Lander University hosted its annual Veterans Day program on Friday, Nov. 9, honoring veterans and students who will deploy overseas.
As part of a new tradition at Lander, Sergeant Nicholas Gebo, president of Lander's Student Veterans Association, presented students who have been called into active duty with deployment flags. "We have a number of students, faculty and staff who serve our country in the National Guard and reserves," explained Chris Giles, Lander's director of military and veteran services. Many of these students are called into active duty, which requires them to temporarily leave Lander.
"The idea is for the service member to carry these flags as they travel around the world in service to their country, hopefully taking pictures and sending them back to us so we can show our support of our amazing Lander family," said Giles. Once these students return, the university plans to hold a reception to welcome them home, and display the deployment flags on campus.
In addition to being ranked as the third best public college in South Carolina, Lander was recently ranked as the 15th best public college in the country for veterans by College Consensus. Lander is also a Yellow Ribbon School, providing Yellow Ribbon funding to qualified and accepted applicants in accordance with the Post-9/11 GI Bill®.