Were it not for free pizza and cookies, Spc. Angelina Trillo may not have found her vocational mission nor been named the 2023 Student Veteran of the Year by Student Veterans of America.
“It has completely changed the trajectory of my career and given me professional and academic opportunities I couldn’t have found elsewhere,” said Trillo, a 2024 graduate in political science at Oregon State University. “It has become my passion and community.”
Trillo is speaking of SVA and its goal of ensuring that student veterans and military-connected students achieve their greatest potential. She initially heard about the organization her first year at OSU, just days after completing Advanced Individual Training.
“I was feeling kind of shocked at the transition from AIT to school,” said Trillo, a combat medic specialist. “I got an email from the military veterans resource center on campus saying there was an SVA meeting that afternoon with cookies and pizza, and I was like, why not?”
Campus connections
Trillo, a Colorado native, soon found herself as the SVA chapter vice president at OSU, eventually rising to president. It didn’t take long before she was hooked on providing more and better opportunities for her fellow student veterans.
OSU administrators noticed, tapping Trillo as the veteran nontraditional student advocacy coordinator. It’s a fancy name, Trillo said, for a student government role that provided the platform to converse with the administration about what her peers needed.
“My dad was a veteran, and I have a lot of respect for the veteran community,” she said. “Even when I was a kid, I thought I was going to be a doctor at the VA.
Even though that goal has morphed slightly — “I would love to work in veteran healthcare, improving and reforming healthcare systems for our veterans,” Trillo said — the drive and passion have remained unchanged. Her biggest goal while at Oregon State, where she used her Montgomery GI Bill to attend, was to hire a mental health professional to exclusively serve the military-connected Beavers for free.
Trillo checked that to-do off her list, providing valuable life and professional experience.
“I was a big part in finding the funding and was part of the whole hiring process,” she said. “It has made such a big impact on the community, to have that resource right there in our office.”
Staying power
Partly because of that accomplishment, SVA awarded Trillo its highest student veteran honor at its annual conference in January 2024.
SVA’s national president and CEO labeled Trillo as the top amongst thousands of her peers.
“Angelina represents the best of the student veteran community and the epitome of character, scholarship and accomplishment among today’s student veterans,” said Jared Lyon. “She has had significant local contribution advocating for policy, increasing on-campus mental health resources and prioritizing fair treatment of student veterans. Her passion for accurate representation is unmatched and leads the national narrative on the student veteran experience.”
The honor was unexpected for Trillo, even though she was a finalist.
“Every single one of the finalists is amazing and accomplished, so when I saw my photo on the screen right before my name was called, I was like, no way!” Trillo said. “It was just very exciting and cool.”
Trillo, who plans to stay involved with SVA, encourages other student veterans to give the organization a chance, either through already-existing local chapters, leading their own or at the national level.
“You’re going to get out of it what you want to get out of it,” she said. “If you show up and ask questions and do the networking, SVA is going to open doors for you. It gets a big thumbs-up from me.”
Visit Student Veterans of America for more information on SVA programs and chapters
