Catawba Valley Community College recently received designation as a 2018-2019 Military Friendly School. Institutions earning the Military Friendly School designation were evaluated using both public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey.
“We are proud of our work toward serving the military through higher education,” said Dr. Garrett D. Hinshaw, CVCC president. “We value the service that these individuals provide to our country and work to assure that their educational needs are a priority at Catawba Valley Community College.”
CVCC has experienced a steady increase in veteran enrollment, from about 80 in 2012 to around 135 this semester. CVCC staffs a full time veterans’ benefits coordinator, Elen Gibbs, who works exclusively with student veterans. She partners with veterans from admission to graduation and serves as a single point of contact. This helps veterans make academic choices that more readily align with Veterans Affairs requirements.
Gibbs networks with other veteran’s institutions off-campus to help guide the veteran to community resources as needed. She helped facilitate the formation of a veterans’ club as well as a Veterans Center on campus where they can share common challenges and successes.
Methodology, criteria, and weightings for the Military Friendly School designation were determined by Victory Media with input from the Military Friendly Advisory Council of independent leaders in the higher education and military recruitment community. Final ratings were determined by combining the institution’s survey scores with the assessment of the institution’s ability to meet thresholds for Student Retention, Graduation, Job Placement, Loan Repayment, Persistence (Degree Advancement or Transfer) and Loan Default rates for all students and, specifically, for student veterans.
For the first time, student survey data was taken into consideration for the designation. More than 1,400 schools participated in the 2018-2019 survey with 941 earning the designation. The 2018- 2019 Military Friendly® Schools list will be published in the May issue of G.I. Jobs magazine and can be found at www.militaryfriendly.com.
For more information about CVCC’s student veteran programs, visit www.cvcc.edu.
About Military Friendly Schools:
The Military Friendly Schools list is created each year based on extensive research using public data sources for more than 8,800 schools nationwide, input from student veterans, and responses to the proprietary, data-driven Military Friendly® Schools survey from participating institutions. The survey questions, methodology, criteria and weighting were developed with the assistance of an independent research firm and an advisory council of educators and employers. The survey is administered for free and is open to all post-secondary schools that wish to participate. Criteria for consideration can be found at www.militaryfriendly.com.