“Always Ready, Always There” is the motto of the National Guard. In many ways, this describes Kent State University’s Center for Adult and Veteran Services, too.
For the 14th consecutive year, Kent State has been designated a Military FriendlyⓇ School. For 2023-2024, the Kent Campus ranked in the top 20% of institutions, giving it a Silver ranking.
The guard motto and the Center for Adult and Veteran Services are both familiar and comforting to Jacob Gorman, a senior aeronautics major with a professional pilot concentration.
In 2019, Gorman enlisted in the National Guard, but he is much like any other Kent State student. He enjoys learning from his knowledgeable professors and going downtown to hang out with friends at his favorite downtown spot, Ray’s Place.
After graduation, Gorman hopes to become a pilot for a company like Delta Air Lines or United Airlines.
While Gorman knew that Kent State was a Military Friendly School, he initially chose the university because of its top-rated aeronautics program and because it was close to his hometown, Medina, Ohio. The Military Friendly School designation the university holds was just another perk of choosing to continue his education at Kent State.
Gorman was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait from July 2020-May 2021. After he returned from deployment, Kent State’s Center for Adult and Veteran Services helped him with the transition back to university life. The center helped him know what benefits he earned and how he could use them.
“They helped me out with the process of getting my new benefits from that deployment,” Gorman said.
It is because of the great work the center does for students like Gorman that the Kent Campus was recognized again.
“I hope it makes students want to either enroll, to stay and to be a part of something special when they see a designation like this,” said Joshua Rider, executive director of the center.
The Military Friendly ratings program started in 2003 and is managed by VIQTORY Media, a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business. VIQTORY uses a public survey to recognize which schools in the nation are most supportive of their military students.
The survey measures an organization’s commitment, effort and success in creating a sustainable and meaningful benefit for all members of the military community in that organization.
The ratings program strives to be an advocacy vehicle to encourage schools to help veterans make the transition from the military to school and then to careers in the civilian world.
Gorman, who is also a student employee at the center, can see firsthand how the university earns this designation.
“Working in the Center for Adult and Veteran Services office, I could definitely see how they earned it, just based on how well everybody works in the office and how helpful and knowledgeable they are with everything here as a service member,” Gorman said.
The center’s mission is to provide a voice and enhance the experiences of adult, military-connected and parenting students both in and out of the classroom, which the center does through its programs, services and compliance with military-connected federal agencies.
“The Military Friendly School designation shows that Kent State University, for almost a decade and a half, is committed to adhering to the highest national standards when it comes to supporting our veterans, service members and their dependents,” Rider said.
Learn more about Kent State’s Center for Adult and Veteran Services.
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Photo Caption:
Kent State University ROTC cadets present the colors at a Kent State football game at Dix Stadium.