GW Veterans Coordinator Recognized

Devin Belzer receives Patriot Award for her support of military student employees.

January 7, 2015

Devin Belzer, right, with her award.

Devin Belzer, right, with her award.

As coordinator of veteran services in George Washington University’s Office of Military and Veteran Student Services, Devin Belzer uses her understanding of the Post-9/11 GI Bill to make sure that members of GW’s military student population “don’t have to worry” about their finances and benefits—and, she says, it is rewarding work.

“I literally go on vacation, and all I do is the whole time is brag about my students,” she said of the people she supports and works with.

The feeling, evidently, is mutual. Ms. Belzer recently received a Patriot Award from Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) within the Department of Defense—a recognition celebrating supervisors and bosses for support provided to a nominating member of the National Guard or Army Reserve.

She was nominated by Steven J. Rossa, a GW student and a member of the Marine Corps Reserves who is currently on assignment in Afghanistan.

“Devin is constantly having to adjust workloads due to my reserve commitments and has been nothing but supportive and accommodating,” he wrote. “I could not ask for a more understanding supervisor.”

Ms. Belzer has worked in the office since 2011, when she was a student at GW getting her master’s degree in higher education administration. She has been a full-time employee since 2013.

“I’ve watched the office come from two people in a tucked-away office to the huge GW VALOR operation that it is today, and watching that exponential growth has been amazing,” she said.

In addition to working with students as an administrator, she now supervises some in her own office, where she makes a point of ensuring that her employees—many of them military or veterans—gain valuable professional skills.

“I find it very rewarding,” she said.