From the Chancellor

It’s Military Appreciation Day on campus today and we are honoring our veterans during the game against Washington State at Folsom Field. Whether you are at Folsom Field or watching from home, please join us as we express our gratitude for their service while in uniform and for their many contributions here on our campus.

We have a growing community of veterans. CU Boulder is home to more than 1,000 student veterans and veteran dependent students, and more than 300 faculty and staff vets. Since 2013 our student veteran population at CU Boulder has grown by 18 percent.

Within our student community, our veterans are a valued and distinctive part of our student population. Many arrive with skills they have learned in the military and they want to build on those skills here at CU Boulder. Having served as leaders and members of diverse and often multicultural teams, worked on nuclear submarines or used seismic readers to monitor plate tectonics, these veteran students have the experience and critical thinking skills readily applicable to their academic pursuits here.

With years of professional experiences, our student veterans often have families of their own and continue to work during their college career. In their academic pursuits, they are part of a diverse community where people from different backgrounds and experiences share common scholarly interests and goals.

The CU Boulder Office of Veteran Services is here to support them. It offers camaraderie, community and counseling on everything from understanding veteran benefits to adjusting to college life. We are committed to supporting all our veterans as they make the often challenging transition from the military to a college campus community.

Our veteran students, faculty and staff contribute unique perspectives and experiences to our classrooms, organizations and activities and often serve as role models, personifying values developed throughout their years in uniform like service, respect, integrity and commitment.

Our goal as a campus is to shape tomorrow’s leaders and our veterans have the experience and drive to be just that, tomorrow’s leaders.

To see some of the ways we are shaping tomorrow’s leaders and impacting humanity across a spectrum of students and programs, I invite you to enjoy these short stories and videos featuring current and future students and alumni. Click on the first story link to learn about one veteran student who was deployed to Afghanistan from Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. 

Sincerely,

Philip P. DiStefano
Chancellor
www.colorado.edu/chancellor

Supporting those who support our nation

Our veterans have supported our nation, which is why it is our goal to support them when they return home from service. For Tanner Scholvin, a 26-year-old CU Boulder first-year student, making the transition from military to university has been a new experience.

Journalism grad student finds new calling back on the battlefield

As an officer in the U.S. Special Forces, Mitch Utterback spent years deployed in conflict zones. Now he’s training to return abroad as a war correspondent.

Campus community members honored for improving cross-cultural understanding

From helping international students connect to cultivating an environment of mutual respect between Muslims and all communities, four campus members were honored this week for their outstanding contributions to international understanding.