St. John’s University has recently announced awards that the University has received, including two awards for the resources it provides for veterans. Along with this, the University has been selected as a top school in the “2017 MAE&T Guide to Colleges & Universities” study and is also a recipient of a Top-10 Gold-level Military Friendly School Award for 2017 by Victory Media.
The two awards are given to schools that show great educational support for military veterans. St. John’s has worked diligently to ensure student veterans acclimate well to civilian life. The Veterans Success Center helps student veterans with academic, professional and health networking opportunities.
The University is also among a select few schools to participate in the Veterans Integration to Academic Leadership (VITAL) program. This is run through the Department of Veteran Affairs and a representative from the department comes weekly to help bring awareness of the Veteran presence at St. John’s.
Mary Pelkowski, associate dean for student engagement, helps advise St. John’s student veterans and worked to establish the Veterans Success Center in 2015.
“St. John’s has always been committed to ensuring that all of our students succeed academically, professionally and personally,” Pelkowski said to the University. “We are proud to be able to give back to our Veteran students who have given so much in service to our country by providing these crucial resources to help ensure their continued success.”
The MAE&T has now been published for 10 years and bases its evaluations of institutions of military culture, financial aid, general support, flexibility, on-campus support and online support services.
Victory Media considers its recipients to be “the best of the best” in helping provide resources for veterans. For over a decade, the Military Friendly ratings have been the standard for companies and colleges demonstrating positive employment and education outcomes for veterans.
“All of our Military Friendly award recipients set the standard for excellence,” Daniel Nichols, chief product officer of Victory Media and head of Military Friendly development, said to the University. “They offer exceptional examples of what it means not just to build a program that meets federal requirements, but one that serves the military and veteran community from classrooms to careers.”
