LACEY, Wash. — The Council of College and Military Educators (CCME) has named Saint Martin’s University as the 2021 recipient for the CCME Institution Award, in recognition of its significant contributions to the cause of military education. This is the second time Saint Martin’s has received this national award; Saint Martin’s also received the award in 2014.
Saint Martin’s University received its second national award in seven years from CCME for its dedication to providing quality education and transition programs to servicemembers, veterans, federal employees, and other military-affiliated members and their families. Saint Martin’s was honored for its post-service programs in support of technical training to servicemembers and veterans, either transitioning or already out of the military. These programs have included the multi-year partnership with Microsoft to be a host of the Microsoft Software Systems Academy and now the upcoming Washington Vets to Tech program, which will offer 16-week specialized certificate programs. These life-changing programs serve as bridges from the military to new careers in information technology.
National, state, and local Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) leadership agree that Saint Martin’s has helped “servicemembers and veterans [receive] a smooth transition to new careers, while local and national technology firms deepened their talent pools with former service members who know how to work through complicated challenges.”
For more than 49 years, Saint Martin’s University has been serving the educational needs of JBLM students. Through the decades Saint Martin’s staff and faculty have made substantial efforts to pursue an integrated institutional approach to better serve its military students by incorporating traditional, classroom instruction with independent study, online study, hybrid, and distance learning programs. Cruz Arroyo, associate dean for administration and director of the Saint Martin’s-JBLM campuses, shares, “This critical and unique integration provides members of all military services and their families with quality educational opportunities in the local academic arena, or while serving globally in remote locations.”
In addition to this award, Saint Martin’s has been named a Military Friendly School with Gold Status multiple years and was the first-named Purple Heart university in Washington state.
CCME, a not-for-profit organization, was founded almost 50 years ago to promote, encourage, and deliver quality education to service members, their families, and other military-affiliated members of all branches of the Department of Defense. Its membership is principally composed of military and civilian educators, post-secondary educational institutions, and providers of quality education products and services. The CCME Symposium is the largest annual military education forum in the country with an expected attendance of about 1,000 participants.
Saint Martin’s University is an independent coeducational university, with undergraduate and graduate offerings, located on a wooded campus of more than 300 acres in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 13 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 29 majors, 11 master’s programs, one doctorate program and seven certificate programs spanning the arts and sciences, business, counseling, education, engineering, nursing and leadership. Saint Martin’s welcomes more than 1,300 undergraduate students and 250 graduate students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its Lacey campus, and more students to its extended campus located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord
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