Veteran and Military Resource Center marks one year at SUNY Empire 

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — NOVEMBER 21, 2024) Empire State University’s Veteran and Military Resource Center is celebrating one year of supporting and empowering military-affiliated students seeking higher education.  

The center opened in November 2023 and, in just one year, has become a cornerstone of support for military-affiliated students, staff, and alumni. The center offers assistance with transition programs, academic support, veteran career services, and a variety of virtual and in-person programming to bring SUNY Empire’s expansive military-affiliated community together.  

Desiree Drindak, director of the Veteran and Military Resource Center, said providing a physical space for active-duty members, veterans, and family members to connect provides a unique resource that makes SUNY Empire stand out in its dedication to military-affiliated students.  

“We have accomplished more than I think we ever imagined in the last year,” Desiree Drindak, director of the Veteran and Military Resource Center, said. “We’ve always connected to community resources so our students could have the resources they needed, but this space specifically has now become a resource for our community to veteran organizations.”  

Since its inception, the Veteran and Military Resource Center has found different ways to recognize military-affiliated students through commemorative events and now, student organization. The center recently brought back the veteran and military student club and hired a military-affiliated student intern to assist with student engagement.  

“We have been able to make so much progress with engaging our students in a more social aspect versus just the academic,” Drindak said. “This program is about building community virtually and in-person, and the student club has been able to enhance all of that energy and get more student voices included in the conversation so we can build programming around them.”  

Empire State University proudly serves over 1,000 military-affiliated students, the highest number of any State University of New York institution. Drindak credits that growth to the foundations built through the center and the university’s support programs that bring a transfer of military training credit, automatic support, and community connection immediately to SUNY Empire students.  

“The university is working towards building programs and services to help students stay and continue to get their degree so they can move along in their journey,” Drindak said. “Our increase has been steady over the last few years, and that allows us the programmatic support to continue to grow.” 

Drindak, reflecting on the last year of progress with the Veteran and Military Resource Center, said the future looks bright. Drindak said the center is working to staff a veteran and military career advisor and expand connections with community organizations. Above all, Drindak said they are continuously working to build better support for military-affiliated students and their families.  

“The support of this population and this program is embedded into the fabric of the university,” Drindak said. “Supporting access to education is so important and, for this population, allowing these designated resources really helps us support military families and our communities around the state and around the world, so they can accomplish their educational goals and then move forward into the next phase of their life.”