A Salute to Our Veterans

November 11, 2024

Members of the Rutgers Community,

As we mark Veterans Day today, I hope you’ll join me in offering special gratitude to all those among our students, faculty, staff, and alumni who are serving or who have served the United States in uniform. This is a day on which to remember the service and sacrifice these individuals have made to protect and defend our nation.

We take inspiration from individuals like Cindy Saladin-Muhammad, a two-time graduate of Rutgers who was recently promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Reserves. We applaud the dedication of Rachel Cary, an award-winning medical student at Rutgers currently serving in the Army National Guard, and that of nutritional sciences major Malik Dobson, who was named national collegiate male taekwondo athlete of the year this past spring and is deployed as an Army reservist this fall. And we thank U.S. Army veteran Louis Valderrama and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Zach Bautista for their leadership as members of our veterans’ offices at Rutgers University–Newark and Rutgers University–Camden. These heroes continue a long line of Rutgers women and men who have served our country in uniform throughout our university’s history.

Rutgers remains committed to supporting enlisted personnel and veterans in their academic journeys, with programs and services at each of our locations in Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick. These services range from academic support to helping veterans apply their military educational benefits to providing access to counseling and emergency services. 

Rutgers also hosts Vets4Warriors, a national peer support network for veteran and military communities staffed by veterans and members of the military community. We were honored when a coalition of corporate and nonprofit partners, Face the Fight, recently made a $1 million grant to support the work of Vets4Warriors.

And I’m pleased to help highlight the Vet Smiles Program at Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, through which our pre-doctoral and resident student doctors provide free dental care to veterans in Essex County. The program has already served 175 veterans, who are very often ineligible for dental benefits.

As the proud son of a U.S. Air Force veteran who taught me so much by his example, I hold our veterans and military personnel in the highest regard. I offer all those at Rutgers who have served this nation in the armed forces my enduring appreciation and wish you the very best as we observe Veterans Day.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Holloway
President and University Professor