By Laura Fitzgerald, Special to The Gazette

Near the end of her sophomore year, Haven Cain enrolled in Widefield High School without knowing a soul.

Cain is used to being the new kid at school. The daughter of two military-involved parents, she has attended more than 10 schools since kindergarten. While she’s used to the frequent moves, it has caused her to be closed off from other students.

But this school was different. On her first day, a Student 2 Student (S2S) peer mentor showed her around the school, chaperoned her to her classes and sat with her at lunch.

S2S — a student club that pairs new students with a peer to welcome them to school — helped Cain connect to her new school and feel less alone. S2S is just one example of the many unique programs El Paso County school districts offer to support military-involved students and families. 

How K-12 school districts support military families

On a broader scale, military liaisons stationed at each of Colorado Springs’ military bases help students transferring in and out of the city’s K-12 schools transfer credits. They ensure students are meeting grade-level and graduation requirements.

“Every state has different standards and a different order of teaching those standards,” said Dawnna Benoit, a school liaison at Fort Carson. “A student who is coming to Colorado from Maryland may have missed some skills in that transfer, or there were different expectations.”

The liaisons also link students to other educational resources, including after-school programs, youth sponsorships, homeschooling resources, SAT/ACT prep, and college and career readiness programs.

In another testament to El Paso County’s support for military families, seven of the eight school districts and 25 of the 27 schools that received the inaugural Purple Star Designations in 2025 are in Colorado Springs.

Schools in districts D-49, Academy D-20, Colorado Springs D-11, Widefield D-3, Harrison D-2, Fountain-Fort Carson D-8 and Ellicott D-22 received the honor, as well as all D-8 schools. About 70% of D-8’s students are military- or federally-connected, making it one of the most military-connected school districts in the state, Superintendent Keith Owen said in a district statement.

The Purple Star Program honors public schools that provide programs and support services addressing the unique academic and social-emotional challenges faced by military-involved students and their families.

Requirements to receive the designation include dedicated school staff who act as military liaisons, student-led transition programs and staff professional development.

Supporting students’ social-emotional health

Other programs, such as S2S, focus on supporting students’ social-emotional needs.

“A lot of these kids are used to going from school to school and state to state,” said Seth Hastings, department chair of the counseling department and former S2S advisor at Fountain-Fort Carson High School. “It’s important in any new place to have that sense of belonging. We want to make sure that happens for all of our students, but especially for military students.”

Frequent moves make it difficult to make new friends, join extracurricular activities, or fully integrate into the school culture, said Widefield High counselor Greg Morris. S2S helps new students integrate into their school by building relationships with peers and staff.

“We try to get a relationship with them, and find out what their hobbies are, their interests are,” Morris said. “For example, if they’re a basketball player, we introduce them to the basketball team and the basketball coach. We try to make some of those connections for them.”

Cain is now a peer mentor with S2S, welcoming new students the same way they welcomed her.  

“S2S definitely helped me open up to and talk to people I didn’t know,” Cain said. “ I was able to become friends with people quickly.”

Support at the college level for Military Members

Pikes Peak State College and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs have entire departments dedicated to supporting students who are military veterans, actively serving in the military, or who are family members of a military member or veteran. About a third of the student body at each campus is classified as military-involved.

Pikes Peak State College Office of Military and Veteran Programs (MVP) Director Paul DeCecco said his office assists students every step of the way, including helping students enroll in the college, choose their classes and field of study, access disability accommodations, or just being an empathetic guide through academic and personal challenges.

Staff receive training several times a year about the unique challenges military-involved students face, DeCecco said. The college participates in Veterans Upward Bound, a federally funded college preparatory program designed to get veterans ready for college.

Students who are actively serving face scheduling uncertainty because they may be deployed or reassigned in the middle of the academic year, DeCecco said. That’s why the college offers flexible term lengths and military withdrawals so a student isn’t financially penalized should they have to withdraw during a course of study.  

Supporting military veterans on a college campus

Veterans might feel lost after leaving the camaraderie and structured environment of the military. Some have physical and/or mental disabilities, DeCecco said.

Like other adult learners, veterans usually have jobs and families to support while attending school. It might have been years since they’ve stepped foot in a traditional classroom, he said.

“Many military members really don’t have an idea of what they want to do when they get out, and so they just try and do anything,” he said. “This is where higher education can really help. Whether that’s a university or a community college, we can help somebody get skills in something they want to do.”

Anthony Mandt was unsure what to do with his life after finishing his 12-year career with the Air Force. He found a welcoming community in the MVP office.

“It’s a tough transition because your life is turned upside down, and then you’re figuring out, what’s next?” Mandt said. “I had a pretty good idea that I wanted to go back to school, but at the same time, I had all this uncertainty about it. I had avoided school, mostly, for the last 12 years. So that was the whole new thing to tackle.”

The office supported him not academically, but emotionally and socially. They coordinated with Disability Services to get accommodations for his military-related disabilities. He got a job in the office so he could support his family while attending school.

“It gives me a community,” Mandt said. “I feel supported by them.”