VMSS Salutes the College Community

August 23, 2023

August 23, 2023 – During Fall Convocation, Santa Fe College President Paul Broadie II congratulated SF's Veterans and Military Success Services (VMSS) for receiving the Military Spouse Friendly designation. This honor comes on top of SF being named a Top 10 Military Friendly School, and Military Times naming the college the top school in the state of Florida for veterans.

On behalf of VMSS Coordinator Sandra Torres-Pintos and her staff, VMSS Specialist Nick McMillen released the following message to the college community.

Every year, Santa Fe College gets the designation of "Military Friendly" and "Best for Vets". This year, we even received the "Military Spouse Friendly". While Sandra and myself are the figureheads for the student veteran population on campus, we are only a small portion of the reason why we continue to get the designations year after year.

It's the individuals in the Admissions office who walk any incoming potential student over to our office, the tireless work of the Financial Aid office helping veterans walk through doing their professional judgements to get them access to their grant money. It's the advisors upstairs who verify with us on classes that work and classes that don't in the eyes of the VA, and the staff at the Counseling Center and Career Exploration Center that are helping our students learn who they are and navigate this new-found stress.

It's the Cashier's office who have become our second set of eyes for all our financial paperwork we submit to them, making sure our students' bills are rightfully covered or deferred when needed. It's Facilities Services who work tirelessly to keep our campus clean and our veteran monuments shining. It's the Fine Arts department who literally took Old Glory, our beautiful flag flying over I-75, broken and tattered and sewed life into her to allow her to flight bright once again.

It's the College Senate executive council and Career Service members who are quick to assist when our student veterans have issues. The department heads who jump through hoops to make sure we have classes that meet government regulations. The business classes that were converted from Hyflex to Hybrid on the spot when they learned that Hyflex counts as online in the eyes of the government. The countless number of professors and adjuncts that contact us when they see one of our students struggle.

It's the student veterans themselves who are involved in every level of Student Government and heavily involved across campus in student organizations – specifically Carmelos Brown and Alex/Ike Smith. These are the reasons why our students come back semester after semester and why we are known all the way to Paris Island as a school where our veteran population is welcome. This is why we are more than just Veteran Friendly, we are Veteran Inclusive.

We are Santa Fe, and we all deserve praise for these accolades. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

• Nick McMillen