HotmailColleges trying to ease veterans' transition
Veterans need help with readjusting, paperwork
The University of California Los Angeles has short orientation sessions for veterans and is creating an Iraq and Afghanistan veterans readjustment group in the fall.
Matthew Nichols, a psychologist who just joined UCLA's counseling and psychological services after working for the VA, said he's hopeful that students will feel more comfortable asking for help on a college campus versus walking into a veterans hospital.
"These are everyday concerns," he said. "It's much less about 'there's something wrong with me,' and more about 'how can I study a little better?'" he said.
Universities that have traditionally served military students are also finding that their new and returning students need help navigating the bureaucracy of the enrollment process.
At Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn., just outside of Fort Campbell, Ky., the school has been holding community meetings about the new GI Bill and helping administrators from other colleges who have questions.
As the largest veteran-enrolled college in the state, about 15 percent of Austin Peay's students get some kind of veterans education benefit, whether they are surviving spouses, retired or still on active duty. They'll be adding faculty in some departments, including political science, for the expected increase in students using the new benefits and just opened a new extension building on the base this year to serve military students.
New GI Bill goes into effect Aug. 1
Congress voted last year to dramatically expand the GI Bill. The old measure offered $1,321 a month to cover all college costs. Effective Aug. 1, the new bill will cover tuition and fees for any in-state public university, a housing allowance and $1,000 a year for books and supplies.
Even though getting the old GI Bill was a recruiting point for the military for decades, many soldiers have had trouble going back to school, sometimes because they are older and often have families.
Jason Davis, 28, enlisted in the Army only a couple of weeks after Sept. 11 after dropping out of high school and facing minimum-wage jobs. Davis deployed twice to Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division, and then was stop-lossed, a military practice of holding troops beyond their enlistment dates. He spent another 18 months after that in the California National Guard.
The former sergeant said he struggled to find a job to support his wife and baby boy after leaving the military in 2008, mainly because his combat infantry job didn't translate into good work experience.
"There was no direction and I had to figure out everything on my own," he said. "I felt like I was left to swim alone."
He has been taking classes at a local community college in Irvine, Calif., and tried to start a student veterans group, but found that many have barriers that keep them from getting involved on campus. "We're all older, or we have families, obligations or jobs," he said.
With the extra benefits coming to him under the new GI Bill, Davis will be able to afford to study literary journalism at the University of California at Irvine next fall. "It's something I've been wanting for a long time," he said.
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