Rogelio Villa
VA Certifying Official / Platoon Veteran Volunteer Leader, Kennedy King College
Rogelio Villa was born and raised in the South-West side of Chicago in the Little Village community. This is a low-income neighborhood with a predominantly Mexican – American population. He has a vast amount of work and volunteer experience. Most of his work has been in the public service and non-profit sector. For the last 15 years, he has worked for the City Colleges of Chicago as Veteran Affairs Certifying Official. His responsibilities include providing exceptional customer services for students, employees, and the public. Mr. Villa responds to inquiries concerning VA eligibility; ensures students understand all policies and procedures related to their aid records. Processes certification for VA benefits according to federal guidelines and regulations. Coordinates with registration, student success, and advising, to address inquiries regarding the use of veteran benefits. Advises students on financial aid applications, planning, resources, money management, and available sources of other aid and the process of applying.
He has also served the public by working for the Berwyn Police Department providing security for the city of Berwyn, Illinois. Also worked as an Assistant Director for a school age day running the day-to-day management of this non-for-profit center. Rogelio worked for Universidad Popular a community organization that provides literacy and ESL courses. There he worked as a facilitator helping low-income areas.
Currently he volunteers at The Mission Continues Organization. He empowers veterans to continue their service, and empowers communities with veteran talent, skills and preparedness to generate visible impact as Chicago’s Platoon leader. Rogelio has also helped to connect veterans with under-resourced communities, develop service, and support projects to help other nonprofit organizations that may have a mission or tasks in place already. Some of these events may deal with Youth Violence, Veteran Homelessness, and Gun Violence Prevention e. Mr. Villa volunteers alongside nonprofit partners and community leaders to improve educational resources; increase access to parks and green spaces, foster neighborhood identity, and more. I have been a volunteer Platoon Leader since May of 2018 and has served in the Englewood, Auburn Gresham and now the Little Village community of Chicago. Since 2018, Rogelio has led 37 service projects within under resourced communities, primarily the Little Village neighborhood. He has consistently planned and executed one project per month since taking on the responsibility of leading a platoon. To date*, he has engaged over 700 volunteers in these community efforts and those volunteers have served over 3,200 combined hours. His work has provided meaningful impact to communities that are often overlooked. This has been done by engaging veterans locally, creating a thriving veteran community and helping them rediscover their sense of purpose after serving in the military. His work has also profoundly impacted the lives of youth and community members within Little Village by empowering them to reshape and redefine their community identity.
In 2017 he volunteered to be a veteran mentor to high at risk youth through the YMCA’s “Urban Warriors Program”. The work help youth through themes such as coping, trauma, self-identity and community. PO worked to help build bonds of trust and mentorship.
2015 he also worked with Congressman Gutierrez office as “Family Defender” volunteer. Here he helped to educate the community on the application process to qualify for expanded DACA or DAPA.
In 2005, joined the Illinois Army National Guard 1st Battalion 178th Infantry Third Brigade Combat Team First Infantry Division. His military occupational specialty was light Infantryman. He was activated for duty by the state of Illinois to join Operation Enduring Freedom. Mr. Villa deployed to Afghanistan from 2008 thru 2009. Our unit was attached to the U.S Army 1st Infantry Division for a short period but was soon left in charge of the area of operation. There he served as a 240 B gunner on a M1151 HMMWV for the TAC platoons. He was part of an element that conducted over 300 missions. These missions included mounted and dismounted patrols part of QRF ( Quick Reactionary Force ) Battalion as well as platoon CONOPS ( Concept of Operations) , PSD ( Personal Security Detail ) for EOD ( Explosive Ordinance Demolitions) as well as CIED ( Counter Improved Explosive Devices )
