Posted 11:15 a.m. Friday, May 20, 2022

UWL Veteran Education Benefits Coordinator Jane Brannan with her family after her son Joe's graduation from basic training in 2012. From left, Jane Brannan holding her youngest child Jennifer; Joe, oldest son; Jack, middle son; Sandy Brannan, her mother; and James Brannan, her dad. The Brannan Family Student Veteran and Military-Connected Student Scholarship will assist many students with connections to the Armed Forces.

UWL veterans benefit coordinator helps address a challenge she sees for the students she serves

As UW-La Crosse’s veterans education benefits coordinator, Jane Brannan works with student veterans daily who have great financial need. However, she can’t find enough financial aid to assist them with their college dreams.   

Brannan and her family — who make up three generations of military veterans — saw the problem as an opportunity to contribute.

They created a new scholarship through the UWL Foundation that supports student veterans, current service members, or those with military spouses or who have a parent who is a veteran or service member.   


UWL Veteran Education Benefits Coordinator Jane Brannan with her son, Joe, in 2016.
"Students are bearing more of the cost of college themselves, so there is more need,” says Brennan. “Everything we can do to help these students so they are not burdened by debt is helpful. Every bit counts.”   

The Brannan Family Student Veteran and Military-Connected Student Scholarship was offered for the first time this spring. Brannan’s father James; her son Joseph; and her sister Joan all served in the Armed Forces.

Brannan served as a Signal Corps Officer in the Army. Brannan said a scholarship was fitting because being a veteran is an identity she holds dear and education is valued in her family.    

“I believe in the power of education to transform lives, open doors, and assist people in goals they are pursuing,” she says.