Ryan Cleckner

Law Students Strive to Make School Forerunner in Veterans’ Advocacy

Quinnipiac University School of Law
November 23, 2009

When first-year law students Ryan Cleckner and Brian Gregorio 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,” Gregorio said. “We decided to attempt to address this issue in the best way we could.”

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, such as disabled veterans’ rights and combat veteran post-traumatic stress disorder, while also encouraging community service among law students.

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’ advocacy group and a member of the Student Bar Association. “We have received an amazing amount of support from the students and faculty in the law school community,” Gregorio said.

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. “I think it’s a great group that addresses a phenomenal issue,” Cleckner said. “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.”

The group’s immediate goal is to begin doing the work for veterans throughout Southern Connecticut. “We felt that as veterans and law students, we had a unique opportunity to assist our fellow service members who may be experiencing difficulties in transitioning back to civilian life,” Gregorio said. “Our primary goal is to reach out to these individuals and let them know that their service is not forgotten and there are those who want to help.”

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 in the future. “Our goal is to make Quinnipiac University School of Law a forerunner in veterans’ issues,” Cleckner said.

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Source: http://law.quinnipiac.edu/x362.xml