The American flag streamed in the breeze, leading the way for a procession of flagbearers as they prepared for a run across Diablo Valley College. The student veterans carried the combined colors of the country’s armed services: Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Space Force.

Andres Garcia, 29, the lead runner and a four-year U.S. Marine Corps veteran, remarked after the event that he tried to hold the flag as high as he could on a day that marked 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“There were times where my arms were aching,” said Garcia, “but I think holding up that flag, if it’s a symbol for me, it could be a symbol for someone else.”

The annual 9/11 tribute run is one of many campus events hosted each year by DVC’s Student Veterans Resource Center (SVRC), which serves both veterans and their spouses and dependents by providing counseling, VA benefit certifications, tutoring, mental health services, and a lounge area and computer lab for recreation or school studies.

“We want to connect across campus, and bring awareness for students to know that there are veterans on campus,” said Marina Varela, the center’s manager. “The biggest thing is to have a community behind you so you feel successful, and we would love to be that community.”

Varela assumed the manager role in June 2023 after previously working at DVC’s PUMA center. She said Garcia was the first work-study student she hired — her most important goal starting out was to grow the number of SVRC work-study staff, and to increase student traffic by securing funding and organizing events like the 9/11 tribute run.

Varela appears to have achieved that, stating that in the past two years, the center has developed from having just a single work-study student to a staff of 12, and the once sparsely populated center is now bustling with students.

Specifically, between 2023 and 2024, the center went from serving 132 veteran students to serving 219, with 1,505 instances of student traffic to the center — more than double the number that visited the center the previous academic year.

Additionally, the center’s educational, social and career event attendance has increased from an average of 13 students to 28 students per event. And those numbers have continued to increase in 2025, according to Varela.

The growth of the center’s relevance at DVC has been notable.

“If you’ve been to other colleges before and seen their student veteran centers, it’s usually just like one person at a desk — they’ll sign you up for your benefits, for you to use your G.I. Bill, and boom, that’s it,” said Marangely Santiago, a five-year Army veteran and work-study student at the SVRC.

Santiago said she was surprised to see the contrast between DVC’s center and ones at the previous institutions she has been to.

“I did not know that having events was a thing, getting extra support as far as scholarships go. We have our own separate counselors that we can reach out to whenever,” she said.

Todd Steffan, a veteran career counselor at the SVRC, attributed the recent success of the center to both Varela’s efforts and DVC’s commitment to secure additional funding for the program.

Steffan noted that veteran counselors are normally split between working with the veteran community and general counseling for all students. He said that his employment in a dedicated position serving veterans and their dependents is something the campus didn’t previously have — and it makes DVC’s vet center stand out.

“It really helped, at least from my years of experience, having a designated full-time manager to focus on the veteran center,” said Steffan. “Marina brings a big part of it with her energy, and then the college for [also] investing in that position. We’ve never had that before.”

DVC’s new president, Dr. Monica Chahal, who was appointed on June 11, commented on the center’s brimming energy and affirmed her commitment to supporting the veteran community on campus.

“I’ve been here a few times already in the last couple of months, and every time I visit there is this tremendous sense of family, and people are amazingly supportive of one another,” said Chahal.

“We have student populations from various different groups, and recognize that each group has slightly different needs. I think that’s important.”

Chahal also praised Varela’s leadership, saying she was “a huge part of the success of this center.”

Varela said her next priority is transitioning the veterans center to a larger space to accommodate the increase in foot traffic. The center is scheduled to relocate to the Learning Center (LC) building across from the library starting in the fall of 2026, which is expected to improve its ability to accommodate more students.

Additionally, she said the center plans to continue hosting campus-wide events for all students to foster connections with DVC’s veteran community, including an upcoming “Trunk or Treat” event on Thursday, Oct. 30, in collaboration with Cal Works and the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services/Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education (EOPS/CARE).

“I have learned that if a student feels connected within the first six weeks of the semester, they’re more likely to stay and actually fulfill their educational and career goals,” said Varela.

“Our biggest thing is making sure that we do everything in our power to serve every student that comes in here.”

This article was updated to make the following corrections: Marina Varela has made it a goal to grow the number of work-study students at the SVRC, not other staff. Additionally, the data reflects student traffic to the center.