Honor. Service. Patriotism.

Every November, UCF celebrates Veterans Month.

With a wide range of services and programs to support veterans, the university — highly-ranked by U.S. News & World Report and Military Times as a best college for veterans and winner of a silver Military Friendly award — strives to honor the service and patriotism of our more than 2,300 military-connected students and student veterans and celebrate their academic journeys at UCF.

During Veterans Month, we focus on areas of impact that need your support to advance the lives and legacies of active military and veterans in our community — yet your support is appreciated and valued not just during the month of November, but all year long.

With your help, we can enhance many important programs and resources for our veterans like those below. 

Veterans History project

The UCF Community Veterans History Project (UCFVHP) collects, preserves and shares veterans’ stories.

In partnership with the Library of Congress National Veterans Project, UCFVHP records the experiences of living American Veterans to ensure that future generations can hear veterans tell their stories — in their own words and in their own voices.

The impact of the UCFVHP is manifold.

• It demonstrates our appreciation for our veterans,
• It allows students to connect with veterans and fully understand military service and sacrifice,
• It offers student interviewers an opportunity to learn career-ready interviewing and digitizing skills,
• It is an invaluable way to document family history.

To date, the project has interviewed more than 700 Florida veterans with a goal to reach 1,000 by 2026. To do so will require purchasing equipment, hiring student interviewers and program facilitators, and engaging veteran liaisons.

Additional support will also expand the project’s Supply Vault for Students Veterans’ Success, a recently launched outreach program where student veterans receive items that will help ease their transition to higher education, like noise-canceling headphones, external hard drives, wireless keyboards, blue light eyeglasses and smart notebooks. The supply vault items are free to veterans and are a tangible way of letting them know we are grateful for their patriotism and service.

Office of Military and Veteran Student Success

The Office of Military and Veteran Student Success (MVS2) provides programming and support from enrollment to employment and creates an inclusive environment where our military-connected students can excel in their educational and career goals.

With the goal of becoming the No. 1 military and veteran-inclusive university in Florida by 2025, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, the center plays a vital role in creating an environment where our military-connected students can thrive.

Crucial services available at the MSV2 include:

• Certifying that students are receiving all their military benefits through the Veterans Administration,
• Providing academic advisement and career services,
• Supporting two student organizations, Student Veterans of America and SALUTE – the National Honor Society for Veterans,
• Offering service and outreach opportunities through the Soldiers-to-Scholars program, which helps at-risk elementary school children.

With additional funding, MVS2 can do so much more to honor those who have already done so much.

Additional funding will allow every graduating military-connected student to have a graduation stole, at no cost. It will also pay for SALUTE memberships for each eligible military-connected student, so cost is not a barrier to joining the prestigious honor society.

Donor support will help UCF increase career readiness classes for student veterans, create community-focused networking events to increase awareness of the university’s veterans programs and military-connected student population, and upgrade study rooms and facilities at the center with new technology.

UCF RESTORES

UCF RESTORES – which includes the National Center of Excellence for First Responder Behavioral Health™ – is a nonprofit clinical research center and treatment clinic established to change the way PTSD and other trauma-related concerns are understood, diagnosed and treated.

Their unique approach to treatment —using evidence-based exposure therapy, virtual reality technology and group treatment sessions — delivers results superior to national first-line treatment outcomes. Following treatment at UCF RESTORES, 66 percent of participants with combat-related PTSD no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.

“After six years of talking with people at the VA, I felt better [with UCF RESTORES] in three days. I’m not saying you are 100 percent better but you’re feeling a little better about being a human being. You start feeling yourself smiling a bit more, you want to talk to more people, call more family members, rather than alienating them. It made me comfortable in my own self. It unlocked certain doors that I could start speaking about.”

– U.S. Marine Combat Veteran

None of this would be possible without the continued support of the UCF administration, state and federal legislators, community partners and generous donors.

Additional funding will help UCF RESTORES continue treating patients at no cost through their intensive outpatient program, maintain clinic operations, and provide travel vouchers for clinic patients to travel to and stay in Central Florida for the duration of treatment.

PLEASE JOIN US. GIVE TODAY.

We hope you’ll join us in support of our veterans and their academic success and well-being. For more information, please reach out to Chris Hixon ’15 ’21MA, Director for Advancement, UCF College of Arts & Humanities, 407.882.1014 or [email protected].