News

The Cleveland Institute of Art offers eligible veterans and their dependents an opportunity to receive fully funded tuition through the Yellow Ribbon Program provision of the Post 9/11 GI Bill, continuing a decades-long tradition of supporting the artistic studies of U.S. veterans.

CIA’s Yellow Ribbon Program benefits combine the GI Bill, CIA’s contribution, and a matching contribution from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) to cover four full years of tuition for eligible veterans and their dependents. The Institute is proud to offer the most generous benefits of any Ohio art school, and one of the best among America’s specialized art and design colleges (AICAD).

The government’s Post-9/11 GI Bill offers the most comprehensive education benefit package since the original 1944 GI Bill, which funded education or training for 7.8 million of 16 million World War II veterans.

One of the veterans who studied at the Institute during that time was Ben Steele, who graduated from CIA in 1950. After surviving a brutal POW camp during WWII, Ben credits the Institute with helping him purge much of his anger against the Japanese. Read the Plain Dealer’s account of his amazing story.

Another notable war veteran at CIA is Professor Frances Prindle Taft, who has taught art history at the Institute for 60 years. During WWII she discovered her love of teaching while serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve’s Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES.

Other graduates-turned-professors, such as Viktor Schreckengost ’29, John Paul Miller ’40, and former CIA president Joseph McCullough ’48, also served with honor in the military and attended CIA on the GI Bill.

If you are a veteran interested in studying at the Cleveland Institute of Art, contact our Office of Admissions or visit our U.S. Veterans application page.