing to serve as a respiratory therapist for an additional seven years for the Army, a career she hadn’t originally seen for herself.
“I’d never actually thought about that field before,” Wolf said. “I’d done treatments for my kids, who have asthma, in the past, so I could wrap my head around that.”
The essence of the profession was providing a range of breathing treatments, and running the ventilator to anybody on life support. A respiratory therapist also assisted medical professionals with patients that were being intubated.
Returning to civilian life in 2002, she worked in numerous medical centers across Hawaii, happy with the kind of job she had.
Although it was well-paying, the weight of the position was starting to take its toll. The personal work with many patients on life support was something that Wolf struggled dealing with.
“A lot of patients that I would see frequently, I got attached to them, and then, you know, losing them,” Wolf said.
It wasn’t until her son enlisted, and was sent straight into a combat role in Iraq, that Wolf truly decided it was time for a career change.
“It kind of freaked me out…he was following in my footsteps and found himself in really bad situations,” Wolf said.
Her son’s deployment inspired her to become an example for him, and she returned to college at Hawaii Pacific University, finally utilizing the veterans benefits she had earned.
It was there she first obtained a role in the veterans office, and found a love for helping former veterans and their families. Wolf learned first hand the intricacies of applying GI Bill benefits, and found herself in the middle of drastically shifting territory.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the federal government had made efforts to greatly expand the assistance veterans and their families received.
“It was a game changer,” Wolf said about the post 9/11 GI Bill. “Tons of people were coming in to use their GI Bill.”
The increase was staggering.
Wolf worked as a student worker in the university’s veteran’s center in 2009, with a total makeup of a little over 300 students. By 2011, it was over 1700.
Previously, each student received a small stipend every month to cover parts of their tuition and additional costs, but still left them paying a large sum out of pocket. For any military member who had met the quota of 36 months of service, they were now eligible for the new and improved GI Bill, which paid all tuition and fees, including a housing allowance and a book stipend.
A further accompaniment was for anyone that had served six years. They now had the ability to transfer any unused educational benefits to immediate family members such as a child or spouse.
“I was learning about the GI Bill and all the ins and outs right from ground zero when it was starting and building up, and I found it really intriguing,” Wolf said.
This experience helped her in the next stage of her career, as she became the director of military services at several institutions in Massachusetts, including Framingham State University and Worcester State University, before arriving at Springfield in May of 2022.
In her current role, she heads the veterans center, and works closely with the offices of financial aid and admissions to get suitable students their VA benefits. The types of students she works with range from current ROTC cadets to former military members or students who are using a family member’s VA qualifications.
Wolf says around 50 students are receiving VA assistance, with a third being veterans, and the rest family members of veterans.
Her commitment stretches beyond the bounds of the college campus, serving as an active member of local non-profit veteran assistance programs. She currently serves as a board member for the New England Center and Home for Veterans, and is a part of VOICE, a group of outreach specialists who run programs for veterans in need.
“These veteran networking groups are just amazing,” Wolf said. “They are so valuable, but they don’t get the type of attention because they don’t advertise or anything.”
Despite leaving active service more than two decades ago, Wolf continues to provide services to those in the military community, at Springfield, and far beyond.
Photo Courtesy of Springfield College