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Grant helps veterans attending Sacramento State

Sacramento State is one of 20 schools in the nation selected to receive a $100,000 American Council for Education/Wal-Mart Success for Veterans Award Grant to support veterans attending college.

More than 250 colleges applied for the ACE/Wal-Mart grant, which is given yearly to higher education institutions that have developed significant programs to increase access to postsecondary education for veterans and their families.

The grant will be used to support Sacramento State’s Troops to College program. That program, one of the largest in California, provides scholarships and support for current and former military members to ease their transition into the University.

Sacramento State formally established its Troops to College program in 2008 after a state-wide program was established by the California Legislature. The state program was not funded and individual schools developed ways to support their programs. Last year, Sacramento State, The University Foundation at Sacramento State and SAFE Credit Union began a campaign to raise $100,000 to support the program. To date, the campaign has raised more than $150,000 for books, fees and a summer bridge program to ease the transition from military to university life. The first scholarships are expected to be dispersed in the fall.

“I was extremely excited when I got the phone call about the award. I knew that there were a lot of applications, so I was trying not to get my hopes up too high,” says Jeff Weston, Sacramento State Veterans’ Affairs coordinator. “I am very attached to Sac State and its veterans, and this is a great opportunity to do even more to support them.”

There are more than 600 veterans, 80 active duty members and 600 dependents attending Sacramento State through Department of Defense tuition assistance programs.

The Success for Veterans Award Grants are part of ACE's “Serving Those Who Serve” initiative. The program is designed to help schools better serve veterans on their campuses and to help veterans access and utilize their education benefits.

“The men and women who serve our country are our nation’s heroes,” says Margaret McKenna, president of the Wal-Mart Foundation. “Wal-Mart is proud to support programs that help our veterans get the resources they need to succeed in their education and their transition back to civilian life.”

Over the past year, the Wal-Mart Foundation has awarded more than $3.6 million in grants to organizations in support of programs that provide educational assistance to veterans.

For more information on Sacramento State’s Troops to College program, visit
www.csus.edu/news/multimedia/troops.stm

To contact Sacramento State’s Veterans Affairs Office, call (916) 278-7893 or visit www.csus.edu/admr/vets. To support the Troops to College program, call Jody Policar at (916) 278-4168 or go to webapps1.csus.edu/ua_development/form1.asp. For media assistance, contact Sacramento State’s Public Affairs office at (916) 278-6156.