Beyond Veterans Day, November is Veterans Awareness Month. At Syracuse University, student-veterans are often met with unqiue challenges, and to rise to meet them, SU has made large investments in its National Veterans Resource Center. 

"A $60 million facility built with accessibility is a top-line priority," said Institute for Veterans and Military Families communication manager Brandon Dyer.

The current generation of vets have been in a conflict for the past 20 years.

Between a physical disability-friendly building and scores of programs and resources, Dyer says having readily available support on campus makes a world of difference for those coming home and hitting the classroom.

"When you're actually in it and doing it and you're in the courses and you're in the classes, having that safety net is just, it's incredible," said Dyer.

Meet Charlie Poag, Marine Corps veteran and member of the SU Class of 2022.

"I was in the Marine Corps for 16 years. I started off as a combat cameraman. That kind of turned more into visual information-type stuff, which then turned into communication strategy and public affairs type stuff," said Poag. "After 16 years, it is interesting to be in a college environment. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but I didn't really know how to make that happen."

"'Stick-to-itiveness', resiliency, being able to have strict attention to detail ...these soft skills make them ready-made campus contributors and dynamic additions to any classroom," Dyer added.

For the multitude of stories and voices of veteran students, there's an environment of freedom and guidance.

"The veteran population here is pretty well connected. It is a very inclusive community, and we don't really push the veterans to come together," said Poag. "We just want them to be involved in the community and they need each other here, through the building and the lounge, and the community here is really impressed with the student veterans."

"They've taken away a lot of the normal barriers that, I think, a lot of veterans experience in trying to transition into higher education and it works; it's a very smooth transition. And that makes it easy for us to come here and learn and move on in our lives to achieve our goals."