Stay the course p1 - Military - Education Strategies and Tips - Military Times EDGE

Brandon Krapf is on the home stretch — he can almost reach out and touch the tape.

The 28-year-old former Army corporal is this close to completing his bachelor’s degree in international studies from American University in Washington, D.C. At press time, he was waiting to hear whether any degree requirements or academic loose ends stood between him and the finish line.

It’s not the first time he has hit the wall in his academic run.

“Being a nontraditional student, being older, you face so many different obstacles,” he said. “So many times, you say, ‘I’m done.’Ÿ”

Each time, Krapf stuck it out, but not all service members and veterans do. That worries military and education officials.

“Degree completion [among veterans] is a big issue right now,” said Elizabeth O’Herrin, associate director of military programs at the American Council on Education.

Student retention/persistence toward degree completion was identified as one of the two most pressing issues facing military/veteran students by 75 percent of schools surveyed in the 2009 ACE report “From Soldier to Student: Easing the Transition of Service Members on Campus.” (The other was financial aid.)

Unfortunately, the research is still catching up with the concern. Studies have been done of degree completion in the general population, but the degree-completion rate of service members and veterans is a “data black hole” at the moment, O’Herrin said. A Beginning Postsecondary Survey from the Education Department, scheduled for release a year from now, will include these statistics for the first time.

If you don’t want to become a statistic, it helps to ask hard questions about yourself and potential schools before you start. What kind of support services are most important to you? Do you know what you want to study? Are you ready to do college-level academic work? College administrators and education wonks are thinking hard about what they can do to get more students to the finish line. You should be thinking hard, too, about how to improve your chances of staying the course.

Things to consider before you start:

Find the right fit

Your first year at school is critical, according to O’Herrin.

“A lot of research out there talks about how important the first year is for eventual completion rates,” she said. “If people don’t find their place the first year, that can affect them dropping out or [their] overall completion.”

The first year might be harder for veterans than most new students. When you’re in the military, you have camaraderie and a command structure calling the shots. The cultural change from the military to higher education can be disorienting, O’Herrin said.

For veterans , the culture of the campus is critical, said Cheryl Blanco, vice president of special projects for the Southern Regional Education Board and an author of the SREB report “Promoting a Culture of Student Success: How Colleges and Universities are Improving Degree Completion.”

“For folks in the military, the whole culture of the campus becomes even more important — the atmosphere, the sense of welcoming that they feel on campus,” Blanco said.

Some specific things to look for on campus:

• Are there veterans groups or clubs?

• Has the faculty and staff had training in how to meet the unique needs of service members and veterans?

• Is there a veterans adviser, and, if so, what is the ratio of that person to veterans on campus?

“If they only have one person and they have 700 [student] vets, I would be concerned,” Blanco said.

But O’Herrin cautions that any list is just a guide. A “veteran-friendly” school will mean different things to different people.

Participants in the Veteran Success Jam, a recent online brainstorming session about veterans in higher education sponsored by ACE, agreed that the label “veteran friendly” has become overused in higher education. Although some practices were universally considered positive, the veterans, educators and other people involved in the discussion agreed that each service member and veteran has his own definition of “veteran-friendly.”

For example, some veterans may put emphasis on how many transfer credits they stand to receive from a school, while others may be more interested in whether an institution has a veterans club on campus, O’Herrin said.

Active-duty service members who know they will be moving might decide that a flexible online program is essential, or want to enroll in one of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges’ Degree Network Systems, which are designed for mobile students.

“Pick what is important to you, and choose an institution based on that criteria,” O’Herrin said.

Think about your goals

You can waste a lot of time — and education benefits — if you don’t have a clear idea of where you’re going and how to get there. You don’t have to have the exact GPS coordinates of your goal to get started, but you want to figure them out sooner rather than later.

If you’re still on active duty, you can get objective guidance for finding your way at your base education office.

“The base education offices are supported by the Department of Defense, not any specific school or institution,” said Anthony Tomei, director of the Navy College Office at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill. “When you talk to a base education counselor, they’re going to see where you’re at presently. What have you done in the past? They’re going to ask you probing questions.”

A few service members know exactly what they want to do, Tomei said, but most have only a general idea. An education counselor can help them narrow down their interests and point them toward classes that will help them decide.

Even if you have no idea, a counselor can get you started on your general education requirements, but you don’t want to wait too long to move from the general to the specific.

Students should choose a major and develop a graduation plan by the end of freshman year, the SREB report on improving degree completion recommends. “Students need specific goals for completing a degree and a clear path to follow. They can find greater focus and direction for completing a degree by choosing a major earlier, even if they change it later.”

Get prepared academically

“One of the problems we are seeing in our program is [veterans] might want to go to school, but they aren’t prepared academically,” said Randy Wilson, director of Veterans Upward Bound at Western Kentucky University. VUB is a free Education Department program designed to support veterans who are low-income and/or first-generation college students.

This is not necessarily a reflection of veterans’ intelligence, or of how they did in high school. If you’ve been out of school for a while, chances are you’ll need some refresher work, Wilson said. That was the case for Brandon Krapf. When he started community college after leaving the military, placement exams revealed a deficiency in his math skills. He took a year of remedial math coursework to get up to speed.

If you’re not quite up to par in the classroom, you have options.

The Veterans Upward Bound program is one. It provides eligible veterans remedial classes they need free of charge. When their skills are at the level of a high school graduate, the program assists them in other areas as well.

“A lot of our programs work based on what the veteran needs,” Wilson said. “We have study-skills classes, discussions and mentoring groups. … We try to show them how to negotiate the system.”

Not eligible for VUB? You may still qualify for federal help. For more information on VUB and seven other federal programs, go to www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/trio/index.html.

Most schools have counseling services for students and remedial or developmental classes, Wilson said. Though not worth academic credit, the classes are covered by military tuition assistance, the Post-9/11 GI Bill and, under certain circumstances, the Montgomery GI Bill.

Active-duty troops and their family members have another option: They can now brush up their verbal and math skills through the Online Academic Skills Program. Civilians pay almost $200 for the course, but service members and dependents can take it for free at www.nelnetsolutions.com/dantes/.

Finally, it’s important not to psyche yourself out. if you’re ready for a race — if your shoes fit, you know the race course and you’ve trained properly — there is no reason to doubt you will finish. A veteran starting a degree program should have the same confidence.

“Veterans have been trained that [the] mission must be done, so they need to think of education as just another mission that must be accomplished,” Wilson said.