{"id":27068,"date":"2026-10-08T15:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T19:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/?p=27068"},"modified":"2026-10-08T16:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T20:32:15","slug":"udm-earns-michigan-veteran-friendly-schools-designation-for-2026-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/2026\/10\/08\/udm-earns-michigan-veteran-friendly-schools-designation-for-2026-27\/","title":{"rendered":"UDM earns Michigan Veteran Friendly Schools designation for 2026-27"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-27069 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/10\/MVAA-Veteran-Friendly-School-Gold-2026-2027.png?resize=170%2C204&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Michigan Veteran Friendly Schools Gold Status badge\" width=\"170\" height=\"204\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/10\/MVAA-Veteran-Friendly-School-Gold-2026-2027.png?resize=250%2C300&amp;ssl=1 250w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/10\/MVAA-Veteran-Friendly-School-Gold-2026-2027.png?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 170px) 100vw, 170px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 170px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 170\/204;\" \/>The Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency (MVAA) started the Michigan Veteran Friendly Schools (VFS) program in 2015-16, and Detroit Mercy has once again been awarded Gold Friendly Status for 2026-27.<\/p>\n<p>The program formally recognizes higher education institutions that provide support for veterans, service members and military connected students. UDM\u2019s Gold Status designation demonstrates the University\u2019s ongoing efforts to improve the academic experience of these students through veteran-focused services.<\/p>\n<p>In 2026, a record-breaking 73 universities, colleges, trade schools and apprenticeship programs were enrolled in the program. The increase in participation reflects Michigan\u2019s commitment to being one of the nation\u2019s most veteran-friendly states.<\/p>\n<p>Any academic or training facility in Michigan eligible to receive veteran education benefits can apply for the program.<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.udmercy.edu\/current-students\/registrar\/veterans.php\">Learn more about veteran resources at UDM.<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Detroit Mercy has once again been awarded Gold Status in the Michigan Veteran Friendly Schools (VFS) program for 2026-27, demonstrating the University&#8217;s commitment to improving the academic experience of student veterans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":677,"featured_media":27069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,6438,4404],"tags":[2727,4985,607,2731,2728],"class_list":["post-27068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ccnews","category-community","category-student-announcements","tag-gold-level-veteran-friendly-school","tag-student-veterans","tag-veteran","tag-veteran-friendly","tag-veteran-friendly-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbwnTV-72A","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/10\/MVAA-Veteran-Friendly-School-Gold-2026-2027.png?fit=300%2C360&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27068"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27076,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27068\/revisions\/27076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}