College of the Canyons Adult Reentry and Veterans Center staff are noting a rise in the number of student veterans coming to them for assistance, college officials announced Wednesday.

Center officials saw about 20 percent more veterans during the 2013-2014 academic year compared to the previous year, bringing their total for the year to more than 1,000 veterans assisted, according to a COC news release.

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“As U.S. veterans head home from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, (the center) continues to serve an ever-growing population of local student veterans who have sought out the college as their first stop on the path to educational and career success,” the news release stated.

Center staff strive to assist student veterans in making a “successful transition to the college atmosphere” by offering advice on how to utilize veteran educational benefits, apply for financial aid and navigate a wide range of student services and support programs, officials said.

The college’s student veteran graduation rate has also increased by more than 50 percent since the 2012-2013 academic school year with 68 veterans included among the 2014 class of 1,343 graduates, according to the news release.

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Center officials expect those numbers to continue to rise in coming years due to the recent passing of federal legislation directing U.S. colleges and universities to charge in-state tuition to all student veterans and their families regardless of residency.

A pair of student veterans who recently found “educational success” at COC were honored by center officials in July with the Ricky Slocum Memorial Scholarship.

Ryan Brown and Yves Cachuela each received a $1,000 scholarship toward any costs associated with their educational endeavors, including books, supplies, transportation and other identified areas of need.

Brown, an Afghanistan combat veteran, served in the U.S. army and was honorably discharged in 2005.

He currently works a full-time construction job and is a full-time small business management student with the goal of eventually running his own construction business and providing job opportunities for other veterans.

Cachuela, a former U.S. Marine and Iraq combat veteran, was left physically disabled after being injured during his deployment.

He was honorably discharged in 2012 and returned to COC as a kinesiology sports medicine major, hoping to one day positively influence other veterans in the same way his physical therapists did for him.

“I say don’t follow your dreams, lead them,” Cachuela said. “Lead those dreams and success will follow.”

The Ricky Slocum Memorial Scholarship was established in 2014 by the Slocum family after Ricky Slocum, a 2003 graduate of Saugus High School, was killed at age 19 while serving in operation Iraqi Freedom.

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