The Independent Sector has always sought to make a top-rate college education more affordable for veterans – and to ease the transition to civilian life and work. Now, on the heels of an historic new GI Bill, private campuses are offering scholarships, counseling, benefit delivery assistance, and a variety of other services that promise to support the highest dreams of our deserving veterans.
The new “Post 9/11” GI Bill, signed into law last summer, will go into effect on August 1 this year. It is designed to assist more veterans in covering tuition and fee costs, up to the most expensive public college in the state. The bill and its Yellow Ribbon component for private colleges and universities is hailed as an overdue expansion of education benefits that “gives Iraq and Afghanistan veterans a chance at a first-class future,” according to Patrick Campbell, legislative director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He adds, “Our nation has renewed its social contract with our men and women in uniform and their families.”
Private colleges, like Nazareth College near Rochester, supplement this newly expanded GI Bill by awarding scholarships, as well as delivering a host of additional support and outreach. The Nazareth Veterans Scholarship awards up to $7,500 per year for four years to any honorably discharged veteran post 9/11 who has served six months on active duty and is enrolled as a full-time undergraduate student. Combined with the increased benefits from the GI Bill, this scholarship essentially allows qualified veterans to go to the College tuition free.
Nazareth College takes its support a step further by partnering with Rochester area veterans organizations. This spring the College’s School of Management partnered with the Rochester Regional Veterans Business Council, an organization for military veterans who own or operate local businesses, to hold its monthly meetings on campus. In addition, Nazareth’s School of Health and Human Services, which consists of physical therapy, creative arts therapy, speech-language pathology, social work, and nursing, works closely with Veterans Outreach Center, Inc. to provide individual or group diagnostics, therapy, and wellness services. Finally, Nazareth’s College of Arts and Sciences has offered the Outreach Center help in its technology center, a place where vets can prepare resumes and more.
Nearby Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) also takes the driver’s seat in offering a menu of assistance to veterans. Every available benefit is tapped through RIT’s Student Financial Aid office, and other programs offer discrete counseling and academic support. The focus, according to Gene Clark, RIT’s Director of Veteran Enrollment Services, is on allowing veterans to fit in as students and focus on their academic work. “While we are ready to assist this deserving group of warriors, we need to recognize that they are in great need of transition assistance, both academically and personally,” states Clark.
In the 1970s, Mercy College began special programs for veterans returning from Vietnam and it continues in this mission by embracing and enhancing the new GI Bill. The College provides a 50 percent tuition reduction in conjunction with the new bill under its Patriot Education Program. The program also waives application and discounts registration fees by 50 percent. Students begin their degree online and may finish on-site or continue earning their entire degree online. “At Mercy College, we walk the walk with our veterans,” says Richard S. Colt, retired Major General. “We are committed to ensuring the best possible education for those who have sacrificed for us.”
Pace University also offers a 50 percent tuition scholarship to veterans who have served in Afghanistan and/or Iraq since 2001. In a unique offering, the scholarship applies to both online and physical classroom enrollment and to virtually all undergraduate and graduate degree programs (with the exception of law, doctoral, and EMBA degrees).
At Wagner College, admitted veterans who have served in either Afghanistan or Iraq qualify for $20,000 scholarships – the highest merit scholarships awarded by the College as an institutional gift.
Long Island University focuses on Marine Corps veterans who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan with its new Semper Fi Scholarship. Launched with a gift from World War II Marine veteran
Martin Kramer, the scholarship’s first recipient is Luis Duran of Copiague, who is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Duran joined the Marines after graduating from high school in 2002. He took part in the capture of Baghdad in the spring of 2003 and was wounded by a suicide car bomber in the notorious insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
Demanding and extraordinary combat experiences, such as Duran’s, are often recognized formally by the Independent Sector in the form of prior learning credit. Adelphi University, for example, acknowledges the specialized skills and knowledge gained during military training and employment. The University assigns evaluators to assess competency and award credit toward a degree. In this way, veterans earn well-deserved advanced standing toward graduation.
Online learning suits many military students, removing real and perceived obstacles to higher education. Excelsior College acts on this understanding by expanding its tuition discounts to active-duty military personnel who take classes online. Students can study from Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Germany. One student graduated in the Iraqi desert 7,000 miles from campus, in a ceremony arranged by his fellow soldiers. This outreach, combined with the College’s experienced staff who help guide veterans through the complexities of the GI Bill benefits, led Military Advanced Education magazine to name Excelsior College one of the top 10 colleges nationwide for U.S. military personnel. As a result, the school has seen its number of enrolled military students rise by about five percent each year, in addition to an increase in enrollment of spouses of military personnel who themselves are eligible for scholarships.
Other students, like Mark Hutchinson of Nazareth College, weave their soldiering with higher ed studies. The 22-year-old deferred his dream of doing cancer research to attend Marine boot camp directly after high school graduation. Hutchinson is back from Iraq and was just promoted to Sergeant after training at Quantico. Presently, the veteran is on campus working on his biology major and chemistry minor.
William Berger, a 26-year-old Wagner College student, served in Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division. He works about 55 hours a week, takes 18 credit hours, maintains a 3.9 average, and runs cross country. “I’m about as far from a traditional student as you can get, but I’m doing alright with it,” says Berger about his role in the small, private college. “I don’t put myself out as a veteran; I’m a student first, and I run cross country. That’s who I am here.”
Sacrifice for the nation’s freedom takes many forms. At the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, students realize economic freedom by creating new business ventures. Syracuse University is one of four institutions nationwide to operate training in entrepreneurship and small business management to selected post-9/11 veterans who are disabled as a result of their service. The “bootcamp” provides focused, practical training in venture creation and growth, reflecting issues unique to disability and public benefits programs. Building on the University’s nationally-ranked entrepreneurship curriculum at The Whitman School of Management, the highly selective program is entirely free to qualified veterans.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is no figment of the imagination. PTSD is a documented illness that can get in the way of life, destroy meaningful relationships, and worsen physical health problems. The disorder usually begins about three months after living through or seeing a dangerous event. While these events may be hurricanes, rape, or a bad accident, war takes precedent in the frequency and sheer number of sufferers. Veterans with PTSD may feel stressed and alone; they endure sleeplessness and troubled dreams, or stay away from people and things that remind them of what happened. They can also experience angry outbursts.
Treatment for PTSD is effective, consisting mainly of guided “talk therapy” and sometimes medication. However, a study of soldiers coming home from Iraq found that only four in 10 suffering from PTSD get help.
Colleges and universities in the Independent Sector seek to change this. They are leaders in the research and treatment of PTSD and other veteran health issues. Mary Ann Forgey, Ph.D. of Fordham University, a recognized expert in PTSD, is conducting a two-year study on the effectiveness of the U.S. Army’s training curriculum in domestic violence. At Clarkson University, researchers work on an assortment of projects significant to veterans. From physical therapy to electrical and computer engineering to rehabilitative patient care, the University collaborates with the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Syracuse. Investigations like these across the Independent Sector aim to help the estimated 320,000 service members with PTSD.
For additional information about the Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act of 2008, visit www.gibill.va.gov.
GI Bill means thousands of new students for central New York colleges, Syracuse Post-Standard, Aug. 11, 2009
New GI Bill sending veterans to school this fall, Newsday, July 31, 2009
Hundreds of private colleges enlist in the Yellow Ribbon program, NAICU Statement, July 1, 2009
700 colleges tied the Yellow Ribbon, Inside Higher Ed, June 25, 2009