The Veterans Heritage Project

The Veteran’s Heritage Project (VHP) is an organization that was created to help connect students to area veterans.  VHP offers students an opportunity to learn history from primary sources and skills in communication, writing, technology and project management. It enables them to achieve a new sense of purpose, whether in their daily school activities, the pursuit of higher education and choices in careers.

Chapter advisor Mary Rivera has worked with Marquette alum Barbara Hatch to bring this opportunity from Arizona to Marquette and its students.  The purpose of the VHP is to preserve the stories of the Riverbend area veterans for all of history while also educating students on these historical events and people through journalism.  Participating students interview veterans who have agreed to tell their stories and have these stories recorded on video and published in the Library of Congress with the student names alongside the veteran names. 

Students will witness primary source accounts of important historical events that have shaped this nation through their interviews and will get the opportunity to preserve these stories in history.  Veterans get the chance to tell their story to be published for history while also educating the youth of America through their interviews and the bonding process that takes place from separate generations working together to make history.  Marquette’s VHP members have published more than a dozen stories of local veterans who participated in every war/conflict from World War II to the wars/conflicts in the Middle East.

Please contact club advisor, Mary Rivera, if you or anyone you know would be interested in sharing his or her story with our students to have their story documented for the ages. 

Kathleen Botterbush, a 2018 graduate, received the Veteran's Heritage Group scholarship award of $3000.  The scholarship is the largest monetary award given by the group and Kathleen is the first non-Arizonian to receive the award.

Click here to visit The Veterans Heritage Project website.