Marine Veteran Opens Doors at CFCC for Cultural Awareness From Marine to Medicine Cape Fear Community College was the ideal choice for Marine veteran Caroline Burten. After completing her military commitment at Camp Lejeune, Burten chose CFCC to earn transferable college credits before returning to her home state of Texas where she plans to earn her bachelor’s degree, then apply to medical school. As a veteran from Texas, Burten can combine her GI bill along with the Yellow Ribbon and Hazlewood Acts of Texas to help pay tuition for her undergraduate studies as well as medical school. Burten hopes to be “the first doctor to graduate without any student loans.” Cultural Immersion Burten’s passion for medicine grew during her tour of duty in Afghanistan where she assisted medics in the field and worked as an interpreter for Afghan citizens. Burten speaks three Afghan languages: Farsi, Dari, and Pashto. Before deploying overseas, Burten was stationed in Monterey, California where she enrolled in the Language Institute. For a year, she studied full-time with native speaking instructors and became fluent in Farsi and Dari, which helped her later pick up Pashto. Burten’s experiences have impacted her world view and taught her the importance of communication. “The future of our country depends on how well we adapt to internationalization,” says Burten. “Our people must understand the significance of communication in our ventures for wealth, success, peace, and community. With the use of
language and cultural understanding, we could avoid political misunderstandings, decrease casualties of war, increase the success of our businesses and work together in the fields of education and research to understand information and one another on a deeper level.” “Language education is more than knowledge and rote memorization, it is a door to be opened to understanding the people of the world.” —Caroline Burten
CFCC Ranked Military Friendly School for 2020-2021 CFCC once again earned the designation of Military Friendly School for 2020-2021. Each year, VIQTORY, a service-disabled, veteran-owned business, recognizes higher education institutes that provide the best opportunities for veterans and their family with the Military Friendly® Schools list. Institutions earning the Military Friendly® School designation were evaluated using public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey. “We are honored to achieve this designation and will continue to uphold the standard for our veterans and their families,” said Jason Bocchino, CFCC coordinator of veterans affairs. “We understand the transition into college can often be a challenge for service-members and their families, so it is our mission in Veterans Services to continue to deliver simple processes, quality resources, and support for this population.”
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