Evergreen Honored as Veteran Friendly School

by Evergreen Communications Office
August 17, 2010

The Evergreen State College Honored by Inclusion in G.I. Jobs 2011 College List

‘Military Friendly Schools’ List Aims to Help Veterans Find Colleges that are a Good Fit

G.I. Jobs recently announced the release of its 2011 list of Military Friendly Schools at www.militaryfriendlyschools.com/2011list. The list honors the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools which are doing the most to embrace America’s veterans as students.

The Evergreen State College was included on this list.

Schools on the list range from state universities and private colleges to community colleges and trade schools. The common bond is their shared priority of recruiting students with military experience.

Innovations in Policy and Practice at Evergreen

Evergreen is becoming widely recognized as a leader in working to provide a supportive and welcoming environment for student veterans.

  • Evergreen has an established Veterans Support Working Group made up of students, staff and faculty -- and a Student Veteran Organization.
  • Last May, The Evergreen State College organized the first ever regional higher education summit on veterans’ needs, experiences and retention. War and the Soul: Creating Healing Academic Communities for Our Nation’s Veterans provided a training and networking conference for those in the higher education and military communities. The summit attracted participants throughout the Pacific Northwest, and featured internationally renowned experts Edward Tick and Nancy Schiesari.
  • Annual events include a Fall Quarter Veterans Reception in which a Veterans Medallion is presented to all identified incoming veterans in recognition of their service, a tradition of celebration of Veterans Day for the past 16 years, and Memorial Day recognition efforts including distribution of some 2,000 Memorial Day poppies among a college population of some 5,600 (including students, faculty and staff.)
  • Evergreen also aims to attract veterans and their dependents through recruitment efforts, outreach and tuition waivers year round for qualifying veterans and veterans’ dependents.

GI Jobs Compiles List as Resource for Veterans

The GI Jobs list was compiled through exhaustive research starting last April when the magazine polled more than 7,000 schools nationwide. Methodology, criteria and weighting for the list were developed with the assistance of an Academic Advisory Board (AAB) consisting of educators from Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University, Colorado State University, Dallas County Community College, Old Dominion University, Cleveland State University, Lincoln Technical Institute and Embry Riddle; as well as Keith Wilson, VA’s director of education services; Michele Spires, American Council on Education’s assistant director of military programs; Janet Swandol, associate director for CLEP and Derek Blumke, president of Student Veterans of America. A full list of board members can be found at http://militaryfriendlyschools.com/Article/advisory-board/

A full story and detailed list of Military Friendly Schools will be highlighted in G.I. Jobs annual Guide to Military Friendly Schools and on a poster, both of which will be distributed to hundreds of thousands of active and former military personnel in late September. The newly redesigned website, found at www.militaryfriendlyschools.com, features interactive tools and search functionality to assist military veterans in choosing schools that best meet their personal educational needs. The site currently shows 2010 Military Friendly Schools but will switch to the 2011 list in late September. Criteria for making the Military Friendly Schools list included efforts to recruit and retain military and veteran students, results in recruiting military and veteran students and academic accreditations.

About G.I. Jobs

G.I. Jobs (www.gijobs.com) is published by Victory Media, a veteran-owned business which also publishes The Guide to Military Friendly Schools, Military Spouse and Vetrepreneur magazines and annually rates the nation’s “Military Friendly Employers,” “Military Spouse Friendly Employers” and “Best Corporations for Veteran-Owned Businesses.”

About The Evergreen State College

The Evergreen State College is a nationally recognized public liberal arts college known for its distinctive interdisciplinary curriculum, high level of student/faculty engagement and emphasis on putting learning into action.