CVTC honored with gold Military Friendly designation for supporting military families
EAU CLAIRE — As a first for the technical college, Chippewa Valley Technical School was named a 2025-26 gold-ranked Military Friendly School by the Military Friendly organization.
Cody Dennis, CVTC Veteran Advisor and School Certifying Official, said, 'This is the first year that CVTC has received a Military Friendly gold status, so we are very excited. It is a historical moment. The president of CVTC [Sunem Beaton-Garcia] has really been supportive of our Veterans and our military families, so this is just fantastic news for us.
'It is a great honor for us. Last year and in the year prior we were silver, and in 2019 through 2023 we were bronze, so for us to be able to move up to gold is just awesome.'
In being ranked by a national organization, Dennis said the designation looks at how well the school performs in 10 categories ranging from support resources, to graduation rates, to how they focus their accreditations to support Veterans, active duty members and their families.
'The highest thing we scored this year was graduation rates; CVTC has some really great graduation rates for our Veterans,' he said.
Dennis said they currently serve 218 Veterans and active duty service members, with an additional 113 recognized as spouses and dependents of military members. The Military Friendly's gold designation is awarded to the top 20 percent of schools which exceed their criteria, as it recognizes the institution's support for those military students.
'We are dedicated to our Veteran service members and their families,' said Dennis. 'This role as a full-time Veteran advisor and school certifying official means that students have someone to go to to assist them. One of the things we do besides just getting you connected with your Veteran benefits is a big focus on transitioning to campus lifestyle and transitioning back to the community for a lot of our Veterans who have recently gotten out. We provide resources, connections with other Veteran groups, as well as we have our own Veteran community group here on campus where we are able to connect with students and help them as they transition out of the military and be there for them as someone who can relate to the service and sacrifices they made.'
Dennis said the honor is less about achieving the ranking and more about showing their community that they are dedicated to their Veterans and their families.
For the future, he said their aim will be to continue creating spaces and creating more community outreach opportunities for their students on top of continuing what is being done currently at the college.
'When they are coming here, they know that we are going to support them all the way through and then we are going to get them out into the workforce and start working again,' he said. 'For myself as a Veteran getting out, it can be stressful and a little scary transitioning to the civilian world because you are worried that the skills you have learned in the military may not apply to real life. CVTC does a fantastic job of tailing our programs to make sure that our Veterans can take what they have learned, go out into the community and do great things.'
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