Radford University has achieved gold status as a Military Friendly School and a Military Spouse Friendly School.
The designation comes from Military Friendly, a program that creates civilian opportunities for veterans. Its ratings program began in 2003 as an advocacy vehicle to encourage civilian organizations to invest in programs to recruit, retain and advance veterans as employees, entrepreneurs and students.
“Earning gold status for the 2024-2025 Military Friendly Schools and gold status for Military Spouse Friendly School 2024-2025 is a wonderful testament to the support offered through the Military Resource Center,” said Radford University’s Vice President for Student Affairs Susan Trageser. “The team recognizes the unique circumstances of veteran and military-affiliated students and strives to ensure resources and opportunities are in place with barriers significantly reduced while fostering a place where veterans frequently find their community.”
Military Friendly’s 2024-2025 schools list can be found at www.militaryfriendly.com.
Methodology, criteria and weightings for the ranking were determined by Viqtory, with input from the Military Friendly’s advisory council of independent leaders in the higher education and military recruitment community, Military Friendly stated. The final ratings were determined by combining each institution’s survey scores with the assessment of the institution’s ability to meet thresholds for student retention, graduation, job placement, loan repayment, persistence (degree advancement or transfer) and loan default rates for all students and, specifically, for student veterans.
Radford University’s Military Resource Center (MRC) provides active military students, veterans and their spouses and dependents with the resources, support and advocacy needed to succeed at the university and beyond graduation. The center’s staff helps students utilize their benefits to the fullest extent and provides an opportunity to expand their education beyond the classroom.
A faculty support team, composed of veteran faculty and staff, provides advice and guidance for operations at the Military Resource Center.
“Radford University has been a wealth of opportunity to me by giving me chances to apply my life skills and experience from my military service to academic life,” said U.S. Army veteran and junior English major Rob Borman of Blacksburg, Virginia. “In particular, Radford afforded me an opportunity to participate in an undergraduate research fellowship to focus on the relationships between leadership and emotions, focusing on de-escalation. The professors here have been excellent mentors in guiding me toward my goals of becoming a professor and have also inspired me to be a mentor to my fellow veterans.”
Borman serves as president of Radford’s Student Veterans Organization and has volunteered with the university’s MRC “to help maintain a level of esprit de corps and fellowship,” he said, “that helped ease both veterans, actively serving personnel, and dependents into academic and collegiate life.”
He is an advocate and mentor to Radford’s student veterans, “helping them through classes, finding opportunities within and without the veteran's community for employment,” he said, “as well as coaching through sobriety and mental health issues.”