Ryan Cleckner

Group to advocate for veterans

QU Law Magazine – Winter 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010

When first-year law students Brian Gregorio and Ryan Cleckner discovered that none of the nearly 30 active student organizations at the School of Law focused on the needs of U.S. military veterans, they took it upon themselves to found one.

“With two wars going on, it is amazing that veterans are still such an underrepresented demographic,” said Gregorio. The purpose of the Veterans Advocacy Group is to encourage students to learn about civil military legal relations, military legal careers and veteran-specific issues.

The group, which held its first meeting in October, also will provide resources to combat veteran post-traumatic stress disorder. Gregorio, a former U.S. Army Military Intelligence interrogator/linguist who completed his three-year term in June, is the vice president of the veterans group and a member of the Student Bar Association.

Ryan Cleckner, the group’s president and a former sniper in the First Ranger Battalion, said the goal of the group is to raise awareness, give veterans a sense of community and aid the region’s veterans through community service. “It’s nice to have allies on campus,” he said. “We have been amazed with the amount of support we have received from the law school community.”

The organization, which had more than a dozen active members within three weeks of its formation, has already begun to touch the lives of veterans through volunteer work in the area. “A classroom is very far removed from a battlefield, and it is important to remember there are men and women serving in harm’s way for us,” Cleckner said.

The advocacy group is open to any of the 418 law students currently enrolled at Quinnipiac, though the organizers hope to reach out to other universities.

Source: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/prebuilt/pdf/magazines/law_winter2010/Law_winter10_student.pdf
Download .pdf of QU Law Magazine Winter 2010: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/prebuilt/pdf/magazines/law_winter2010/Law_winter10_full.pdf