Cal State San Bernardino has been named a 2022-23 Military Spouse Friendly® School, just a few months after being named a 2022-23 Military Friendly School®, with a gold ranking under the large public university category.

“The VSC is committed to student success, that includes all of our servicemembers and their spouses,” said Agustin Ramirez, director of the CSUSB Veterans Success Center. “Spouses are oftentimes the unspoken heroes of a military household, providing childcare and also care to a servicemember. These duties are in addition to school, work and other outside commitments. Every little bit that we do to support them helps.”

“Your company has been awarded the Military Spouse Friendly® Schools award for your efforts in creating sustainable and meaningful education paths for Military Spouses,” Military Friendly® said in an email making the announcement. “Thank you for all that you do for Military Spouses and the Service Member Community. Your efforts are truly commendable and are to be admired by all.”

Ramirez said the center’s commitment includes access to resources and services at its two facilities on the San Bernardino and Palm Desert campuses, advising and campus navigation, scholarships, assistance with applying for benefits and understanding them, and family and pre-deployment counseling offered through its partnership with Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS).

“We also partner with great colleagues on and off campus to provide assistance with admissions, career counseling and mentoring programs that help mitigate the challenges faced by military spouses,” he said. “This recognition is quite an honor.”

According to Military Friendly®, the 346 schools on the list have instituted policies to address the concerns and needs of military spouses and their families. They have constructed their admissions, retention, career counseling and mentoring programs to help alleviate the difficulties faced by military spouses, and there are flexible learning options and degree continuation programs that are designed to accommodate deployments and relocation.

To determine the list, the Military Friendly® team collected and processed various data that encourages schools to develop and sustain strong programs for military spouses on campus. The ratings are determined through the evaluation of public data and proprietary data gathered through the annual Military Friendly® survey process. The data-driven Military Friendly® survey is available at no cost to thousands of institutions nationwide. Survey topics and questions are reviewed and developed with the assistance of an independent Military Friendly® Advisory Council comprising independent subject matter experts and industry partners representing the field of veteran education.

CSUSB will be published in the July/August issue of Military Spouse Magazine in a special feature listing and will be on MilitaryFriendly.com.

To learn more about the Veterans Success Center, visit the CSUSB Veterans Success Center website.