UW alum Betsy Casselman-Porter is an educator and school psychologist who owns the family ranch in Texas. She earned her psychology degree at UW—“It was the best college experience someone could have,” she says. To this day, she vacations with her UW Chi Omega sisters, and she spends summers in Jackson with her daughter and grandkids.

While Casselman-Porter was in college, she saw a lot of the men she had gone to school with returning from Vietnam. She saw the issues they were facing, including mental health challenges and PTSD. Later, while in graduate school, she interned at the VA in Texas, witnessing the same things.

That’s why Casselman-Porter created the Casselman Veteran Student Support Excellence Fund to support the work of the University of Wyoming Veterans Services Center, which serves military and veteran students. The impact of this fund was doubled by state matching. It supports operations and the UW Buddy Check Woobie Program, which creates a culture of self-care, empathy, and mental wellness within the student veteran community. “You are never alone” is the program’s motto.

“I am happy to be a small part of what they do,” Casselman-Porter says. A “woobie” is an aff ectionate term for a military poncho liner that can be used as a blanket or makeshift shelter. It is warm, quick-drying, packable, and durable, and its name derives from that of a security blanket. Every time a student veteran wears their woobie, they are encouraged to check in with a fellow veteran.

“It is so nice to know we have not been forgotten,” one veteran says.

Another veteran adds, “I got the woobie, and a day later I was informed I lost one of my brothers to suicide—all I could think to do was put on my woobie, and I have been wearing it all day.”