College recognized as a Military Friendly School

National Park College has earned the 2021-2022 Military Friendly School designation, which recognizes the college’s accomplishments in student retention, graduation, job placement and other factors affecting student veterans.

“It is truly an honor to be recognized as a 2021-2022 Military Friendly School. As the veteran affairs coordinator and a Marine Corps veteran myself, it gives me great pride in seeing the accomplishments and contributions that these men and women who have served our

country bring to our campus,” said Nathan Looper, NPC veteran affairs coordinator.

Jason Hudnell, dean of enrollment services, said the college is proud to be recognized and “humbled and honored” to serve the veterans who have served and sacrificed for the country.

Looper said NPC is “blessed” to have had outstanding veteran students over the past several years who have made it their personal goal to improve the difficult transition from military life to student life.

“Our student veterans are constantly looking for ways to make other fellow veterans and dependents feel welcome, most recently establishing the first-ever student veteran organization ‘Vet Hawks’ here at NPC,” Looper said.

Institutions earning the achievement were evaluated using both public data sources and responses from a proprietary 2021-2022 survey that over 1,200 schools participated in, with 747 earning the designation, according to a news release.

The 2021-2022 Military Friendly Schools list will be published in the May issue of G.I. Jobs magazine and at http:// www.militaryfriendly.com.

“Methodology, criteria, and weightings were determined by VIQTORY with input from the Military Friendly Advisory Council of independent leaders in the higher education and military recruitment community,” the release said.

“Final ratings were determined by combining the institution’s survey response set and government/agency public data sources, within a logic-based scoring assessment,” it said.

“Each institution is measured on their 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.”

Hudnell noted the designation is given to institutions based on data provided to Military Friendly by the college’s veterans coordinator.

“I believe the data shows the number of veterans we serve and the efficiency with which we are able to help them in their academic endeavors,” he said, noting Looper “does an excellent job of serving our veterans. Nathan, who is a veteran, is committed to ensuring that our veterans have a great experience at NPC.”

“I am so excited for our student and staff veterans past and present who have made being recognized as a Military Friendly School possible, and of course my gratitude goes to our board and our leadership here at National Park College for the outstanding support they give our veteran community,” Looper said.

“We look forward to welcoming all veterans to our Veterans Services Center located on the second floor of the Student Commons,” he said.