The Collegiate Veterans Society at Santa Fe College was founded in 1999 for the purpose of helping veterans transition from military to college life.

The student based veterans organization has assisted thousands of its members acclimate to the Gainesville academic community. Over the course of a decade the Collegiate Veterans have encouraged and informed new veterans on the many and confusing veterans benefits programs available. While this is a minor repayment of the service and sacrifice made by all veterans, it is important to try as much as possible to repay the debt. This would be impossible to do without the peer mentoring and sharing of advice and experiences present in the organization.

With the assistance from our friends at the Community Foundation in Jacksonville, the Collegiate Veterans have undertaken the task of encouraging and promoting the creation of new veterans organizations in other colleges in north Florida. The goal is to create local support networks and services using the model so successfully employed at Santa Fe College and the University of Florida.