There are other challenges that are quite specific to Posse student-veterans. Registrar Colleen Mallet, who has taken on an entire array of extra tasks over the years to help the group, believes “Posse veterans are more accepted now on campus by the other students, who have become more sensitive.”

After graduating with Vassar’s class of 2017, Eduardo De La Torre returned home to Houston, where he is now founder of DVG Financial, a firm that provides low-cost loans and teaches financial literacy to discharged veterans, a group particularly vulnerable to predatory lenders during the often-protracted period when they are waiting for their Veterans Affairs benefits to begin.

Jeffrey Schneider, Associate Professor of German Studies, was so impressed by the student-veterans he had in his classes that he volunteered to be the faculty advisor to the Posse veterans of the class of 2022.

Six years in, the Vassar Veterans Posse program has had a profound impact on the lives of student-veterans—and on the College itself.

More than 1,500 athletes and coaches competed in eight events in the Special Olympics New York Summer Games June 15 on the Vassar campus and three other venues. Many won medals, but those who didn’t were just as proud as they congratulated each other and shared all the fun they all were having with their friends, families and the more than 1,200 volunteers who made the Games a success.

Nineteen Vassar administrators have finished a five-month professional development program designed to enhance relationships among employees throughout the campus.

Reunion 2019 was full of many highlights, including a record-setting class gift of $16.3 million from the class of 1969, six class attendance records, and absolutely gorgeous weather.

CNN host and criminal justice advocate Van Jones delivered the Commencement address on May 26 at Vassar’s 155^th graduation ceremony.

Thanks to a Time Out grant, Eve Madalengoitia ’86 will spend the next 12 months composing music, a lifelong passion that she never had an opportunity to pursue full time.