Perspective: Rob and Zina Posner on Scholarships, Philanthropy, and Giving Back to our Veterans
For many veterans, dealing with the physical and mental costs of past deployments is an ongoing reality. Veterans struggle to make ends meet as they cope with physical and mental injuries. Their injuries affect their quality of life and many struggle to make ends meet.
Veterans with families to support: children, spouses, parents, pets are under an entirely new level of stress. The downstream effects of disability include significant trauma, and even humiliation, for America's finest.
A veteran-focused mortgage provider, Rob Posner is aware of these issues more often than most people:
“These people build their lives and careers around being strong, being capable, dependable, around always being there for the people who need them, whether that’s their squad members, their families, their country, or people in need. Anybody.”
Rob, the CEO of NewDay USA, provides underwriting and other support services to veterans looking to buy new homes. Rob often deals with Americans fighting severe injuries, some visible and some not.
“Physical injuries are of course extremely traumatic, but mental injury—trauma, PTSD, and so forth, can be equally debilitating, especially in this modern knowledge and service-based economy where we’re all selling our brains to some extent.”
Rob continues:
“It’s deeply humbling to speak with veterans suffering from things like PTSD, especially when you learn what they’ve actually been through. I don’t know if I could survive five minutes of what these men and women spend months experiencing.”
Former US Army Ranger Jon Jackson is a prime example of the trials faced by American personnel, on and off the battlefield.
“Jon is an incredible example and an amazing human being”, says Rob, “he’s a man who did six combat deployments as an Army Ranger. These are the military's elite; the guys who get the hardest tasks and see the fiercest fighting”.
Jon, a veteran of the Rangers, suffered from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as the result of the enormous amount of combat he experienced. PTSD causes many veterans to struggle to properly function on their return to civilian life, leading to disastrous effects for themselves, and their families’ wellbeing.
Zina Posner (formally Zina Roberts), Rob’s wife and fellow devotee to veteran’s affairs, continues the story:
“Jon is amazing because even though he was dealing with severe PTSD, he refused to a victim. In fact he went ahead and started his own organization to help other Veterans with similar issues. This is the caliber of people we are talking about here. It’s really humbling.”
Rob and Zina were inspired by this, and other experiences with disabled veterans and the families of service members killed in action. This was a catalyst to their own veteran support efforts beyond the immediate business of mortgage provision.
“The truth is that, for a lot of these people, these actual American heroes, there’s a limit to what normal people like us can do to help. PTSD, for example, is a very complex and long-term condition. But, we can help support the families," says Zina.
Jon’s two children, Kaitlyn and Buck, are the newest recipients of the Alan B. Posner Scholarship Program. The award is given annually to the children of disabled veterans, or those killed in action serving their country.
“Our men and women in uniform take care of us every day”, says Rob, “and they sacrifice a huge amount, sometimes everything, in order to keep us safe. So when that happens, we have to—both as a nation and as individuals—we have to step up and repay that”.
Zina continues:
“The scholarship program is designed to provide a top-quality education for as many of these kids as possible. These kids are from families where they may have lost a parent or, like with Kaitlyn and Buck, where a parent has been severely injured while serving the nation.”
The Alan B. Posner Scholarship program is helping Kaitlyn and Buck to attend the Georgia Military College Prep School. The program has helped over seventy children to enrol in top-flight educational institutions.
“It’s our privilege to honor this amazing family in this way”, says Rob, “it’s not a fair exchange considering what Jon has sacrificed for our nation, but it’s a start”.
