Cornell Veterans

Within Cornell Veterans community, I found a home. You've shown me the true meaning of camaraderie, of shared purpose, of unwavering support.

Our time at Cornell has been more than just an education. It's been a forge, tempering our resolve, sharpening our skills, and pushing us beyond what we thought we were capable of.

We are quite familiar with leaping into the unknown by now. We did it when we enlisted or commissioned, we did it when we came to Cornell, and we're about to do it again.

So graduates, let's raise a glass to the path that we forged together.

Congratulations.

Undergraduate veterans are a key part of the Cornell military community, which includes graduate students, large ROTC contingent staff and faculty, vets in summer programs like the Warrior Scholars, as well as just parents of veterans like me.

Cornell benefits immensely from unique experiences, insights, and perspectives offered by our veterans. They bring a diversity of experience and viewpoint that adds value to the classroom and extracurricular experiences of all of our students.

While I was looking for college for now as a prestigious school is the top of my list. It's almost like my eye was just opened by the resources offered by Cornell and by the broad diversity. I realized as a minority female veteran, I know I will going to have a good life here and I will be welcomed.

Cornell really struck out to me as like the sweet spot between like having academic rigor as well as a broad curriculum that kind of forces you to explore a lot of different option. And that was one thing that would really blew me away right off the bat.

While I was applying, I saw there's great support from the veteran community. I started getting emails from veterans who make sure that I knew what was going on, how to use the GI Bill, what to expect from school, how to best get started. And that really helped prepare me for my academic studies here.

Originally when I first was applying to Cornell, I didn't actually think that Cornell was the right fear for me. I self selected myself out of the process. So I stopped my application for college and I got a phone call from a student veteran at Cornell and he asked me, why aren't you applying anymore? It's like, no, I don't think I'd fit well. I don't think I'm as accomplished as the people that are already here.

And he stopped me and he said, no, we're going to keep you from stopping yourself and doing these great things and went down the path of being like, maybe I can do this.

And so knowing that there were student veterans here willing to support me in my journey, it made me feel that Cornell was the best fit for me.

Finding community here at Cornell is, I would say very, very easy. I felt like very welcome. I think like, no matter what your interest is, you're going to find out a community that has a special thing.

There are so many ways to get plugged in with the people around you and the community around you.

I feel like the veteran community here found me. Even though we all have very different personalities, we're all extremely similar.

I immediately find where my communities I find more and more people like. Had a similar experience, had a similar struggle, and can have shared the same sense of humor with me and it was definitely the changing point of my life.

A university is made up of many communities who support each other and whose shared experiences create lifelong bonds. Military community at Cornell is one of those communities and we're trying very hard to create the conditions that cement these bonds.

It is why we have established a veteran's house as well as veteran study and hangout space on central campus.

I think Cornell does a really good job at supporting both veteran student and non traditional students. There's a lot of resource that the school has put out to help the transition between like the military life and college.

I feel like veterans are all welcome at Cornell. We took the place for the best college for veterans. There's a such a supportive community here.

We talk to each other and we support each other in whatever endeavors that we want to do. I think that's a beautiful thing that the student veteran community does.

It's amazing opportunity to come here. It's very easy to sell yourself short as a veteran and to think that maybe you can't get into great schools. But I would say it's always best practice to just try shoot for the stars. Really don't sell yourself short. Cornell is definitely within your grasp.