"I’d say to other veterans that the issues that VFAI believes in are the same issues that you believe in. And you can definitely play a role," says Colin Raunig, a U.S. Navy veteran and MFA student of fiction at Colorado State University.

"I have so much hope for our future when I look at our young people and see the multiracial society they are growing up in today. That’s the America I fell in love with when I was in the military, and that diversity is one of the things that makes our military, and our country, the most powerful in the world." Read more from Arti Walker-Peddakotla, a U.S. Army veteran and the daughter of immigrants from India.

Shannon Rhein is a former Army Medic who was wounded in action during a mortar attack in Ramadi in 2006. Today she serves by helping homeless families at a nonprofit in Texas. "Just because we came home and took that uniform off doesn’t mean that the United States stopped entrusting us with the responsibility to defend our country—and that includes what is happening here in our own neighborhoods."

"Veterans, working together, can have significant influence in public policy issues. Select an organization that reflects your values, financially support the organization, and get involved." That's the advice of Gen. Murray Sagsveen is a retired Army Brigadier General and lawyer who currently serves on the board of Lutheran Relief Services in Bismark, MD and is involved in the Human Rights First Coalition of Retired Military Leaders.

"I'm proud to have been a part of establishing a new history of American women serving in the 21st c." Read more about Kelsey Campbell, a U.S. Air Force veteran and former Pentagon advisor, currently a Tony Patiño Fellow at UC Hastings College of the Law.

"Speak up, and don’t leave anyone behind." That's the advice for other veterans from VFAI leader Travis Weiner, a U.S. Army veteran and a law student at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

"We owe it to everyone—veterans, interpreters, the American people in general—to speak up," says Tony Clapp, a VFAI leader and retired EA-6B Naval Flight Officer with over 25 years of service.

Michael Trudeau is a U.S. Navy veteran and an MBA student at Northeastern University. His advice to veterans? "If you care about something, never stop fighting for it."

Roman Baca is a U.S. Marine veteran, a graduate student at Columbia University and a classical ballet dancer who believes in the power of art to serve and create change. 

Mansoor Shams is a U.S. Marine veteran who created MuslimMarine.org to combat stereotypes and bigotry. He says, "As veterans, we’ve played a tiny part in the grand scheme of things, just by signing on that dotted line. Your role now is to help people understand that this is a diverse nation: there is no religious test. This is what you signed up for—to protect this, so that those who come after us can also enjoy these freedoms. It comes back to our core values. We are all one people and what makes us strong is standing together in unity."