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Serving those who served
ASU offers numerous support services to more than 15,000 active duty service members, veterans and their family members enrolled at the university.
ASU supports the students and families who have served our country by helping them succeed on their college journey and preparing them for life after they graduate.
Pat Tillman Veterans Center
The Pat Tillman Veterans Center provides comprehensive transition services, connections and academic resources to help veterans succeed at ASU and beyond.
Pat Tillman’s legacy was shaped at ASU, where he was an All-Pac-12 and All-Academic studentathlete. After graduating with honors, he was drafted by the NFL Arizona Cardinals. Tillman gave up his football career after four seasons to serve in the U.S. Army following the 9/11 attacks on the nation. He was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2004.
In the spirit of service and dedication that is the Tillman legacy, the center empowers veterans to follow their honorable service with exemplary academic performance and connect with meaningful employment for their postmilitary careers. The center ensures that ASU student veterans receive U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs education benefits in a timely and professional manner. It also offers a place for student veterans and military-connected students to congregate, study and engage in the student community, as well as receive help and advocacy to drive successful outcomes while in pursuit of their degrees and beyond.
In 2008, the Pat Tillman Foundation established the Tillman Scholars program to support educational opportunities for service members and military families by bridging the financial gap left by the Post-9/11 GI Bill®. ASU has been a Tillman Partner University since 2011.
Shawn Banxhaf, executive director of the Pat Tillman Veterans Center
For 21 years, Banzhaf served the U.S. in the Army National Guard. He retired as the 1057th Transportation Company acting first sergeant. As an Iraq War veteran, Banzhaf earned the Bronze Star and Combat Action Badge for his actions during 100 combat missions in and around Baghdad, Ramadi and Fallujah. He was instrumental in his unit, the 1074th Transportation Company, earning the Meritorious Unit Citation during their yearlong deployment.
Banzhaf created and wrote the book, "The 5 Ls: A Practical Guide for Helping Loved Ones Heal After Trauma." He has trained over 1,000 individuals to apply this method as a tool anyone can use with a loved one struggling with PTSD, whether a veteran or not.
Creating success through academics and workforce training
ASU values the veteran and military-connected learner as an integral component of the diverse university community, online and on campus. The work achieved across all ASU campuses continues to build a strong success culture that has received high praise and acknowledgement by MilitaryTimes.com (top 10% of public universities “Best for Vets”) and G.I. Jobs as a “military friendly school.” The university is one of the nation’s first higher education institutions to embrace “8 Keys to Success” and serve as a role model for implementation of the Executive Order of Principles of Excellence related to veterans’ services in higher education.
ROTC
ASU hosts ROTC programs representing four branches of U.S. military service, including the nationally ranked Army ROTC, which has been a campus mainstay for more than 80 years. ROTC students have the same college experience as their peers with one significant difference — upon graduation, they will be commissioned as officers in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines. Qualified students participate in a combination of academics, military-specific courses, physical fitness and summer training. Through a common ASU and DOD goal of developing success-driven leaders, there are multiple opportunities to earn a commission and may include full-tuition benefits, payment for fees and books, and a monthly stipend.
ASU programs for veterans
• The Office for Veteran and Military Academic Engagement integrates veterans into scholastic life, assists staff and faculty in understanding the veteran mindset and helps create research opportunities that benefit veterans by providing valuable hands-on experience.
• Salute to Service, ASU’s annual weeklong series of events honoring military service, features staff-, faculty- and studentorganized events across all Phoenix metropolitan campuses.
• VetSuccess on Campus, a joint program with the U.S. Department of Public Affairs, provides on-site counselors for veterans and family members using GI Bill benefits.
• The Yellow Ribbon Program helps Post9/11 GI Bill recipients and their families cover the cost difference between resident and nonresident tuition.
• Available scholarships include the Veterans Education Fund, Arizona Purple Heart Tuition Waiver, Spouse of Military Veteran Tuition Scholarship, Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, online military scholarships for individuals using tuition assistance and the Tillman Military Scholars program.
• In-state tuition has been offered to all honorably discharged veterans since 2011. Priority registration is available for veterans using benefits after their first semester.
• Credit is available for successfully completed military courses or training, and for DANTES and CLEP testing.
• The Veterans Upward Bound program helps low-income or first-generation student veterans improve their academic skills through free federally funded college preparation courses.
Supporting career transitions
ASU continually seeks opportunities with external partners to find pathways for student veteran success. An example is the energetic, handson CORE (Career Opportunity Redefinition and Exploration) Fundamentals workshop. Led by professional services company Deloitte, the workshop teaches student veterans, as well as veterans and service members in the community, how to find the right career fit by translating their leadership skills into a business context. Veterans learn to understand their individual strengths, target career opportunities based on their personal brand, network and succinctly communicate their story to potential employers.
Military families
ASU understands the important complexities surrounding military families. It is with this understanding that the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics created the Working with Military Families certificate. Students who complete the certificate program gain valuable insights into human development, marital and familial relationships, and family dynamics in the context of military culture.
The Aerial Port Exoskeleton
A new power and endurance device from ASU gives U.S. Air Force aerial porters enhanced levels of safety and strength on the job. The Aerial Port Exoskeleton, or APEx, provides Air Force aerial porters — responsible for loading pallets and lifting cargo onto aircraft — increased lifting and pushing support. The APEx project was created based on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2019 Volpe Center study, which revealed that more than $31 million is spent annually in disability benefits for retired aerial porters, who had a high incidence of musculoskeletal injuries.
APEx is an exoskeleton designed to assist people with loading a 10,000-pound pallet and then pushing it onto an airplane. The fundamental purposes of the lightweight 8-pound device are worker wellness and making pushing and lifting easier and safer.
The contract was funded under the Department of Defense Rapid Innovation Fund, which awards contracts to develop innovative technologies that can be rapidly inserted into programs that meet needs and are designed to include small businesses in the research process.
Ensuring military and soldier readiness
Our national security relies on military readiness, the ability of military forces to fight and meet the demands of assigned missions at any time. To achieve this important objective, the military uses Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) domains — physical fitness, sleep, nutrition, and mental and spiritual readiness — to evaluate and improve soldier readiness. The ASU College of Health Solutions works with multiple military installations in Arizona and the Midwest to increase readiness through cross-cutting prevention measures to increase signature behaviors such as good nutrition and regular activity and decrease negative behaviors such as smoking and substance abuse. The project also examines the social determinants of health for suicide prevention.
Starbucks College Achievement Plan
The Starbucks College Achievement Plan, launched in 2014, is a first-of-its-kind partnership between Arizona State University and Starbucks to expand access to high-quality education. It creates an opportunity for eligible U.S. partners (employees) to earn their first-time bachelor’s degree with 100% tuition coverage, choosing from more than 140 undergraduate degree programs offered online through ASU.
In November 2015, ASU and Starbucks expanded the innovative education partnership to allow partners who are serving or have served in the U.S. military to designate an additional family member to receive the benefits of the Starbucks College Achievement Plan.
Partners enrolled in the program have access to a dedicated enrollment coach, success coach, academic advisor, financial aid counselors, and career and professional development services to support them through graduation. More than 20,000 partners are currently participating in the Starbucks College Achievement Plan and nearly 10,000 partners have graduated from ASU, contributing toward the goal of graduating 25,000 partners by 2025.
