“The University of Oregon PAVE Team has shown exceptional creativity and dedication in serving the military-affiliated students on campus. They have worked hard to create an environment of support and community, offering a variety of events in their veterans center and providing opportunities for military-connected students to connect with resources and each other. The amount of care and focus on positive outreach and interactions with the students they serve shows the commitment of the University of Oregon PAVE team to providing the best campus environment possible for their students,” says Emma Czajka, PAVE Program Coordinator.

The University of Oregon (UO) has around 700 military-affiliated students. Their PAVE team is composed of Veteran Services Coordinator, Maria Kalnbach, two Team Leaders, Marklin Nixon and Liz Quintanilla, and ten Peer Advisors. Together, they are serving around 35 military-connected students this term. 

One of the methods that this team uses to support their student veterans is through an initiative called “Duck Bucks”. This is a program funded by grants from the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs that allows the school’s veterans office and PAVE team to provide a drawing for a dining gift card to students as part of an ongoing effort to address food insecurity.

According to Liz, the PAVE efforts “take a lot of the stress and like anxiety off some of our student veterans who are still trying to adjust from this really structured life into this new chapter, being a student”.

The PAVE team has been instrumental in building a strong community for military-affiliated students. Marklin described the positive impact of PAVE on campus saying, “one thing I love about the PAVE program is that it gives some of student veterans a way to help other student veterans,” and Liz added, “I think [PAVE] really does help in creating that sense of belonging and gives that sort of comfort”.

Students frequently come into the veteran center are met with warmth and PAVE Peer Advisors eager to help them find resources, solve problems, or even just have a chat. Maria summed up PAVE’s impact, saying, “you know, maybe, maybe it’s small. Maybe it shifts the trajectory of how their college experience is”. The small individual pieces of the UO PAVE team’s efforts add up to create a wide-ranging and effective network of belonging for their military-connected students on campus and in the community.

Keep up the great work, University of Oregon PAVE team!