VETERAN ASSISTANCE New benefits help veterans achieve degrees

By BY WAYNE BRYAN Staff Writer

TRI-LAKES AREA — Returning armed forces veterans can face a complicated return to civilian life.

Even with an all-voluntary military and the National Guard, young people who stepped up to serve their country often delayed their education and careers or had their life interrupted by deployment overseas.

Back in the United States, thesereturning warriors face a tight economy, high unemployment and limited options without a college degree. Area colleges and universities are working with the military and the Veterans Administration to find ways to make higher education more available for those who serve.

Ruben Flores of Hot Springs wanted to go to college, but after just a year at National Parks Community College in his hometown of Hot Springs, his financial aid ranout. In the months after Sept. 11, 2001, the 17-year-old Flores joined the Navy and served in the Middle East aboard the aircraft carriers the USS Nimitz and the USS Carl Vinson.

“I felt I should serve and help out what little I could,” Flores said. “I also did it for the military educational benefits.”

The Navy vet said his return toschool was aided by contacting a counselor who helped with the paperwork for admission back to NPCC and with the maze of agencies administrating veterans’ educational-aid programs.

“I started working with her before I left the Navy and so it was a smooth transition back to school,” Flores said.

Flores had contacted Phyllis Brook at NPCC, who is one of four admissions and advisement counselors.

“We meet with veterans and tell them about the services that are available for them at the school,” Brooks said. “After they are here, we monitor what classes they are taking to keep them on track for graduation. The VA won’t pay for courses that do not lead to graduation.”

As a community college, NPCC awards associate degrees and certificates in skilled areas.

Brooks said there are seven different benefit programs for the 107 veterans now taking classes at National Park Community College.

“The programs are from the Veterans Administration or the Department of Defense and one is from the state for reservists,” she said. “There is the traditional GI Bill, programs for National Guard members who served in Iraq, benefit programs for dependents of veterans and for veterans who were disabled in the line of duty.

A new post-9/11 program has been designed for recent veterans coming back from active duty, Brook said. Matching the student with the right program to maximize the aid available keep the counselors, and the students in their charge, busy staying up to date.

“We figure out what is best for them and then find who they should contact,” Brooks explained. “There is quite a lot to wade through.”

The counselor said she had recently exchanged e-mails with a soldier stationed in Italy, getting him ready to attend school next semester.

Counselors can also help citizen soldiers who are attending classes at NPCC but are then called up for active duty.

“Those deployed never seem to know a great deal ahead of time when they are going, so they have to leave school,” Brooks said. “We get copies of their orders to make sure it doesn’t reflect negatively on their transcripts.”

Brooks said t he school refunds the fees paid for thelost studies and will offer free tuition for the semester when they return.

The level of involvement by the counselors at NPCC worked for Ruben Flores andmade a big impression. When he returned to Hot Springs after the term in the Navy, he brought home a wife and a desire to make the most of the educational opportunities he had earned.

“W hen I went back to school I worked at NPCC as a work study student for the VA, working part time in the advising department,” Flores said.

He finished at NPCC and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. He is now working toward a Master of Science degree in career counseling and works full time at the academic counseling department at NPCC helping students and veterans that face the same complex system of benefits he has used.

New Program

A new federally funded veterans program has just gotten under way at HSU that will reach out to local veterans and help them get into college and be successful in their studies. The HSU Veterans Upward Bound program is funded by a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education and could serve up to 120 veterans from Clark, Garland, Miller, Union and Ouachita counties.

“We are contacting the units of the National Guardand actively getting out in the community to locate veterans who may have dropped out of school for deployment and didn’t come back or did not know they had educational benefits available,” said Kathy Brownlee, assistant director of Veterans Upward Bound. “Veterans are in a lot of places, and we want to tell them about this program.”

The veterans who will be eligible must be either low-income, based on family income, or first-generation college students, those whose parents never earned a four-year degree, Brownlee said. The veterans must have at least 180 days of active duty service or have been released for medical reasons before completing the 180 days.

Veterans Upward Bound provides ways to enhance basic skills through counseling, mentoring, tutors and academic instruction in core subjects taught at the university, Brownlee said.

“There are study programs that will get the veterans ready for school,” she said.

There are 120 veterans attending Henderson this semester, but students enrolled in the school do not qualify for the program, which seeks to bring in veterans who have not pursued an education. A stipend is also available for participationin activities and classes.

Brownlee said the program is only a few weeks old and already has two veterans signed up and hopes to enlist two more very soon.

Veterans who enter Veterans Upward Bound will have access to the campus computer labs and other university resources. The length of the program will be based on individual need.

“The veterans have achieved a great level of service and shown great pride in their country,” Brownlee said. “We are proud to help them reach their goal of returning to school.

Brownlee added that she hoped the program would create a diverse group of veterans on campus who could form a support group for the all veterans enrolled at HSU.

- wbryan@ arkansasonline.com

Tri-Lakes, Pages 137 on 11/08/2009