**Herzing University (WI)**

Herzing University proposed to establish a joint virtual/in-person Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success (CEVSS). The proposed CEVSS will support approximately 56 veteran students living within driving distance of the Kenosha campus, and 380 veteran students enrolled in programs offered by Herzing around the country, including 327 veteran students utilizing an online/hybrid modality.

The CEVSS will accomplish the following four goals: (1) increase the number of veteran students by approximately 10% or 30 students; (2) expand co-curricular activities to enhance the well-being of veteran students; (3) increase the first-to-second year retention rate of veteran students by 5% and the four-year graduation rate by 5%; and (4) enhance post-graduation outcomes for veteran students.

In addition to the required activities, the program will hire a counselor to provide one-on- one mental health support for veteran students; develop a peer mentor program and orientation for incoming veteran students; hold a series of career development workshops; provide supplemental academic advising and coaching; and create a virtual one-stop shop that links to all available services and programs for veteran students. The expected outcomes are that more veteran students will secure funding and choose to pursue a college degree at Herzing; the overall wellness of veterans will increase; more student veterans will graduate with a college degree from Herzing; and at least 60% of participating student veterans will be placed in a career within six months of graduation.

Herzing is seeking consideration under the Absolute Priority, Competitive Preference Priority 1, and Competitive Preference Priority 2.

**Saint Martin’s University (WA)**

Saint Martin’s University is a private, Catholic Benedictine, liberal arts institution with undergraduate and graduate enrollment of 1,600 students located in Lacey, Washington. The university seeks to deepen its longstanding commitment to the education of veterans and active- duty service members by establishing a model Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success (CEVSS). The university is well-positioned to strategically increase the enrollment, persistence, and completion rates of military affiliated students during the next three years: the university will celebrate 50 years of educating military service members on its Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM) branch campus during the 2022-2023 academic year; it has been designated as a “Purple Heart University” and received a gold distinction as a Military Friendly® institution by VIQTORY for four consecutive years; and it launched a computer science certificate program intentionally designed for military-affiliated students, Washington Veterans to Technology, during the last academic year.

Saint Martin’s University is located in the sixth most military populous state in the nation and has historically educated a large portion of military-affiliated students—approximately 20% of its total student body. It is also a designated minority serving institution and enrolls a high percentage of military-affiliated students who are racially and ethnically diverse. In 2021, 63% of undergraduate veterans identified as persons of color. Despite Saint Martin’s commitment to educating military service members, however, the university has experienced declining enrollment, retention, and completion rates of veteran students through the COVID-19 pandemic. The global crisis has exacerbated ongoing barriers such as uncoordinated resources, understaffing, culture shock, mental health and disability challenges, and low engagement.

The goal of this proposal is to establish and institutionalize a veteran student support center that will provide a veteran-helpful ecosystem—a university culture, centralized support, intentionally designed programs, and holistic resources—in which veteran students thrive. To meet this goal, the enclosed proposal recommends the five following priorities: **1)**Create a centralized Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success with a coordinated veteran support team; **2)**Implement a veteran outreach and recruitment initiative; **3)**Provide a holistic support program that includes veteran-specific orientation programming, a peer mentoring program, proactive advising and coaching, an early alert system, and intentionally designed cocurricular engagement; **4)**Establish a career development program to facilitate veteran students’ workforce readiness; and **5)**Institutionalize a comprehensive professional development program for faculty and staff. These priorities will ensure that Saint Martin’s CEVSS program meets the following goals:

· **Goal 1:**Increase undergraduate enrollment of veteran students from 15% to 25%

· **Goal 2:**Increase semester-to-semester retention rates by 25% from TBD baseline

· **Goal 3:**Increase undergraduate fall-to-fall retention rates from 59% to 74%

· **Goal 4:**Increase cocurricular engagement rate to 50%

· **Goal 5:**Increase completion rate of junior-standing undergraduate veteran students and transfer students from 46% to 51%

Saint Martin’s addresses the **absolute priority**and both **competitive preference priorities**in this proposal. 

**St. Joseph’s College (NY)**

An independent, coeducational liberal arts college with campuses in Long Island and Brooklyn, New York, requests a Centers of Excellence for Veteran Student Success (CEVSS) grant to expand services for a growing number of veteran and military affiliated students. The proposed “Veterans Success Knowledge Community”****will establish a collaborative and cohesive Center of Excellence with proven, needs-based, high-touch, and sustainable military/veteran-centric support services that capitalize on the knowledge, skills, and expertise of the college community and its military/veteran community partners.

The goal****of the project is to increase veteran students’ enrollment, persistence, and completion by coordinating services to address their financial, health and wellness, academic, career, and social needs. SJC plans to achieve the following quantifiable **objectives**by the end of the three-year grant period: increase the number of applications from veterans by 10%; increase the number of enrolled veteran students by 5%; establish veteran-specific sections of the *Adults in Transition*course with 100% credit completion by all students; increase the year-to-year persistence rates from the current SJC 3-year retention average of 52% to 60%, the four-year degree completion rates of veteran students from 42% to 47%, the six-year completion rates from 53% to 60%; designate six new (at least one female) veteran peer health educators (VPHE) who will provide two programs per year; increase use of veterans in career counseling (500 hrs./yr.) and peer networking (by 25%); increase participation in Student Veterans’ of America (SVA) by 15%, with the club hosting two events per year; utilize 100% of the Graduate Student Completion grants and Internship Stipends per year; increase attendance (by 50%) of the female veteran students at the “She Served, She Deserves” initiative events. 

SJC address the **absolute priority and both competitive preference priorities.**

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**Chattahoochee Valley Community College (AL)**

Chattahoochee Valley Community College (CVCC) is a comprehensive, open admissions, two-year institution in Phenix City, AL. Serving both urban and rural areas, CVCC provides postsecondary education and training to Russell County, parts of Bullock, Lee, Macon, and Barbour counties in east central Alabama and Muscogee County in west central Georgia. Fall 2020 enrollment was 1,399 students.

Institutional Problems: CVCC is experiencing declining enrollment and low retention, graduation, and transfer rates. The COVID 19 pandemic accelerated these declines. The college has no First- Year Experience program with related coursework and advising/counseling, and there is not a close connection between coursework and jobs. CVCC also has low success rates in traditional developmental courses and insufficient student supports, including limited tutoring services.

Fort Benning is a United States Army post straddling the Alabama–Georgia border next to Columbus, Georgia and Phenix City, Alabama. Fort Benning supports more than 107,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees and civilian employees on a daily basis. CVCC is perfectly positioned to develop a Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success (CEVSS) with an overarching goal to increase student success, persistence, and graduation rates for the 300 plus veteran students at CVCC (representing 22% of the student population). CVCC will achieve this goal by increasing veteran student services through a comprehensive framework featuring; Veteran Peer mentors/Tutors, enhanced First-Year Experience, support services for veteran students (CEVSS cohort students), a veteran only lounge to provide a comfortable space to study, socialize and meet with CEVSS staff, plus a quiet room, tutoring enhancements, increased career pathways focus, and early alert services to produce gains among all veteran students.

The CEVSS will pursue this goal through four objectives:

(1) establish CEVSS for customized support services (academic. financial, physical, emotional and social) for veteran students;

(2) Create a Veterans Student Support Team to provide;

(3) increased monitoring/assessment of veteran student enrollment, persistence, retention and completion; and

(4) prepare veteran students for college and work.

Selected Project Outcomes: 

CEVSS will be assessed via measurable performance indicators aligned with the project goal and three objectives. Some key outcomes to achieve by the end of funding period are the following:

10% increase in veteran student applications year over year;

80% of Veteran Students will develop strategies for studying effectively;

85% of Veteran Students interact more with faculty and advisors for a more robust first-year experience;

85% of Veteran Students will be satisfied with their college experience; and 

85% of Veteran Students will utilize the CEVSS services increased fall-to-fall retention rates 10% year over year.

**Wayland Baptist University (TX)**

Wayland Baptist University (WBU) propose to establish a Virtual Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success (V-CEVSS). The proposed V-CEVSS will serve WBU’s military affiliated population, which is geographically dispersed across six states and territories (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, Hawaii, and American Samoa) and online. Many WBU military affiliated students take a combination of online and face-to-face courses, and all will be familiar with the Blackboard learning management system that will house the V- CEVSS. WBU has a current enrollment of 504 veteran students, with 63% in undergraduate programs and 37% in graduate programs. WBU is a Hispanic Serving Institution and a Minority Serving Institution, and the military student population mirrors the diversity of the institution as a whole. The proposed project meets the requirements for the **absolute priority**and **both competitive preference priorities**.

Over the course of the three-year project period, WBU will achieve six measurable **objectives**: 1) establish a CEVSS at WBU; 2) increase military affiliated student enrollment by 10% year over year; 3) improve persistence of veteran students to the third year by 10%; 4) increase graduation rates by 5%; and 5) train at least 50% of the full-time faculty and staff at WBU on critical issues regarding the experience of veteran students in higher education; and 6) increase utilization of counseling and disability services by military affiliated students.

**Major project activities**toward attainment of these objectives include hiring a veteran services coordinator; establishing a veteran services advisory board; new recruitment activities; creating the V-CEVSS Blackboard site; creating a veteran-specific first-year seminar course; increasing training for faculty and staff; implementing peer support strategies; and increasing the availability of mental health, tutoring, disability support, and career services for veteran students. 

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**SUNY Old Westbury (NY)**

SUNY Old Westbury (OW) is a public, primarily undergraduate Minority Serving Institution (MSI). A member of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, Old Westbury is the most diverse campus among SUNY’s colleges and universities. The Long Island region (OW’s location) has one of the largest veteran populations in the nation. In fall 2020, the College served 4,659 undergraduate students The student population is composed of approximately 28% African American/Black, 28% Hispanic/Latino, 12% Asian, 1% Native Hawaiian/American Indian/Native Alaskan and 27% White/Non-Hispanic. About 52% of all undergraduate students receive PELL grants. In fall 2020 we had 51 veterans enrolled.

The project satisfies the Absolute Priority and will establish an OW Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success (OW CEVSS) to address need in both the areas of higher education access and success for veterans. OW CEVSS has 5 key components: 1. targeted veteran enrollment efforts and a campus culture of belonging; 2. comprehensive and proactive academic support with individualized degree and career planning; 3. Extensive financial literacy and academic supports; 4. Network of resources, internal and external, for social and emotional support for veteran students; 5. Campus space for veterans. OW are addressing both Competitive Preference Priorities. OW is a MSI and key project activities are informed by research.

The OW CEVSS Project will utilize existing student success initiatives at the college and aligns with the mission of the College. The project is designed to expand higher education access for veterans and increase their success in educational and career outcomes. In the three- year grant period, the goal is to increase our annual veteran cohort to 200 and raise the retention and graduation rates 20% each. 

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**Cuyahoga Community College (OH)**

Cuyahoga Community College is establishing and maintaining a Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success (CEVSS)****on each of the College’s campuses to provide a single point of contact to coordinate comprehensive support services for veteran students attending each campus. The Cuyahoga Community College Eastern, Western, Metropolitan, campus will each maintain a designated Veterans Center space. The Veterans Center on each campus provides a welcoming, respite space for veterans, as well as a computer lab space, tutoring area, assistance with certificate of eligibility and other documents required to obtain military educational benefits, and other services.

The *Project Goals*are: **Goal 1**. Increase local Veterans’ awareness of educational and training opportunities; **Goal 2.**Enhance supportive services available to student veterans; **Goal 3.**

Improve student veterans’ financial literacy and understanding GI benefits; **Goal 4**. Improve student veterans’ Digital Literacy and access to technology; **Goal 5**. Improve student veterans’ understanding of academic and workforce training options related to career goals

The project outcomes include increased veteran’s student retention, and completion rates; improved digital literacy skills; enhanced financial literacy; greater connection of student veterans to the College environment and community; greater alignment of student veterans’ program of study to transfer and career opportunities. Activities include but are not limited to Veterans Workforce Connect - Career Path/Career Exploration Activities, Tutoring and supplementary instruction, Digital Literacy training and Laptop Loan Program; Peer Connect Check-ins; and Intrusive personal and academic advising.

Cuyahoga Community College is addressing Competitive Preference Priorities 1 and 2. 

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**Iowa Lakes Community College (IA)**

Iowa Lakes Community College Veteran’s project proposes to serve 30 students with a goal of increasing that number to 40 students by the third year. The Veteran’s program will operate under the umbrella of Student Services and has a high level of committed resources at the college. The inclusion and integration of veteran students present an urgent need to provide services for academic, mental, and physical health and enhanced learning opportunities that will encourage students to thrive and succeed in college.) Establishing a Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success on the campus of the institution will provide a single point of contact to coordinate comprehensive support services for veteran students.

Iowa Lakes will establish a veteran student support team, including representatives from the offices of the institution responsible for admissions, registration, financial aid, veterans’ benefits, academic advising, student health, personal or mental health counseling, career advising, and disabilities services.

Iowa Lakes will provide a coordinator whose primary responsibility is to coordinate the model program as well as monitor the rates of veteran student enrollment, persistence, completion, and developing a plan to sustain the Center of Excellence for Veteran Student success after the grant period. The Veterans Success Center (VSC) will be committed to providing services to student veterans, service members and dependents of the Armed Services with a welcoming space, career staff and peer advising, guidance with educational benefits, and engagement opportunities that span the college and the larger Northwest Iowa community. 

**The Citadel (SC)**

The Citadel serves over 600 military connected students annually, including 262 veteran students.  The State of South Carolina has a growing veteran population with 417,554 veterans, 10.36% of the adult population in the state who could benefit from this project. Veteran students navigate numerous challenges in the transition to higher education, including academic performance concerns, decreased sense of belonging, financial difficulties, as well as physical, social and emotional support needs.  The establishment of a Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success with all the comprehensive support services outlined in the grant’s absolute priority and first competitive priority will enable The Citadel to implement systemic institutional improvements and address identified needs to best serve veteran students. 

*Objective 1:* This project proposes to enhance The Citadel’s capacity to serve veteran students by developing a Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success as a sustainable model for administering and centralizing comprehensive support services.  As part of the Center, The Citadel will implement the following actions: *Action 1:* Provide a Director and Coordinator whose primary responsibilities are to coordinate the model program. *Action 2:* Establish a veteran student support team, including representatives from the offices of the institution responsible for admissions, registration, financial aid, veterans’ benefits, academic advising, student health, personal and mental health counseling, career advising, disabilities services, Krause Center for Leadership and Ethics, as well as faculty leaders. *Action 3:* Create a new Assistant Director position to support veterans.

*Objective 2:* The proposed Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success will focus on increasing veteran student enrollment, persistence, and retention through the provision of comprehensive academic, career, social and emotional, and financial support services.  The Center will implement the following actions: *Action 1:* Form a Student Success Team for each veteran student comprised of three staff members, including a dedicated academic coach, career coach, as well as a resiliency coach for social and emotional support.  *Action 2:* Develop a new orientation and transition program to enhance veteran students’ onboarding process, understanding of college expectations, and awareness of available support services. *Action 3:* Provide tutoring and academic skill-building instruction, academic advising and educational planning, career counseling, personal counseling, leadership professional development, as well as resiliency, social, and emotional support services. *Action 4:* Assist veteran students in obtaining financial aid and provide financial planning support services.  *Action 5:* Develop a robust system to monitor the rates of veteran student enrollment, persistence, and completion.

*Objective 3:* The proposed Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success will also foster a sense of belonging among veteran students.  To foster this sense of belonging, The Citadel will implement the following actions: *Action 1:* Support veteran student group events and provide networking opportunities for veteran students.  *Action 2:* Promote a veteran-friendly culture on campus to ensure students have a positive experience in the classroom by providing faculty and staff professional development on best practices in working with veteran students.  *Action 3:* Develop a veteran student mentorship program. 

     By implementing these evidence-based actions and student support services, the proposed Citadel Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success will achieve noteworthy three-year outcomes, including increasing veteran student enrollment (15% to over 300 students), increasing year-to-year retention (12% to over 87% retained), increasing interaction with the Center of Excellence (by 30% to over 90% of students engaging with the Center), increasing engagement with campus student support resources (by 30% to over 90% of students engaging student services), and increasing the percent of veteran students reporting feeling a sense of belonging and The Citadel as a veteran friendly campus (by 12% to over 80%). 

**City Colleges of Chicago (IL)**

City Colleges of Chicago (CCC), community college district no. 508 in the State of Illinois, proposes to enhance and improve veterans’ services at the community colleges serving the City of Chicago. CCC currently maintains Veterans Service Centers (VSCs) on all seven campuses in its district. Coordinators, Veterans Services Specialists lead the VSCs and support almost 1,000 veteran students annually. The VSCs are veteran-specific spaces to meet with Veterans Services Specialists and with veteran student associations. Funding by the CEVSS grant will increase expenditures for veteran students at CCC colleges by forty percent over the next three years—from an estimated $555 to $780 per veteran student annually.

As the VSCs and Coordinators are already in existence at CCC, the project’s goals are for CEVSS funding to enlarge and improve its portfolio of services for veteran students in the district. The objectives of the CEVSS project are to increase enrollment, improve persistence rates, and increase program completion rates for veteran students. CCC will develop programming along three vectors of support: 1) Attract—draw potential veteran students to CCC; 2) Transform and Empower—make the most of veteran students’ time at the colleges; and 3) Advance—launch veteran students on successful career pathways. The primary activities will be a workshop series on the transition from military to college, success coaching, and veteran- space physical and technological improvements at all seven community colleges in the district. 

**Western Kentucky University (KY)**

Western Kentucky University is a public four-year institution located in Bowling Green, Kentucky. WKU prepares students of all backgrounds to be productive, engaged, and socially responsible citizen-leaders of a global society. Due to its location between Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, as well as the large numbers of National Guard and Reserve units in the area, WKU is strategically located to serve military and veteran connected students. It also has a long history of connection and service to the military, having a century-old ROTC program, hosting a Veterans Upward Bound program since 1993, and serving the Army installation of Fort Knox as an on-post school since 1976.

WKU serves a military and veteran connected student population of over 2,000 students, which includes 534 service members, 272 veterans, and 1,218 dependents. WKU values the breadth of diversity, strengths, and lived experiences that these students bring to the campus and the classroom. WKU also recognizes that these students face many challenges and obstacles to their success. As such, WKU seeks to understand these challenges and to find unique and creative ways to build programs and initiatives to assist them. Establishing a Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success (CEVSS) at WKU will address identified needs of this student population, as well as address gaps and weaknesses by focusing on all criteria in the **Absolute Priority.**

The CEVSS at WKU will focus on the following goals to improve military and veteran connected student success.

Goal 1: Improve capacity to serve military and veteran connected students by: a) hiring a coordinator to establish a CEVSS at WKU and a student support specialist to assist in carrying out the goals and objectives of the CEVSS at WKU Fort Knox; b) establishing a success team for military and veteran connected students; c) conduct regular professional development trainings with the CEVSS team and other faculty and staff, to improve understanding of military and veteran connected students, the services and support available to them, and to increase staff and faculty self-efficacy regarding military and veteran students.

Goal 2: Increase student success, improve the student experience at WKU and increase student engagement, to ultimately increase fall to fall retention rates to 75%, fall to fall persistence rates to 80%. With improved year to year retention and persistence rates, the CEVSS aims to improve graduation and completion rates by 10%. To accomplish this, the CEVSS will conduct the following activities; a) improve and expand outreach to students, both current and prospective; b) create new student orientation for military and veteran connected students; c) create a culture of trust and connectedness at WKU to promote the well-being and success of military and veteran connected students, by hosting events, supporting the student veteran organization on campus, partnering with the counseling center regarding mental health initiatives, and connecting veteran faculty and staff members to military and veteran connected students.

WKU address the **Absolute Priority**and **Competitive Preference Priority 1**.

**University of St. Thomas (TX)**

The University of St. Thomas (UST) proposes to establish a Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success and hire a new, 100% FTE Project Manager as a single point of contact to coordinate comprehensive support services for veteran students. UST will establish a professional veteran student support team, which includes representatives from campus admissions, registration, financial aid, veterans’ benefits, academic advising, student health, mental health counseling, career advising and disabilities services offices. Veteran students will receive specialized coaching, guided by Bettinger and Baker coaching theory, in addition to remedial math and writing “catch-up” courses to increase academic success. VETSTART will also feature wrap-around services and referrals, counseling and other on- and off-campus support for veteran students.

UST will also be responsible for creating new and expanded partnerships and collaborations with veteran-related service organizations in the greater Houston metropolitan area, such as active Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion posts, the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Administration Medical Center, the City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Veterans and Military Affairs, U. S. Veterans Initiative (USVETS), the Harris County Veterans Services Department and TexVet. UST VETSTART staff and institutional research team will monitor the rates of veteran student enrollment, persistence, and completion. 

**This project meets Competitive Preference Priority 1: Meeting Student Social, Emotional, and Academic Needs**. UST VETSTART is designed to improve veteran students’ social, emotional, academic, and career development using trauma-informed theory such as Schlossberg’s Transition Theory to provide support for social and emotional veteran student learning. This program will also provide faculty with training to expose them to violence and trauma specific to military- or veteran-connected students.

This project also **meets Competitive Preference Priority 2: Promoting Equity in Student Access to Educational Resources and Opportunities**. UST is a designated Hispanic- serving Institution and the eligibility letter from the US Department of Education is included in grant attachments, ensuring that UST is a qualified minority-serving institution.

The UST VETSTART three-year program goals are to: 1) increase veteran enrollment by 47%; 2) increase veteran retention rates to 85%, and 3) increase the graduation rates of veterans by 45%. An estimated 300 veteran students will receive services during the grant award period and UST plans to institutionalize all VETSTART programs and services when funding ends. 

**Minnesota State University Moorhead (MN)**

The Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) was founded in 1998. The college serves 5,547 students through 80 undergraduate programs and 12 graduate programs. The university is committed to increasing the success of veterans and improving the quality of services provided to veterans establishing a culture for veteran success. The university has enrolled an average of 250 veterans annually during the past five years but has seen a decline in enrollment. The first objective of this project is to increase veteran enrollment to 330 students. Other objectives include 1) increase the fall-to-fall retention rate of veterans to 70% by fall 2024; 2) increase the overall retention rate to 75% by fall 2025, and 3) establish an 85% percent participation rate in a career opportunity among all veteran student groups.

To accomplish these objectives, the project design addresses these seven strategies: Develop a Comprehensive Recruitment Plan, Create an Integrated System to Track Veteran Use of Services, Create a College-wide Network Which Allows Services to Communicate to Each Other, Expand Career Service Activities, Establish Peer Advising, Veteran Career Opportunities, and Expand Credit Transfer Processes for Veterans.

The project addresses both Absolute Priority and Competitive Preference Priority 1. 

**Roosevelt University (RU)**

Roosevelt University (RU), a private, diverse, liberal arts university, proposes the Roosevelt University Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success (RUCEVSS), a project that will support veteran students success by addressing academic, financial, physical, and social needs of veteran students through collaboration and coordination of services on the RU campus and within the Chicago area. The project will support veteran students as they develop a sense of belonging through academic and social integration efforts and will develop institutional mechanisms for successful navigation of educational success pathways. With intention, this project is not a deficit model based on barriers to success, but rather it is based on supports to success. 

The strategies proposed are primarily based on Bettinger and Baker’s work, *The Effects of Student Coaching in College: An Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Mentoring (2011),*which focused on student coaching interventions**. Goal 1. Support veteran student success by coordinating services to address academic needs.**This will be accomplished through the development and implementation of a veteran-specific academic advisor initiative where an Academic Advisor will guide veteran student education plans using EAB Navigate and prescribed first year scheduling. A cohort-specific First Year Seminar course (FYS, for FTICs) or Transfer Success course (TRN, for transfers) for student veterans, the provision of training in online classroom tools and academic resources, and the provision of peer tutoring, for gateway course (and others as needed) will be deployed. Coordination with other RU units to provide wrap-around, holistic academic support network will occur so that veteran students will have exposure to, and access, RU TRIO programs, the Tutoring Center, and other resources. **Goal 2. Support veteran student success by coordinating services to address financial needs.**RU will accomplish this by implementing a career planning initiative that includes workshops on the following topics: making connections between major choices and employment, career exploration, and the identification and joining of professional associations. Student veterans will be provided opportunities to network with RU alumni through the RU Career Center. A financial literacy and wellness initiative will be implemented where information and training will be provided specific to veteran students. Micro- internship opportunities will be provided where veteran students will be able to work with business in Chicago to further develop their career options. **Goal 3. Support veteran student success by coordinating services to address physical needs.**A disability support initiative will be implemented through established RU units such as Disability Counseling Services. Additionally, project staff will connect and coordinate with local VA Hospitals and Vet Centers to host workshops and events on the RU campus. **Goal 4. Support veteran student success by coordinating services to address social needs.**A peer coaching initiative will be implemented where veteran students will staff the RUCEVSS and provide peer success coaching, and relationship development with the peer veteran students. The project will support the RU Testing Center Student Worker initiative where veteran students will have priority in employment in the soon to be established RUTC. Veteran students will be encouraged to participate in experiential learning projects focusing on hands-on learning related to aspects of the veteran experience, organizations supporting veterans, or their local communities. 

**Absolute Priorities Addressed: Yes**. **Competitive Preference Priorities Addressed: Yes. 1.**The project will address social, emotional, academic, and career development through creating a trauma-informed, positive, inclusive, and identity-safe climate by fostering a sense of belonging and inclusion through incorporating Social Emotional Learning (SEL) into activities. **2.**The project will promote equity in student access to educational resources and opportunities. The RUCEVSS project will be implemented by Roosevelt University, a Hispanic Serving Institution.