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Even Soldiers Serving Overseas are Logging On to Learn

(ARA) – One of the best benefits provided by the military is the Montgomery GI Bill, the legislation that guarantees servicemen and women money to further their educations. But according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 30 percent of those who are eligible for compensation never pursue a training or education program. Among the reasons given: having to work to make a living post service, not enough time, family became a priority, and not realizing they had to use the benefit within 10 years or lose it. 

“Thanks to the growth of online learning, there’s really no excuse any more for not taking advantage of the benefit,” says David J. Pauldine, President of DeVry University, one of the largest degree-granting higher education systems in North America. DeVry has become well known in the military community for offering convenient and flexible undergraduate and graduate degree programs to busy military personnel and their families. The school also offers special military pricing  to those who have served our country.

But it was flexibility that really attracted Abraham Kyle to DeVry’s Kansas City campus. Before being dispatched to Iraq in 2004, he had started the process of pursuing an accelerated bachelor’s degree there so he could keep his officer status, and was pleasantly surprised to learn he’d be able to work on it through the school’s online learning program while stationed overseas.

“DeVry University offered me exactly what I needed as a military officer — a quick degree progression without sacrificing a quality education,” he says. Kyle tackled a full-time course load online, despite his 12 on/12 off, 7-days-a-week schedule. “It was tough and there were times when I simply did not have access to a computer to complete assignments, but the professors were great and always willing to accommodate my unique situation.”  

After returning to the states in 2005, he was sent to Louisiana to aid with the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. “I arranged it so I was able to work the night shift and do my school work during the day,” he says. In October 2005, his hard work and dedication paid off and he received his bachelor’s degree in technical management.

David Prescott Dees left the military in March 2007, and immediately went to work on his degree in Business Administration at DeVry’s Decatur, Georgia campus in the Atlanta area. “To be honest, one of the main reasons I’m in school is that I was going for job interviews and the companies were telling me stuff like, come back and see us when you get a degree, or thanks for serving our country but we need you to have an education,” he says.

Raymond Reyes of South Florida decided he wanted to go back to school to pursue a degree in electronic engineering shortly after leaving the Navy where he had worked as an aviation electronics technician, “I had made the rounds between the local area colleges trying to find a program that would fit me, and they were less than welcoming to the military student, which was very discouraging. But when I  received a call from Nancy at DeVry, she convinced me to visit the school’s Miramar campus and talk with some of the faculty to get a sense of what it would be like. Long story short, I enrolled and started classes. Basically 32 days after I was released from active duty I was sitting in class and love it here.”

“We’re very proud here at DeVry University of our long, rich history of educating America’s military. Back in the 1940s, we were selected by the U.S. Government to educate Army Corps instructors on electronic devices. Following World War II, we were one of the first schools approved to use the original G.I. Bill,” says Thomas Brooks, Vice Presidentof Enrollment Management.

Today, DeVry offers associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in business, technology and management to those serving as active-duty members, guardsman or reservists in any of the five branches of the U.S. Armed forces, as well as their spouses. All of the programs can be completed through the school’s distance learning program so students never have to set foot in a classroom; and there are flexible scheduling, anywhere, anytime online programs available.

Discounted tuition rates are offered to military families, and DeVry recently signed an agreement with AMVETS to offer veterans, their families and the children of active-duty guard, reserve and military personnel the opportunity to receive scholarship money. As of November 2007, the partial-tuition scholarships will be available to those who have applied for or enrolled in undergraduate degree programs at DeVry University or its Keller Graduate School of Management. Recipients will receive $1,000 per semester, up to a total of $9,000 over the course of a degree program.

For more information about military benefits at DeVry University and its Keller Graduate School of Management, visit www.devry.edu/admissions.military.jsp.

Courtesy of ARAcontent