The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced that the National Cemetery Administration has awarded nine grants totaling more than $2.4 million as part of the Veterans Legacy Program (VLP). This initiative honors America’s veterans and service members by uncovering and sharing their stories.
This year's VLP grant announcement represents an increase from six to nine recipients and over $260,000 more than last year’s awards. The grants fund research into veterans’ service, accomplishments, and community roles. Educational tools generated by this research will support teaching histories of those interred in VA national cemeteries and VA grant-funded state and Tribal veterans’ cemeteries.
“We look forward to a third successful year working with our grant partners,” said Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Ronald Walters. “Grant recipients will engage with younger generations of Americans to help them learn about and appreciate the legacy of the nation’s veterans.”
This year’s recipients were selected from a pool of twenty applicants. Each recipient will develop and produce material over the next year:
- **Loyola Marymount University**: Awarded $350,000 for the "LMU Digital Veterans Legacy Project," focusing on women veterans, Buffalo soldiers, and Japanese and Chinese American veterans interred in Los Angeles National Cemetery.
- **Texas State University**: Granted $344,015 for "Texas Veterans Legacy for Tomorrow," which leverages storytelling, social work methodologies, educational pedagogy, and primary source materials to create resources for educators.
- **Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History**: Received $342,000 for "Vietnam Veterans: Legacies of Service," commemorating Vietnam-era veterans through lesson plans, teacher development programs, and student awards.
- **National History Day Inc.**: Secured $320,861 for "Silent Heroes: Untold Stories from the Korean War," involving teachers and students nationwide in researching Korean War era veterans.
- **Kennesaw State University**: Awarded $311,819 to mentor students collecting interviews from family members of World War II veterans involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
- **University of Wisconsin-Whitewater**: Granted $281,923 for "Cim Cia Project: Sharing the lives of Hmong American Veterans," focusing on Hmong American veterans across 14 cemeteries in 10 states.
- **West Virginia Humanities Council**: Received $223,458 for high school students to compose biographies of World War II veterans interred at Grafton and West Virginia National Cemeteries.
- **Troy University**: Awarded $200,017 for "Mobile National Cemetery: United States Colored Troops (MNC/USCT)," memorializing Black Civil War veterans buried at Mobile National Cemetery.
- **Go For Broke National Education Center**: Granted $67,072 for “Interned at Home, Honor on the Battlefield,” focusing on Nisei World War II veteran stories through student journalistic research projects.
Three organizations—West Virginia Humanities Council; The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History; Loyola Marymount University—were also grantees last year.
Established in 2016, VLP memorializes veterans through educational outreach by connecting students, educators, and citizens with NCA cemeteries' histories. Since fiscal year 2022, VA has awarded 21 grants totaling over $6.8 million to educational organizations engaging more than 1,600 students and teachers in veteran research activities.
