From Combat to Classroom: Veterans Report Benefits of the MGIB and Post-9/11 GI Bills

A study published earlier this month entitled the "National Survey of Student Engagement" (NSSE), polled several hundred-thousand college students, including 11,000 veterans (4,680 of which were combat veterans) to establish benchmarks for educational standards. The study found strong feelings of discontentment amongst veteran students in regards to college life, and the accessibily of support programs.

Despite the NSSE's findings, there are some student veterans who say there are plenty of resources available to help them make the transition from combat to classroom--they just need to be utilized. Estimates put the student veteran population at 300,000 since inception of the Post-9/11 GI Bill in August of 2009, and organizations like Student Veterans of America along with counselling sessions at school, local Veterans Affairs offices, and help from various student veteran associations have all been instituted to help veterans adjust to college life. Additionally, veteran students on both coasts and at online colleges, say that the financial aid they received from the Post-9/11 GI Bill and Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) to pay for their college tuition has been invaluable.

From Military Service to Student Life: Veterans Struggle to Adjust to College

Brian Kaminski, a 28-year-old Second Lieutenant with the Pennsylvania National Guard, began his college education in 2000 before being deployed to Iraq during the initial months of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He served in Iraq from December of 2003 to February of 2005, and although he resumed his studies at Duquense University once he returned stateside, Kaminski, like many combat veterans, had a tough time adjusting to classroom situations after his experiences in Iraq.

For Kaminski, one of the hardest parts of attending college--he graduated from Duquense with a bachelor's degree in forensic science--was simply sitting in classrooms with groups of other students. Kaminski says conversations with other soldiers revealed that the problem was something they all shared.

"Just being around a group of people sometimes makes you a little uneasy," he says. "I always had to sit in the back of class because I couldn't sit with somebody behind me. I had lot of difficult times adjusting to school life, but with help of counselors and teachers it ended up working for me in the long run."

Ericka Korb, a graduate student at San Diego State University (SDSU) who is pursuing a master's degree in social work--she wants to help severely wounded veterans--says the transition from life in the service to studying in sunny San Diego was a lot easier after she joined SDSU's Student Veteran Organization. Korb, 30, now serves as the organization's president. She separated from the Army in May of 2007.

"When I came to San Diego I didn't know anyone. When I got on campus and saw it had a veterans' organization I found a home," she says. "It felt like a family situation."

Paying for College: Post-9/11 GI Bill and the MGIB

Dustin McMillan, a former Technical Sargeant in the Air Force, started attending Sacramento City College under the MGIB in June of 2007 before transferring to California State University Sacramento. He began using the new GI Bill in August of 2009, and McMillan estimates the Post-9/11 GI Bill has saved him close to $20,000 in books and tuition costs (which have risen in recent years in California in response to the state's well-documented budgetary woes).

McMillan, also president of the campus student veteran association, is slated to graduate from Sac State in May of 2011 with a bachelor's degree in government.

"I was the last of my family to go to school," he says. "Education is important to my wife, and the boon of the Post-9/11 GI Bill is that it made it really easy for me to go to Sac State. With the Montgomery GI Bill I was getting $1,530 a month, but with tuition increases, and books are wicked expensive, it saved me a lot."

Duquense's Kaminski also says that once funding from the GI Bill came in, he never had to worry about tuition costs. However, other veterans say the MGIB fully met their needs as well.

Laurin Lader of Alabama is scheduled to graduate from Columbia Southern University with a master's degree in international management. He separated from the U.S. Navy in December of 2005 after a 30-year military career, where he attained the rank of master chief.

Lader, 53, says that rather than preach to his three sons about the value of receiving a college education, he would lead by example. Lader has attended Columbia Southern--an online college--exclusively under the MGIB. The college also allowed him to maximize his time by transferring his extensive military service into college credits.

"Not only do they make sure to take military training and turn it into education, but professors and staff here really understand military students," Lader says. "They understand the hard work people have put in and the sacrifices they have made."

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