This fall, 51 student veterans will graduate from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and UAB Veterans Services will honor them with a graduation cord ceremony at 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, December 11, in the Hill Student Center. Coins and Cords has been held each semester since 2014.

As an additional token, graduating veterans who have excelled in the classroom with an overall GPA of 3.4 will be presented with a challenge coin.

“We wanted to find a way to let our veterans know we care about them and their success in the classroom, as well as their lives after college,” said director of Veterans Services, Walter Stewart, III. “This coin will serve as a reminder of that. When veterans graduate, they already receive red, white, and blue cords, and this is another way to congratulate their hard work during their tenure at UAB.”

Stewart says many of UAB’s veterans are graduating from online programs as well as on campus. Because service members are sometimes transient, often moving from base to base, distance learning programs allow troops to study anywhere, from Alabama to Afghanistan. Online programs also allow students to study at any time of day, a perk for service members accustomed to working unconventional hours.