MAE 7-8 (Oct. 2012)

Journal of Higher Learning for Today’s Servicemember

Benefits Administrator Brig. Gen. Allison A. Hickey (Ret.) Under Secretary for Benefits Department of Veterans Affairs

www.MAE-kmi.com

Massive Open Online Courses O M.B.A. Programs Vets on Campus O Student Veteran Roundtable

October 2012

Volume 7, Issue 8

where can you find umuc? check out our campus map.

You’ll find us worldwide, offering more than 90 undergraduate or graduate programs entirely online. You’ll also find us on base or on-site in more than 25 countries. Since 1947, University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has been educating America’s armed forces. So wherever your mission takes you, there’s a good chance

at your service since 1947

we’re already there.



University of Maryland University College is the nation’s largest public university.



Learn more • 877-275-UMUC • military.umuc.edu/learnmore

Military Advanced Education

October 2012 Volume 7 • Issue 8

Features

Cover / Q&A Veteran-Friendly M.B.A. Programs

4

Moving from the military to business school can be a daunting task for current and former servicemembers, but it need not cause unnecessary stress. Today’s colleges and universities are clamoring for veterans to enter their business school ranks.

By Kelly Fodel

Serving Those Who Served

8

How are higher ed institutions actively working to ensure the success of its student veterans? MAE takes a closer look at the veterans’ organizations and related programs offered by Thomas Edison State College, Syracuse University, University of Central Florida and Eastern Washington University.

By J.B. Bissell

Student Veteran Roundtable

Veteran-friendly schools implement various policies to ensure a smooth transition from enlisted life to academia. MAE asks student veterans to share the one policy, program or initiative at their school that has most positively impacted the transition from the military to college.

12

Brigadier General Allison A. Hickey (Ret.) Under Secretary for Benefits Department of Veterans Affairs

Departments 2 Editor’s Perspective

Marvelous MOOCS

22

17

MOOCs, or massively open online courses, are garnering increased attention from universities and students. While professors marvel at their ability to reach thousands of students through just one course, students can take classes at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities—often times, for free.

By Laural Hobbes

3 Program Notes/People 14 Class Notes 26 CCME Grapevine 27 Resource Center

University Corner

28 James Micheal Smith, Ph.D. Vice President of Corporate and Military Relations Ashford University

Military Advanced Education Volume 7, Issue 8 October 2012

Journal of Higher Learning for Today’s Servicemember Editorial Editor Laural Hobbes lauralh@kmimediagroup.com Managing Editor Harrison Donnelly harrisond@kmimediagroup.com Online Editorial Manager Laura Davis laurad@kmimediagroup.com Correspondents Celeste Altus • J.B. Bissell • Kelly Fodel Kenya McCullum • William Murray

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EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE The Veterans Job Corps Act of 2012, a bill sponsored by Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) that would have given impetus to hire veterans as firefighters, police officers, and in conservation positions in national parks, was blocked by opposition in the Senate on September 19. The bill would have used grants to federal departments and agencies as well as contracts with state and local governments and private organizations. According to Murray, the $1 billion needed to fund the Act would have been paid for by budgetary set-asides.

The bill also incorporated suggestions from Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.), which reflects that combating veteran unemployment must be a Laural C. Hobbes bipartisan prerogative if any gains are to be made. Burr’s suggestions included Editor measures that would enable servicemembers leaving the military to get “transition training for civilian life” as well as expand the quality and scope of online job-seeking resources. However, even he ultimately voted against the bill, echoing Senator Jeff Sessions’ (R-Ala.) opposition that the $1 billion needed would violate the spending limits set in 2011’s Budget Control Act. The final vote of 58 to 40—largely along party lines—ultimately fell short of the necessary three-fifths majority necessary for the bill’s passing.

The debate over the bill could not have been more timely: The push for the bill’s passage came after the release of August’s unemployment data, which showed that 10.9 percent of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are unemployed, compared to the 8.1 percent national rate—a near 3 percent difference. A common lament of veterans applying for civilian positions is that translating military experience into language suitable for a civilian resume is often difficult. However, the occupations covered in the bill would have reinforced what veterans and those who work with veterans already know: that law enforcement and protection skills learned by enlisted service men and women are both valuable and transferable.

“Partisan bickering should never stand in the way of creating job opportunities for the New Greatest Generation, especially with a 10.9 percent unemployment rate,” said Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an organization dedicated to post-9/11 veterans. As the Veterans Job Corps Act of 2012 was blocked, hopefully comparable measures will be adopted—that both parties will support—to ensure that servicemembers will transition smoothly from enlisted to civilian life. I hope that this bill’s failure to pass is not an indication of the fate that future veterans’ bills may suffer.

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PROGRAM NOTES

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Aspen Institute Publishes Community College Data In its ongoing commitment to highlight excellence in America’s community colleges, the Aspen Institute published data that identifies which institutions excel in the following: •

• •

Performance: retention, graduation rates including transfers, and degrees and certificates per 100 “full time equivalent” students Improvement: steady improvement in each performance metric over time Equity: evidence of completion outcomes for minority and low-income students.

The metrics were used to determine the 120 top U.S. community colleges that were eligible for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.

The Aspen College Excellence Program is the first to compile and analyze this unique data set, setting

a benchmark for excellence in the community college sector. These institutions demonstrate strong performance when compared with the 1,008 public U.S. community colleges in first-year retention rate, three-year graduation and transfer rate, and credentials awarded per 100 “full-time equivalent” students. They also demonstrate above average performance for underrepresented minority and low income students, dispelling the idea that an individual’s race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status necessarily result in low levels of educational attainment.

Aspen’s College Excellence Program announced the 120 top community colleges in April, challenging them to compete for the $1 million fund for the 2013 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. The 120 eligible community colleges were selected from a national pool of more than 1,000 public two-year colleges using publicly available data on student outcomes.

Information provided in the applications allowed Aspen to identify institutions that not only demonstrate excellence in terms of graduation rates, degrees awarded, student retention rates, and equity in student outcomes, but that also achieve success in terms of improving learning outcomes for students and employing graduates in jobs with competitive salaries. The Aspen Institute also used qualitative data to understand how the institutions achieved exceptional student results in each of these domains.

For instance, how have colleges worked to align student success expectations with post-graduation success whether in the labor market or in transfer to four-year college? How do colleges improve program structures and student services to enable higher levels of student graduation?

How do colleges increase the achievement levels of low income and minority students?

Harrison College Announces Scholarships for Military Spouses and Dependents Harrison College, an Indianapolis-based private sector college with a population of 4,500 students at 14 campuses and online, has announced that it will award 10 $2,500 scholarships to spouses and dependents of military servicemembers.

Applicants will be required to submit a completed scholarship application (available at www.harrison.edu/scholarships), including a 500-word essay describing how military life affects a servicemember’s spouse’s or dependent’s

decision to pursue a post-secondary education, along with two letters of recommendation.

Applicants must have a current and valid dependent military identification card (active duty, National Guard, reservist or retiree) and be a graduate of an accredited high school, equivalent educational institution, or have earned a General Equivalency Diploma to be eligible.

Recipients of the award will be notified by November 11, 2012 (Veterans Day). Scholarship recipients must maintain a minimum 2.5 GPA

while attending Harrison College, and be in good standing with the college upon disbursement of the scholarship money. The award of $2,500 will be divided evenly over the first three terms of the student’s enrollment at Harrison College.

“The spouses and dependents of the members of our military are our country’s unsung heroes,” said Jason Konesco, president of Harrison College.

“We appreciate the sacrifices that they have made and hope that this program will help give them increased access to higher education.”

PEOPLE Sherry Hawn, vice president finance and chief financial officer of Essex County College in Newark, N.J., has been appointed as executive vice president for finance and administration at Metropolitan College of New York.

Gary Alan Miller, assistant director of University Career Services at University of

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Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been named senior assistant dean of the academic advising program.

John J. Reap has been appointed to the founding faculty of Quinnipiac University’s new undergraduate engineering program. Previously, he was an instructor of engineering at Virginia Tech.

Quinnipiac University has hired Norbert K. Herzog as a professor of medical sciences. Previously, Herzog was a professor emeritus at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he taught in the departments of pathology and microbiology and immunology.

Lisa Avery, the former dean of instruction at Spokane Falls Community College, has accepted the position of dean of global education and American Honors College with the Community Colleges of Spokane.

Keith A. Orris, senior vice president of Lancaster General Health, has been

appointed as senior vice president for corporate relations and economic development at Drexel University.

William H. Brower III, the executive director of major gifts at Hamilton College, has been named vice president for college advancement at State University of New York at Geneseo.

MAE 7.8 | 3

Veteran-Friendly

M.B.A.

Programs

What should former servicemembers keep in mind as they search for business programs?

By Kelly Fodel MAE Correspondent Moving from the military to business school can be a daunting task for current and former servicemembers, but it need not cause unnecessary stress. Today’s colleges and universities are clamoring for veterans to enter their business school ranks.

“Over the past 10-plus years that I have worked in admissions at Simon, I have seen military personnel from all the U.S. branches come through our program and successfully transition to other professions in business management,” said Rebekah Lewin, executive director of admissions and administration, Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester. “The intangibles that a military professional brings—teamwork, leadership skills, respect for others, initiative and personal drive—are a powerful combination for becoming a successful Simon M.B.A. student and ultimately a successful alum.”

4 | MAE 7.8

www.MAE-kmi.com

The prospective M.B.A. student needs to ask a number of questions to find the right business school fit, including the cost of the program, the location, the size and rank of the graduate school, if the school’s program aligns with the student’s career goals, and if the student is competitive enough to gain admission. Here, Military Advanced Education takes a look at a few M.B.A. schools around the country, for a sampling of what business schools have to offer.

The Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester offers full-time, part-time and executive M.B.A. programs, an accelerated 18-month M.B.A. program, and a new one-year M.B.A. program, as well as full-time and part-time M.S. programs and a Ph.D. program.

Simon is noted for its analytical, economics-based approach to teaching and research. Simon has one of the most diverse student bodies among leading business schools, with more than 50 percent of the students from other countries. There is a focus on smaller class size for a personalized educational approach.

Simon’s world-class faculty are among the most innovative and productive researchers among business school faculty. Many of them are on editorial boards of top business journals. The top journals in finance and accounting, The Journal of Financial Economics and The Journal of Accounting and Economics, respectively, are published at the Simon School. Alumni of the Simon doctoral program are leading professors at top institutions such as the business schools at Harvard University, MIT, University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago.

“The Simon School has successful placed veterans on M.B.A. opportunities with Fortune 100 companies,” said Lewin. “Many of our veterans secure much sought-after rotational programs, effectively placing them on the fast-track within a company. Veterans do particularly well with a Simon M.B.A. due to the analytical-based approach to our education. Our veteran M.B.A.s possess a ‘tough-to-beat’ combination of strong leadership attributes, effective communication skills, and quantitative analytical capability to solve problems. Combining Simon’s academic rigor to the intangibles developed in the military provides a veteran with a leg up on the competition.”

The University and Simon School are multi-year partners with the Yellow Ribbon scholarship program for veterans. The school also provides flexibility for a “leave of absence” for servicemembers who have been called to duty midway through their Simon School studies.

“Since its inception, the Simon School of Business has sought to attract the best and brightest candidates to attend its programs,” said Dean Mark Zupan. “We continue to believe that the skills and traits inherent in current or former members of the military mirror those necessary for earning a graduate business degree and being successful. Proven leadership, a strong work ethic, discipline, teamwork— traits that are often used to describe those in the military—are often the same traits associated with those who earn an M.B.A.”

American Military University American Military University offers a Master of Business Administration with degree options in accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, global business management, homeland www.MAE-kmi.com

Photo Courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense. 9/2011.

The Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester

ENHANCE YOUR CAREER or transition to a new one

DeVry University and its Keller Graduate School of Management understand the various transitional needs of military and veteran students. We provide an education that can prepare you for new opportunities.

• Earn an associate, bachelor’s or master’s degree, or graduate certificate—online and on campus at 95+ locations • Special savings on tuition for military and their spouses • Our Career Services Team offers lifetime career assistance including a team of career experts, online tools career planning, job interviewing and resume preparation lp.keller.devry.edu/mae1a | 877.894.6388

LEARN MORE In New York State, DeVry University and its Keller Graduate School of Managementoperate as DeVry College of New York.

DeVry University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, www.ncahlc.org. Keller Graduate School of Management is included in this accreditation. DeVry University operates as DeVry Institute of Technology in Calgary, Alberta. DeVry is certified to operate by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. DeVry University is authorized for operation by the THEC. www.state.tn.us/thec.

Nashville Campus – 3343 Perimeter Hill Dr., Nashville, TN 37211. AC0060. Program availability varies by location. ©2012 DeVry Educational Development Corp. All rights reserved.

MAE 7.8 | 5

security resource allocation, information technology management, and marketing. It is an ACBSP (Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs) accredited program. AMU prides itself on its competitive combined tuition—tuition, fees and books are approximately 33 percent less than average in-state cost at public universities—as well as its militaryfriendly policies and procedures.

“AMU has an advantage over larger schools because it has the ability to stay closely connected Kathleen Irwin, Ph.D. to the student by offering courses kirwin@apus.edu with a limited class size,” said Kathleen Irwin, Ph.D., director of business programs. “In addition, full-time faculty are empowered to revise course materials in an effort to remain relevant in meeting industry and student needs. Many larger universities run longer range planning schedules to change the design of the individual courses, and do not have the luxury of being as responsive as AMU. Many students enroll in the M.B.A. program as part of their exit strategy from the military. Whether preparing to enter the workforce or in hopes of opening their own business, they recognize that a solid foundation in advanced business skills will give them the upper hand in the job market.”

PARK UNIVERSITY

SM

Call us today at (800) 755-7275.

Or visit us online at www.park.edu/mae.

At Park University, we’ve built a relationship with the U.S. military over four decades, so our campus network extends to 40 locations across the country. And our online programs enable you to move ahead with your degree, even when you’re stationed off the grid.

Park University, founded in 1875, offers 42 undergraduate degrees, 11 associate degrees and 6 graduate-level degrees all taught by academically qualified faculty. Park offers accelerated classes — five terms per year — on base and online.

PARK’S PRO M IS E:

Serving ThoSe Who Serve Their CommuniTy and CounTry WiTh PerSonalized, globally-relevanT eduCaTion for life.

Park University’s degree programs are accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

6 | MAE 7.8

Irwin said AMU M.B.A. graduates are encouraged to develop their resume while working on their degree. “While having a master’s degree will give them a leg up, the competitive market demands that they also get involved with professional organizations, begin networking with professionals in the same industry, and identify mentors that can guide their progress. AMU faculty fully support military students in their endeavor to further their education.”

Adelphi University The Robert B. Willumstad School of Business at Adelphi University is focused on developing ethical, effective leaders in the industry. Its professors are industry leaders themselves, and the classroom experience is only part of the puzzle. The school offers real-world connections and opportunities through corporate internships and mentorships—opportunities that can change a student’s life both personally and professionally.

“We believe that the best business leaders are those who thrive in an intellectually stimulating environment, who have an appreciation of the importance of the balance of theoretical and the practical, and who understand today’s realities and anticipate tomorrow’s challenges,” said Brian Rothschild, assistant dean and director of graduate programs.

“The strongest leaders are those who Brian Rothschild see the link between the demands of a diverse workforce and global rothschild@adelphi.edu marketplace, and the skills they learn and the character they display. Our location, a beautiful suburban campus that is only about a half-hour train ride from NYC, the world’s financial capital, is a strategic advantage, giving us access to our strong alumni network.”

Adelphi offers eight different specializations to the M.B.A. They include accounting, finance, health services administration, human resource management, management, management information systems, marketing and sport management.

Adelphi was transformed in the 1940s when the university welcomed WWII veterans to campus. Today, the university president is a veteran and an advocate for the new GI Bill. Additionally, a past board chairman is a veteran, and they have a strong alumni veterans network.

“Adelphi strives to make the application and student experience for active, reserve, and veteran military personnel a smooth, efficient and enjoyable experience,” said Rothschild. “We have a website that is a resource for active, reserve and veteran military personnel who are currently studying at Adelphi or those who wish to apply. We offer the ability to waive up to 33 credits from the 66 credit traditional M.B.A. based on prior coursework. We also offer a 42 credit accelerated M.B.A. program. Unfortunately, we do not offer any graduate credits for service or on the job learning.”

Cal State San Bernardino’s College of Business and Public Administration The mission of the M.B.A. program in Cal State San Bernardino’s College of Business and Public Administration (CBPA) is to offer www.MAE-kmi.com

a high-quality master’s level education. The program prepares students for positions of high responsibility and leadership in business administration. The M.B.A. program consists of 48 quarter units designed for both full-time students and the working professional. M.B.A. graduate classes meet twice a week, and there are online classes as well.

Concentrations are offered in accounting, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, finance, global business, information systems and technology, management, marketing management, and supply chain management. CSUSB’s M.B.A program is fully accredited

by AACSB International [The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business].

CSUSB’s student fees are among the lowest for a fully accredited program in the nation, making them a high-value, high-return educational investment. According to Businessweek, in 2010 the tuition and fees at California State University San Bernardino were $18,438, as compared to California Polytechnic University ($24,700), University of California, Riverside ($71,815) and Claremont University ($95,000).

California State University, San Bernardino and the iCollege at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., have established a partnership to help active military, DoD civilians and government officials earn their M.B.A. (and MPA) degree.

“The iCollege prepares leaders to direct the information component of national power by leveraging information and information technology for strategic advantage,” said Kristie

Ogilvie, associate dean. “Primary areas of expertise include leadership; process management; information technology, policy and security; transformation; and management of acquisition processes and reform. Government civilians (federal civil service pay grade of GS/GM-12 or military officer rank of O-4 or equivalent), state or local government equivalents, or private sector employees (must be sponsored by a government agency) can apply to the National Defense University’s iCollege certificate programs.”

No two business schools are exactly alike; they are as diverse as Kristie Oglivie the students they serve. Do your kogilivie@csusb.edu homework, research the schools on your list, and keep your goals in mind. If in doubt, reach out to the school and ask for their military resources or veterans offices. Information is key in this process, as you move from being a veteran to a veteran with an M.B.A.! O

For more information, contact MAE Editor Laural Hobbes at lauralh@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mae-kmi.com.

Distinguish Yourself

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MAE 7.8 | 7

Serving Those Who Served

Institutions go above and beyond to provide a comfortable atmosphere to servicemember-students.

By J.B. Bissell MAE Correspondent “military friendly” has lost some of its impact because of the “broad In today’s academic environment, one would be hard-pressed to interpretations” of the wide-ranging phrase. “When an institution find an institution of higher education that is not, at least generally embraces servicemembers, veterans and their famispeaking, military friendly. Service men and women are lies,” he explained, “the faculty really understands what appreciated by 21st-century American society, and indithis population brings to both the classroom and the cations of that respect and admiration are palpable on institution as a whole. college campuses across the country. Administrators “That understanding and respect is not just held by are eager to enroll veterans because of the experiences a few individuals or departments, but has penetrated all and worldly knowledge they can share with other more aspects of the institution,” Martini continued. “Theresheltered students. And professors are grateful for the fore, academic policies and decisions take into account discipline and work ethic that former—and current— the lifestyle of the servicemember. The institution soldiers display in the classroom. must be willing to be flexible to the needs of active Ultimately, all of this is good news. But it can also duty servicemembers and must understand the unique be argued that this trend has made finding schools that transitions for the veteran.” truly go above and beyond their normal obligations, Louis F. Martini In other words, the administration needs to be those that all but ensure success for student veterans, prepared for all of the distinct situations and challenges that veterans more difficult because so many institutions nowadays can claim “milior active duty personnel who are transitioning to the role of college tary friendly” status. student might face. “Syracuse University defines a military-friendly Louis F. Martini, the associate vice president of military and campus as being welcoming, inclusive and supportive to the men and veteran education at Thomas Edison State College, thinks the term 8 | MAE 7.8

www.MAE-kmi.com

women currently serving and/or those who have served our country, as well as their dependents,” said Jaime Winne Alvarez, the director of media relations and communications at Syracuse’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families.

Yet, that’s just the beginning. Like many other institutions, Syracuse has a number of procedures in place to support military learners. “The university policy governing deployment and redeployment allows for a variety of unique solutions to potential situations in which student veterans might find themselves,” Alvarez said. “They’re designed to minimize the effects of time and financial investment put into a semester already in progress when our student veterans are called to active duty.”

Jaime Winne Alvarez

jlwinne@syr.edu

Centering On Campus

Sometimes, however, not being called to active duty can require just as much—maybe more—assistance. After all, soldiers have spent years training for active duty; joining the college population is often foreign to them. Therefore it’s crucial that on-campus administrators have “knowledge of student veteran needs for supportive services, including awareness of unique needs in career services, disability services, counseling and health services, admissions, recruiting, financial aid and more,” Alvarez stated. “The presence of student veteran groups and/or chapters of Student Veterans of America, veteran resource centers and other opportunities for veterans to engage in leadership activities, peer support and experiential learning also define militaryfriendly campuses.”

While nobody wants to be treated differently, the bottom line is that “these are not ‘typical’ transfer students,” noted Paul H. Viau Jr., the associate university registrar and registrar’s office director at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Viau also is involved with the school’s Veterans Academic Resource Center (VARC) and knows firsthand how a military learner’s success often is linked to the “continuing education of faculty, staff and other students about the unique challenges that the men and women who have served their country often face.”

Over the course of the past two school years, the Office of Diversity Initiatives at UCF has taken an active role in this continuing education by focusing many of its efforts on matters deemed most significant to student veterans. Among the numerous on-campus initiatives is a full-time psychologist at the Counseling Center who has experience working with people from the armed forces. The crown jewel of UCF’s military-centric benefits, though, according to Viau, is the VARC. “The goal of the VARC is to meet the needs of and provide programming for the student veteran community,” he explained. “Under the direction of the registrar’s office, the center exists as a collaboration among the offices of career services, the counseling center, student academic resource center, student disabilities services, and transfer and transition services, which provide the home for veteran services.

There’s tutoring available for historically challenging courses, as well as student study skills workshops. VARC also has been designated as a Center for Excellence for Veteran Student Success and is partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.” www.MAE-kmi.com

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Since The Art Institutes is comprised of several institutions, see aiprograms.info for program duration, tuition, fees, other costs, median debt, federal salary data, alumni success, and other important info. The Art Institutes is a system of over 50 schools throughout North America. Programs, credential levels, technology, and scheduling options vary by school, and employment opportunities are not guaranteed. Financial aid is available to those who qualify. Several institutions included in The Art Institutes system are campuses of South University or Argosy University. OH Registration # 04-01-1698B; AC0165, AC0080; Licensed by the Florida Commission for Independent Education, License No. 1287, 3427, 3110, 2581. Certified by SCHEV to operate in Virginia. Administrative office: 210 Sixth Avenue, 33rd Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. ©2012 The Art Institutes International LLC. 080312 8/12

MAE 7.8 | 9

As any college official would explain, improving higher education, especially the components that come together for the benefit of student veterans, is an ongoing process. For example, Eastern Washington University has long supported the scholastic endeavors of America’s warfighters, but they’ve just recently been able to unveil a physical structure that matches the cerebral assistance they’ve been providing for years.

“The opening of our new Veterans Resource Center is the most important initiative the University has undertaken to target veteran students,” said M. David Millet, who is an Army veteran as well as the director of M. David Millet Eastern Washington’s new complex.

“It opened in July 2012, and is dmillet@ewu.edu more than 2,000 square feet, which includes a lounge, computer lab, kitchen area and office space. The center provides a platform for community engagement and visibility for our student veterans in regards to job placement, internships, veteran volunteer activities and connections to other veteran organizations. There are three full-time staff members, including a GI benefitscertifying official who is a critical piece to assisting in the transition from the military to the college campus.”

One-Stop Shopping Syracuse has a well-appointed Veterans’ Resource Center, too. It’s staffed by veteran work-study students who can help with nearly anything that has to do with higher education, from initial recruitment to degree completion, and “provides student veterans with a place to gather where they can get support, understanding, and encouragement as they work to obtain their diploma,” Alvarez said.

It’s a comprehensive operation, but, similar to Eastern Washington, the folks at Syracuse want to do even more. And who better to propose suggestions for improvements than an actual student veteran?

Our goal is to get “a stronger mentor program put in place,” said Anthony Keach Jr., a member of the Syracuse Student Veterans Club, a work-study student at the Veterans’ Resource Center, and a junior majoring in political science and international relations. Keach and his fellow student veterans are seeing more former servicemembers taking advantage of the programs at Syracuse each year and want to be sure that the positive trend continues.

“The center offers student veterans a quiet place to gather, to support one another, to study, and to make use of the computers,” he said.

“It also offers a place for student veterans to talk about the issues that we have in common. It’s all about support and encouragement, so we will also be working with our veteran advisers to implement several opportunities for incoming SU student veterans to familiarize themselves with the campus and the resources they may need, but might not be aware of.”

The Veterans’ Resource Center, then, should be an incoming student’s first stop. Actually, in an ideal world, it would be the only stop between battlefield and classroom, as university officials are nearly unanimous in their belief that the single most important step any institution can take to facilitate a soldier’s transition is to “create a ‘one-stop’ center where the student veterans can come for all the information they need,” explained Eastern Washington’s Millet.

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This is true even for schools that specialize in online learning.

“Thomas Edison State College provides distance education, so our veteran population is not located on campus,” said Martini. Still, “the first step is to identify an individual who is ultimately responsible for all military and veteran student services at the institution. Our Office of Military & Veteran Education functions as a resource center for servicemembers, veterans and their families, and helps to address related questions and issues wherever the student is located.”

Targeted Learning Once the transition from soldier to student is made, veterans will find countless learning possibilities, some of which are are targeted specifically to them. “Thomas Edison State College recently stood up a program in conjunction with the Interservice Respiratory Therapy Medical Education Training Campus at Fort Sam Houston,” said Martini. “It embeds academic courses into the respiratory therapy training so those individuals completing the training simultaneously complete their associate degree from Thomas Edison State College.

“This is the only enlisted service school that results in a degree.

In addition, this enables students to be able to take the examination to become a certified respiratory therapist and registered respiratory therapist. As a result, the student is not only trained and able to work in the military, but also able to continue working as a respiratory therapist once they are done with their military career.”

At Syracuse, the Veterans Technology Program is a non-credit sequence of four certificates—Career Skills for Global Enterprises, Microsoft Office Fundamentals, and two sections of Applied Education—that, according to the description, are “designed to enable veterans to create development plans specific to their personal skill sets, interests and goals, as well as gain understanding and insight into the corporate culture of globally distributed companies.”

The outcome does not include a diploma, but for new students who are interested in technology, this free program is a great place to figure out exactly what avenue of education one should follow.

Eventually, of course, that diploma is the goal, whether it’s a Bachelor of Arts in computer programming, a master’s in economics, or a doctorate in some other field, and that almost always means moving from the one-stop comfort of the veterans’ center to the classroom (traditional or otherwise). For many former and current members of the military, this can be an intimidating step. So while the phrase “military-friendly” probably has become a bit watered down, it’s still worthwhile to seek out a school with a proven promilitary atmosphere.

Perhaps Eastern Washington’s Millet provided some of the best general guidelines for doing exactly that: “It is a campus where faculty, staff and students are accommodating and aware of student veterans’ needs and challenges,” he said. “Student veterans will not hesitate to wear their military uniform, BDU backpack or service t-shirt because they know they are safe and will not feel uncomfortable or anxious. It is critical that the classroom setting provide a safe environment where student veterans feel comfortable around their fellow students and with their professors, and know they can seek help and will not be spotlighted because they are in the military or a veteran.” O For more information, contact MAE Editor Laural Hobbes at lauralh@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mae-kmi.com.

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online.nebraska.edu/mission Choose from 100+ academic programs from four, military-friendly campuses.

Proud participant in the Yellow Ribbon Program.

Student Veteran

Roundtable

Veteran-friendly institutions of higher learning implement various strategies to ensure a smooth transition from enlisted life to academia. Military Advanced Education recently went on campus to ask student veterans:

In your opinion, what one policy, program or initiative at your school has most positively impacted your transition from the military to college?

Jeremy N. Glasstetter

Chief Military & Veterans Site Representative Baker College Online Center for Graduate Studies As an Iraq and Afghanistan combat-decorated servicemember who recently transitioned into a student veteran on campus, it was imperative that the institution I chose to attend for my graduate work both understand and value my military service and offer an accredited, respected college degree. In my opinion, Baker College has met or exceeded both of those criteria.

John Hughes

United States Army Student at Troy University

In my opinion, there are a couple of things in place that have helped me personally. The first one is having a place to go, such as the office of Troy University in Clarksville.

When I first started this transition—and it has been a long process—I needed a place where I could go, and know that I would be helped in a timely manner. I have used the Troy University office and [received help from] the wonderful [staff] that work there almost every semester. Without their assistance and guidance, I never would have made it this far.

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With the recent deployment of their Military Education Service Center, of which I am proud to be a part, the institution has established itself as a trend-setter as it embodies those needed, tangible steps integral to the long-term and sustainable social redevelopment of military servicemembers. As we all know, former servicemembers need militaryspecific learning support services, which in my opinion, are the most crucial steps in providing seamless transitioning support system. Moreover, Baker College employs veterans throughout their multi-campus system. Again, this is extremely helpful for student veterans who, like myself, seek to ease back into society through learned mentorship with older, more established veterans.

Overall, it’s simply not one policy versus another, but the overall creation of a military-centric support system.

The second program in place is the expertise that I received with my GI Bill. Troy University made it very painless and easy to obtain the financial assistance that I needed. With minimal effort on my part, I was able to complete my online application, submit any required documents and sit back and let the professionals assist me in gaining my monies from the government to pay for my college education. The policies and commitment that Troy University has put in place is amazing and has been a great help to me and many other students. This was my first time using my GI Bill and it could not have been an easier process.

In closing, there is not one policy, but a couple of them that have had the greatest impact on me personally. I really appreciated the Troy University satellite office being so close to me and the ease that I had to obtain pertinent information.

The ability to have my GI Bill so effectively used and the ease at which it occurred is truly amazing. Thanks to Troy University and all involved!

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Nicasio Rios Jr.

B.S. Business, Management and Economics/Finance SUNY Empire State College When asked to share one policy, program or initiative that has positively impacted my transition from the military to college, I thought this would be an easy task, but when you look at what SUNY Empire State College has to offer veterans I soon realized that this would not be so easy. I am a retired gunnery sergeant of Marines and I am blessed to be employed full time, so my opinion of what policy, initiative or program has most impacted my transition from the military to college might come as a surprise.

The fact that active duty, reservists, National Guardsmen, veterans and retirees pay no extra fees outside of tuition and residency fees (only for residence courses), in my opinion, is the one initiative, policy or program that

has positively affected my transition from the military to college. Often veterans have very little extra money to pay for schooling outside of what the GI Bill provides, and some veterans have no GI Bill benefits to speak of (for various reasons). This may not seem like much, but when you consider that the fees can add up to several hundred dollars per semester, the total can be quite large. As many Americans leave the military, they find themselves financially limited due to the job market or family obligations. The reduced financial investment that SUNY Empire State College provides its veteran students allows those students to feel like someone is looking out for them and wants to help them succeed.

The sacrifices that our military members endure or have endured are not only respected, in my opinion, at Empire, but honored in their dedication and belief in our veterans’ abilities and skills to succeed. The opportunity for our veterans to afford a quality education is one of the reasons I continue to choose SUNY Empire State College as my place to learn and grow. O

For more information, contact MAE Editor Laural Hobbes at lauralh@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mae-kmi.com.

You helped protect our freedom.

Let us help prepare your future.

Recognized as a Military Friendly School, Berkeley College proudly supports the GI Bill and participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program. Servicemembers may be eligible for Berkeley grants covering up to 100% of undergraduate tuition and fees remaining after federal and state grants are applied.

These are just some of the benefits Berkeley offers to veterans and military students: • Fully staffed Office of Military and Veterans to support all military and veterans programs • CVET program for eligible combat veterans (cvet.com) • Veterans Resource Centers at three locations • Two active chapters of the Student Veterans Association of America • Participate in all DOD Military Tuition Assistance programs

Find out more. Contact the Office of Military and Veteran Affairs: Email VeteransAffairs@BerkeleyCollege.edu or call 800-446-5400, ext. MC1 Berkeley College has been recognized

by GI Jobs and Military Advanced Education Magazine as a Military Friendly School.

BerkeleyCollege.edu/Military • Locations in New York, New Jersey, and Online Berkeley College reserves the right to add, discontinue, or modify its programs and policies at any time. Modifications subsequent to the original publication of this information may not be reflected here. For the most up-to-date information, please visit BerkeleyCollege.edu. For more information about Berkeley College graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed programs, and other important disclosures, please visit BerkeleyCollege.edu/disclosures.

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P2036 - 9.2012

MAE 7.8 | 13

CLASS NOTES For Veterans, Finding a Job Just Got a Little Easier Resume Companion has integrated a new search and translation function into its industry leading resume builder software to instantly translate military occupation codes (MOCs) into useful civilian occupations.

Resume Companion has helped people create over 8 million resumes, from entry-level accounting positions to executive level CEOs, with its intuitive resume builder software.

For these job seekers, creating a resume is a pretty straightforward and simple task, especially when software helps them professionally format their resumes and cover letters.

Veterans of the U.S. armed forces have always faced the challenge of translating the plethora of skills attained while serving their country into layperson responsibilities.

Because of how the military categorizes its

occupations, the process of translating MOCs into useful civilian resume-ready lingo can be challenging. Resume Companion’s MOC Code translator allows military applicants to enter their MOCs and receive a corresponding lay title for that numerical code. This generic lay title can then be matched to a series of corresponding career fields and job titles of similar function. The intent is to allow military professionals to create civilian-friendly resumes with the same ease that the rest of the public enjoy.

Joe Flanagan, a senior resume consultant, acknowledges that it can be a challenge helping servicemen and women translate their military duties into civilian occupations. “I’m definitely becoming more familiar with military employment trends, as I see a dozen or so resumes a month full of acronyms and

Alabama State University Teams with Community Colleges for Accelerated Degree ASU’s Department of Foundations and Psychology in its College of Education has initiated a unique collaboration with three area community colleges to offer a Bachelor of Science in Psychology in an accelerated format. The university is partnering with Bishop State Community College (BSCC) in Mobile, Wallace State Community College (WSCC) in Selma and Jefferson Davis State Community College (JSCC) in Brewton to offer the accelerated degree program. Courses will be offered at each college. “This program will benefit ASU by reaching out to the rural areas in Alabama, as well as some of our established partners in education,” said Dr. Tina L. Vazin, associate professor and chair of the Department of Foundations and Psychology. “It meets the needs of students without requiring them to come to our campus.”

The goal of the new program is to create a seamless transition

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for students from the partnering colleges into the psychology degree program at ASU, to provide onsite access to the baccalaureate degree in psychology from ASU to interested students attending BSCC/ WSCC/JDCC and to help increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the field of psychology.

The program will allow students to transfer 60 credit hours of general studies and elective courses from the community colleges to ASU and the first cohort will enroll in fall of 2012. The accelerated program includes 10 mini-sessions during the fall, spring and summer terms, allowing students to complete another 60 hours in a 12-month period. Nearly half of the courses in the mini-sessions will be taught through distance learning and the others will be taught at the partnering community colleges and at the ASU Southern Normal Campus in Brewton.

skills that need to be reworded for private sector job applications,” he said. Flanagan also stated that the number of military resumes he receives is on the increase, leading him to suspect growing unemployment amongst American veterans.

Flanagan’s suspicions are indeed confirmed by a U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics August report indicating unemployment for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans rising to 10.9 percent while the national average hovered at 8.2 percent. It’s only logical to conclude part of what is preventing veterans from finding employment is an inability to effectively communicate their roles to employers.

“These young men and women certainly have what it takes to get jobs, it’s just a matter of putting it into wording.”

Saint Leo Launches Master of Accounting Degree Saint Leo University’s Donald R. Tapia School of Business has added the Master of Accounting degree to its program offerings, either online or full time at the traditional University Campus in east Pasco County. The 30-credit hour program prepares students for the two professional licensing examinations in the field of accounting, the Certified Public Accountant examination and the Certified Management Accountant examination. Equipped with successful examination results and the knowledge gained in the 10-course curriculum, graduates will be able to pursue careers in major public accounting firms, in small businesses or large corporations, or in the nonprofit or government sector.

The new program is structured at University Campus in a fulltime format so that students can complete the program in one year by taking five courses in the fall semester and five courses in the spring.

Classes will be held in the new home of the Donald R. Tapia School of Business, which opened in the fall of 2011, equipped with the most advanced educational technology available. Alternatively, students who study online will take courses in an accelerated, eight-week format, taking up to two courses at a time. Students will be able to switch from the full-time program to the online option if employment opportunities or family circumstances change in a way that makes the online option more favorable.

Admission requirements to the program include a bachelor’s degree in accounting from a regionally accredited university, or a bachelor’s degree plus the completion of prerequisite courses in accounting, and a minimum score of 500 on the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test). Prospective students may also inquire about Saint Leo’s popular Master of Business Administration degree, which is offered with several different career specialization options. www.MAE-kmi.com

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Commitment to Enhancing Education of Social Workers Dr. Jill Biden joined the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) over the summer, at their national practice conference, Restoring Hope: The Power of Social Work, to announce a new Joining Forces commitment aimed at educating all social workers, regardless of practice area or focus, to have a better understanding of issues relating to the care, culture and lifestyle of troops, veterans and military families. The Joining Forces commitment means that more than 650,000 social workers—the nation’s largest group of mental health care providers—will have access to training and resources to help meet the needs of our service men and women, veterans and military families.

“We have asked a lot of our military over the past decade, and they have responded to the need for more and frequent deployments without complaint.

Our veterans and military families are among the most resilient men and women I have ever met and I am always inspired by them. But they have shouldered a tremendous burden and for those who need some additional support, we need to be ready to help. Social workers are uniquely positioned to help reach our troops, veterans and military families exactly where they are, in every single county in America,” said Biden.

In addition to invisible wounds such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, which impact approximately one in six of our troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, servicemembers and veterans have a heightened risk of substance use, unemployment, homelessness and suicide.

Female veterans and those residing in rural areas are at an even greater disadvantage as they may find it difficult to access services or find resources that directly address their unique needs.

“Social workers are the largest provider of mental health services in the United States. We have a responsibility to ensure that servicemembers, veterans and their loved ones have access to the mental and behavioral health services they deserve. In addition, social workers who provide a broad range of services in areas such as sexual assault, case management and advocacy have expertise and skills to offer and should be leaders in these efforts,” said NASW President Jeane Anastas, Ph.D., licensed master social worker.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Biden created Joining Forces last year as a way to spark action and encourage all Americans to find ways to honor and support our service men and women, veterans and military families in their own communities. The initiative focuses on improving employment,

education and wellness of America’s troops, veterans and military families as well as raise awareness about their service, sacrifice and needs.

Social work has been known as the helping profession for over a century and during that time has been an essential component of the social safety net, guiding people to critical resources, counseling them on important life decisions, and helping them reach their full potential. The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic needs of all people, with particular attention to those who are vulnerable, oppressed and living in poverty.

NASW CEO Elizabeth J. Clark noted that, “Social workers focus on individual well-being within the social context. Fundamental to social work is attention to all of the forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living. Through this perspective, we understand that veterans and military families can experience extraordinary challenges that require extraordinary responses. We stand ready to prepare social workers to lead that response.”

Key Social Work Joining Forces commitments include: • A free online five-course training module available for all social workers: It will include military culture, advocacy, direct practice, cultural competency and standards review. This course will not be limited to social workers who specifically work with veterans and military families, but also private practitioners, clinical social workers, agency social workers, policy practitioners, educators and researchers. This course will count toward continuing education requirements for practitioners.

• A professional credential for social work with veterans and military families: Based on the training module, this credential will be offered free for one year to all NASW members and is geared towards social workers that work primarily with servicemembers, veterans, or their loved ones.

• Standards for social work practice with veterans and military families: These guidelines will be disseminated to all NASW members with the goal of providing a basic level of education on veterans and military families.

These materials will be forthcoming in fall 2012 and 2013.

FSU and Coast Guard Pen Memorandum of Agreement Vice Admiral Robert Parker, Atlantic Area commander, and James Anderson, Fayetteville State University (FSU) chancellor, signed a memorandum of agreement at the Federal Building in Portsmouth, Va., over the summer. The agreement sets forth the terms for the Coast Guard and Fayetteville State University to engage in a student research partnership.

Under the new agreement, the Coast Guard will designate members in the Atlantic Area operations analysis division including a liaison representative,

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together with an FSU faculty member to assist in identifying research topics for each participating student. The new agreement also states that telephone orientations will be conducted for each student in respect to any policies, rules and regulations of the Coast Guard relating to identified research topics, to include advising participating student on the availability and disclosure limitations for information related to these topics.If requested, the Coast Guard will receive copies of all research and products resulting from a student’s

research including thesis papers, which may be of assistance to the service in the performance of its powers, duties or functions.

“This formal agreement is a wonderful opportunity for Coast Guard personnel to collaborate on research projects with the bright students at Fayetteville State University,” said Parker. “In addition, I will personally partner with FSU to strengthen the Coast Guard’s ties with HBCUs and share what the service does with a diverse culture of students.”

MAE 7.8 | 15

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Classes offered throughout the state in: Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Clay, Collier, Duval, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lee, Leon, Marion, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Polk, St. Lucie, and Volusia counties • SOC member • Yellow Ribbon Program • Transfer credits, DD-214, DANTES, CLEP, PONSI, military service schools, USAFI • Tuition reductions for bachelor’s and master’s programs for active-duty military personnel (Barry policy – not administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) • VA education benefits, financial aid, and grants available to eligible students

AMERICA’S

BEST

CO L L E G E S 2011

Benefits Administrator

Q& A

Delivering Programs and Benefits to Veterans and Their Dependents Brigadier General Allison A. Hickey (Ret.) Under Secretary for Benefits Department of Veterans Affairs

Retired Brigadier General Allison A. Hickey assumed the duties of Under Secretary for Benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on June 6, 2011.

As Under Secretary for Benefits, Hickey leads more than 20,000 employees in the delivery of a wide range of integrated programs of non-medical benefits and services to veterans, their dependents and survivors. Through a nationwide network of 57 regional offices, special processing centers and VBA [Veterans Benefits Administration] Headquarters, she directs the administration of VA’s disability compensation, pension, education, home loan guaranty, vocational rehabilitation and employment, and life insurance programs, and an annual budget of more than $72.3 billion.

Prior to her appointment, Hickey led human capital management for the consulting company Accenture in their work for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency—supporting operational business processes for intelligence community organizations in the areas of customer relationship management, call center practices and 21st-century information technology systems.

As the director of the Air Force’s Future Total Force office at the Pentagon, she provided leadership and oversight for four divisions in the areas of strategic planning, mission development, public and congressional affairs, and program and resource implementation for more than 140 new Air Force units. Hickey was responsible for shifting billions of dollars toward new capabilities across the Air Force portfolio and directing new organizational models for a worldwide 500,000 person organization including active duty, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units and personnel to create a common Air Force policy, mission and culture—known in the department as the Total Force Perspective.

Prior to that assignment, Hickey served as the assistant deputy director of Strategic Planning, where she provided leadership and oversight for five divisions. She also served as chief of the Air Force Future Concepts and Transformation Division, focused on the integration of technologies, organizations and concepts of operation to model for the Air Force of 2025.

Hickey is a 27-year veteran of the Air Force, having served on active duty, in the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserves.

Her Air Force career began in 1980 as a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy’s first class to include women. As a pilot and aircraft commander, she accumulated more than 1,500 hours of flight time in KC-10A, KC-135A, T-38 and T-37 aircraft. www.MAE-kmi.com

Q: The Post-9/11 GI Bill recently moved into its fourth year.

According to VA statistics, the program has provided educational benefits to 773,000 veterans and their family members. What are your goals and guidance for the next year?

A: The Post-9/11 GI Bill has been hugely successful. VA has issued about $21 billion in Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit payments to over 800,000 beneficiaries. In the coming year, we’ll be working hard on several fronts, ranging from outreach to performance measures and employment. We recognize the impact this wonderful benefit has had on so many of our veterans and the potential it has for future beneficiaries and the potential to enhance the national workforce.

One of the areas we are focused on is the continuing efforts to streamline processing times of education claims. We’ve had some challenges this year due to a significant increase in claims as well as implementing the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program of the VOW [Veterans Opportunity to Work] Act. It is our expectation that our education processing system enhancements will enable many of those claims to be processed electronically rather than manually, furthering our speed to complete a claim. We are also taking a more results-oriented approach to monitor and influence veteran graduation rates and employment opportunities. We spent the first few years of the Post-9/11 GI Bill working hard to implement this huge endeavor. It’s now time to begin focusing on what are the results of this investment and what strategies we can shape MAE 7.8 | 17

to give those using the Post-9/11 GI Bill their biggest opportunity for success. One of the things we are expanding is our pilot program called “VetSuccess on Campus,” where we place a full-time counselor on campus to help our veteran students. We’ll go from eight pilot sites to over 30 next year with investments in more in the outyears.

A few months ago, the president signed an executive order called the “Principles of Excellence,” which laid out a set of guidelines [for] both the government and those institutions that receive tuition assistance and Post-9/11 GI Bill funds. We have been hard at work with the Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Justice, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Federal Trade Commission to develop implementation strategies in areas of information, reporting and enforcement.

All in all, this past year has been hugely successful when we look at the growth of leveraging the Post-9/11 GI Bill, growing our VetSuccess on Campus program, and implementing many of the new challenges with which we are involved. Next year we are looking forward to building on those initiatives while improving our processing times.

It’s also important to remember that we have 1 million veterans in one of many education programs every year.

Q: As every government entity is being tasked with becoming more efficient, are future educational benefits under any risk as part of efficiency plans or cost reductions?

A: The Veterans Benefits Administration [VBA] is not aware of any efficiency plans or cost reductions that will impact GI Bill education benefits. VA’s educational assistance programs honor and reward veterans, servicemembers, reservists, survivors and eligible dependents for sacrifices made in military service to this nation by helping them achieve their educational or vocational goals.

Secretary Shinseki has stated that the Post-9/11 GI Bill “is one of the most important programs helping our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans reach their educational goals, and we are proud to make such a difference in the lives of so many veterans.”

Q: Education is a pathway to employment. How can the services and the VA work together to better engage servicemembers and better prepare them for life after active duty?

A: In 2011, VBA established the Office of Economic Opportunity.

One of its missions is to lead efforts for private-sector veteran employment. The new Deputy Under Secretary is charged with collectively and collaboratively combining our veterans employment function, education service, vocational rehabilitation and employment service, and home loan guaranty service, along with the Department of Labor [DOL] and other federal agencies to promote and impact nationwide veteran employment.

We will continue to engage with the Departments of Defense, Labor and Education with the charge to improve education and employment outcomes for servicemembers and veterans. One of

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18 | MAE 7.8

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the ways we are accomplishing this is by working hard to enhance existing resources, such as the Transition Assistance Program [TAP], to ensure the transition from servicemember to veteran and from military to civilian career is meaningful. Once the new TAP program is launched, it will focus on key areas such as career readiness standards [and] transition integrated into the military life cycle, along with an enhanced curriculum that provides the latest post service information on education, technical training and entrepreneurship options.

In 2009, in partnership with DoD, we launched the eBenefits website, which is a key component in our ongoing transformation to create a digital environment for veterans’ benefits delivery.

EBenefits provides online information and access to a wide variety of military and veteran benefits resources. Additional functionality and features will continue to be added to the site throughout the coming months. We recently announced that 1.8 million veterans and servicemembers registered for the self-service web portal, which means we are on track to meet our 2013 goal of 2.5 million users.

Q: What is your department’s view of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act? A: The VOW to Hire Heroes Act signed by the president is clearly a ‘game changer’ for our departing servicemembers and our veterans. It has numerous provisions, but there are a few key areas that

we have been working hard to implement within VBA: Veterans Retraining Assistance Program [VRAP] and mandatory TAP. We, with our partner DOL, have successfully launched VRAP; 99,000 unemployed veterans between the ages of 35 and 60 are now able to successfully apply for this new benefit to cover education costs for up to one year in order to obtain high-demand jobs. This new program provides the opportunity for the largest segment of our unemployed veterans to ‘jump start’ a new career. We already have received over 56,000 applications, approved over 40,000 veterans, and begun paying education benefits.

In order to meet a larger targeted audience by November 21, 2012, VA is aggressively redesigning VA’s TAP. We will utilize newer technology, increase level of interactivity; and provide multiple methods to communicate, such as fast facts application for mobile devices, computers and iPads. The mandatory TAP is another ‘game changer’ for us. It doubles the number of servicemembers to whom we provide TAP services, and it challenges us to think differently and do what is necessary to ensure those men and women who have served our country are afforded all of the right resources for them to make informed decisions. The secretary has often said that we take three or four months to train a civilian to be a soldier, but historically we have only taken a few days to change them back into a civilian. We owe servicemembers more.

Q: Many tasks performed by servicemembers on active duty correlate to a similar job in the civilian world that requires a

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MAE 7.8 | 19

certification or other documentation. Is it possible to better link a servicemember’s MOS [Military Occupational Specialty] to qualifications/requirements for that same task for private sector employment?

A: This has always been a challenge for all veterans for generations—how to convert their military skills and attributes they’ve learned into a private-sector occupation. This problem has been compounded in recent years as a result of a smaller segment of the population either being a veteran or having a veteran influence in their lives. Currently, we utilize all available tools, including Occupation Network Online [O-Net] and other DOL resources, both federal and state, to identify the transferable strengths, skills and certifications transitioning servicemembers bring to the workforce. Our VetSuccess.gov website has several transferable skill analysis tools that help servicemembers align military education and job training curricula with current civilian workplace needs. As well, veterans can utilize VA4Vets (http://vaforvets. va.gov) and the DOL’s VETS [Veterans’ Employment and Training Service] program for resume help, job development and placement assistance. VA’s Education and Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment programs can also pay for licensures and certifications for eligible servicemembers.

Q: Whether institutions offer educational opportunities through online only, physical classroom only or a combination, does the

I DON’T TAKE CLASSES.

I EXPERIENCE THEM. At CTU we know the sacrifices you make. Your education shouldn’t be one of those sacrifices. We offer support designed specifically for current and veteran military personnel and their families.

Military Advanced Education recognized CTU as one of the top universities serving the educational needs of the Armed Forces from 2008 - 2012.

Contact us at 877.764.1555 or visit coloradotech.edu/military Find disclosures on graduation rates, student financial obligations and more at www.coloradotech.edu/disclosures.Not all programs are available to residents of all states. CTU cannot guarantee employment or salary.

131-32065 0304353 09/12

20 | MAE 7.8

VA favor establishing metrics and minimum guidelines for those institutions to give a veteran a baseline starting point for knowing what makes the grade or not?

A: We have always encouraged schools to provide as much support as possible to veteran students. We now have a new tool that I mentioned earlier, the Principles of Excellence. It requires that educational institutions provide meaningful information to servicemembers, veterans, spouses and other family members about the financial cost and quality of educational institutions to assist prospective students in making choices about how to use their federal educational benefits; prevent abusive and deceptive recruiting practices that target the recipients of federal, military and veterans’ educational benefits; and ensure that educational institutions provide high quality academic and student support services to active-duty servicemembers, reservists, veterans and military families. The VA’s GI Bill website (www.gibill.va.gov) features a link, “Choosing a School,” which provides a guide and links to help students make their school choice.

We have also started requesting feedback from schools on students’ graduation plans, program types, and students who are at-risk academically, so we can learn more about the population we serve and their unique needs when pursuing higher education.

In addition, we are creating models for premier level of service leading to retention, graduation and career employment for our veterans; clearly defining VA and school roles and success metrics; increasing the use of work study and internship programs; increasing the use of on-the-job training and apprenticeships; emphasizing employment-related services at schools; and hosting roundtable summits with schools for continuous improvement.

Q: Does the VA currently offer suggestions and guidance on how a prospective student should approach school selection? Conversely, is there guidance on how to navigate through the VA system to best utilize the funds available to them?

A: As part of the Transition Assistance Program, VA provides information on VA benefits and resources to separating servicemembers. The “Choosing Your School” document on the GI Bill website outlines important considerations when selecting a school or educational program. We also offer vocational counseling to individuals eligible for any VA education benefit program. Which school to attend is clearly one of the most important choices any veteran—or non-veteran— can make. There are so many individual nuances to that decision; our challenge is and has been to provide our veteran community as much information as possible in order for them to make the right choice.

Q: What are the IT challenges of managing a large organization with such a diverse portfolio and a large database of veterans?

A: Benefits administration is a huge challenge involving complex processes with many different components. Developing, enhancing or replacing IT systems is costly and time consuming, particularly since our benefits change frequently. The main challenges of managing the information technology and database needs in a large organization are resources, system integration, accessibility and security to keep pace with the demands for benefits and the changes in law.

Resources such as sufficient hardware, funding and people with sufficient diverse technical expertise are essential to building systems that meet a host of business requirements that are securely accessible by www.MAE-kmi.com

employees and customers alike. For example, in early 2009, Congress passed a new law to revamp the GI bill for military members that went into effect on August 1, 2009, requiring extensive resources first to modify VA’s existing IT systems to meet the requirements of the new law and then build a new IT solution. No one would have imagined that today this same system developed in such a short window has paid out nearly $20 billion in educational benefits. We have developed collaborative relationships with our VA IT organization, and we recognize the huge challenge they face in maintaining and developing our IT systems. They have learned the challenges we face in the timely and accurate issuance of benefits.

Q: How involved is the department in social media as a way of informing and encouraging veterans to maximize their use of the benefits they have earned?

A: We have worked hard to have a strong social media presence, but we know it is a constantly evolving medium. For example, the VBA Facebook page posts at least one item a day informing our over 78,000 subscribers about a specific benefit program. We conduct various Twitter town halls to help veterans understand how to best obtain and utilize their benefits. VA recently approved terms of service for LinkedIn and will soon leverage this social network to disseminate employment information to veterans.

VA posts regularly on the VA VAntage Point blog regarding benefit programs. The eBenefits website is a joint DoD and VA

application, which continues to grow in users (1.8 million) and is a key component in VA’s ongoing transformation to create a digital environment for veterans’ benefits delivery. Can we do more? The answer is yes, and we continue to look for opportunities to expand our social media outreach efforts to reach the largest audience possible.

Q: Any closing thoughts on your staff and the mission they have in making veterans’ lives richer?

A: The VBA is responsible for administering a wide range of benefits and services for veterans, their families and their survivors through a nationwide network of 56 regional offices, including offices in Puerto Rico and the Philippines.

VBA employees have the incredibly important mission of helping Americans fulfill the nation’s commitment to our servicemembers and veterans, who so courageously serve and sacrifice on our behalf. Our employees are the key to our success. In carrying out their responsibilities, our employees have adopted and embraced the Department’s newly established core values of Integrity, Commitment, Advocacy, Respect and Excellence—appropriately captured in the phrase “I CARE.” Our workforce includes more than 20,000 employees, 50 percent of whom are veterans themselves, and 30 percent of whom have service-connected disabilities. We know how to walk the walk for our veterans and are highly committed to making a difference in their lives. O

LETTERS FROM HOME

USED TO TAKE WEEKS

TO ARRIVE MILITARY. ASHFORD.EDU/MAE 800.406.5385 400 NORTH BLUFF BLVD. CLINTON, IA 52732

www.MAE-kmi.com

12 AUAM1156 • AC- 02 55

MAE 7.8 | 21

Thousands of students have

signed up for free online classes.

What’s the appeal?

By Laural Hobbes, MAE Editor

MOOCs, or massively open online courses, are garnering increased attention from universities and students alike. Respected professors and other academic innovators can teach students from all over the world by building classes with multimedia elements such as taped lectures, blogs, ebooks, chats, wikis, PowerPoint, PDFs, zip files and live classes. With the ability to reach thousands of students through just one course, professors marvel at their increased reach, while students jump to take classes from professors at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities—oftentimes, for free.

Udemy, Coursera and Blackboard are all companies that offer adaptable MOOC platforms. “We believe that in five years, every expert in the world will be teaching online through MOOCs,” said Dinesh Thirupuvanam, the vice president of marketing at Udemy, a MOOC provider founded in 2010.

“If you think about how experts traditionally teach and share their knowledge, they’re extremely constrained. If you … want to reach thousands or tens of thousands of people, the primary medium available to you today is a book—a medium that offers no interactivity [with] the student. “[With] MOOCs, experts can teach thousands of students through a highly dynamic, 22 | MAE 7.8

interactive environment filled with passionate students. For students, MOOCs offer a superior learning experience at a very affordable—or free—price point. Students get direct access to the expert, a community of fellow students to engage with, high quality dynamic video content, and exercises and projects to push [their studies] further,” Thirupuvanam said.

Instructors can publish courses on Udemy that are either free or for-profit, and typically receive 70 percent of the revenue from course sales—unless he or she does their own promotion, in which case they keep 85 percent. In the past year, Udemy’s top 10 earning instructors made $1.6 million dollars in sales. “We are proud to say that a number of our instructors have actually quit their day jobs and are now teaching on Udemy full time,” said Thirupuvanam.

Margaret Soltan, a professor of poetry at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., taught a poetry course on Udemy and discovered that her in-class and online teaching techniques were comparable. “I’ve always been a lecturer … so I didn’t need to adapt to a MOOC. I’ve been ‘MOOC-ing’ for years,” Soltan said. “The workload consists of my writing one lecture per week on a poem of interest. I’m making, of course, a larger

argument about modern poetry with all of my lectures, so I need to think in terms of the intellectual shape of the entire series. But all of this is a pleasure for me. … As for the student—she simply listens, maybe writes me a question or two, maybe reads more poems by a poet about whom I’ve spoken.”

Many elite universities have sensed the potential of MOOCs. Coursera, a MOOC provider in business since April 2012, initially premiered offering classes with faculty from University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University and Princeton University. By July 2012, University of Washington, University of California at San Francisco, Caltech, Rice University, Johns Hopkins Schools of Public Health, University of Illinois, University of Virginia, Georgia Tech, Duke University, University of Toronto, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (in Switzerland) and University of Edinburgh (in the U.K.) had signed on. Students hail from 190 countries, the most well-represented countries being the U.S., India, Russia, China and Brazil.

According to an August Forbes article, many Coursera classes have more than 10,000 enrollees, and some can have over 50,000 students. Students sign up for classes as varied as Modern and Contemporary American Poetry, Control of Mobile Robots, Listening to World Music, Introduction to Sustainability, and Single Variable Calculus.

“We’re seeking to offer a diverse array of courses in order to offer interesting and valuable courses to as wide an audience as possible,” explained Daphne Koller, co-founder of Coursera. “Coursera seeks to partner with the best universities and offer courses from the best professors in order to keep the content quality high. While the course content comes from the professors and is supported by the universities, Coursera also offers guidance www.MAE-kmi.com

to develop courses that represent a range to adapt a traditional lecture/course to the of topics and formats that will interest and online format.” serve the public, while also contributing to With Coursera, the faculty member develour growing understanding of how best to oping a course can either record lectures as deploy these new methods of teaching and presented to a class of students, or can make learning at Penn,” explained the recording in a studio or Provost Vincent Price. “We other location. The profeswill also consider the curricusor can then supplement the lar and instructional needs of video with assessments—like the schools and departments quizzes—that can be autowhose faculty members would matically graded using Coursoffer the courses.” era software. The courses Completing a MOOC does also include mastery-building not yet result in a degree, interactive assignments and although certificates are procollaborative online forums. vided by some institutions Time commitment varies; Daphne Koller and many universities include courses can range from a few MOOCs as supplementary weeks to over two months. koller@coursera.org classroom material. “We are University of Michigan’s very interested in exploring first offering with Coursera ways to use online materials to supplement consisted of seven courses, and a faculty comthe educational experience of our on-campus mittee is currently working to develop recomexperience, for example, by shifting some of mendations about various policies, including the more routine aspects of a lecture-based the process for selecting courses. “Faculty class out of the classroom, freeing up class who are selected to offer courses are free to time for enhanced interactive experiences,” present their course in the way they feel best said Pollack. conveys the information. University of MichiThe University of Washington is the first gan is also looking at providing training and partner university to offer course credit for guidance in best practices for online educaclasses on Coursera, though the details of tion to interested faculty,” said Martha Polhow this will work are still being finalized, lack, vice provost of academic and budgetary and these classes may cost money. “We’ve affairs. University of Michigan will offer seven also heard from other institutions around that online courses through Coursera this fall with world that course credit is being offered for an enrollment total of 213,096 students [as of successful completion of Coursera courses,” August] from around the world. said Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera. “We The University of Pennsylvania was have explored a number of possible options another of Coursera’s first partners. “We seek

for revenue generation. While our current focus is on building out the platform and enhancing the experience for students, in the future we’re likely to pursue initiatives such as employment matching services for students who opt in.”

Udemy is also focused on developing its content first. “There is a movement toward offering college credit or certificates of accomplishment and completion for MOOCs,” said Udemy’s Thirupuvanam. “We believe, though, that the space is still very nascent and that we should first stay focused on … providing the absolute best learning experience possible to students, which is the role of MOOC platform providers … and providing the highest quality learning content available, which is the role of instructors. … Once significant progress has been made, we believe there will be a significant opportunity to offer credits and certifications for students who need assistance in a job search, career transition or further schooling.”

Blackboard has also risen as a venerable platform provider, offering CourseSites, a free, hosted online course creation and facilitation service. Blackboard itself does not develop the individual courses. “Each institution/client creates and delivers course content via Blackboard’s solutions that specifically meet the needs of its learners,” said David Palmer, the national e-learning consultant for DoD/ Intelligence at Blackboard.

Curtis Bonk, P.h.D., a professor at Indiana University, taught a course called “Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success” through CourseSites, Blackboard’s

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MAE 7.8 | 23

PE N N STAT E O N L I N E

Maggie Smith, an active-duty soldier and a mother, graduated with an online degree from Penn State.

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24 | MAE 7.8

MOOC platform, a once-a-week course that had five synchronous sessions—and is still available in a closed form online with all of the class materials. In a rather meta sort of way, Bonk taught in this MOOC how to teach online. “I was enthralled with that idea: Instead of teaching 100 people, we could reach 4,000 people. Let’s say 1,000 walked away with an idea they use in their classes. If they all teach 100 people a year, the derivative benefits of teaching a class like that are phenomenal. This is probably more students in one class than I’ve encountered in 23 years of teaching higher education!”

Like classes on Udemy and Coursera, CourseSites classes also integrate multimedia—specifically, videos from YouTube, and resources from slideshare.com and Flickr.

Bonk’s CourseSites class—which included topics such as how to use wikis and blogs, how to give feedback, and handling plagiarism—included a discussion forum, wikis, videos and a document that recapped the entire experience.

“The MOOC is like the ultimate experience. If teaching is a calling, then a MOOC is the ultimate life calling. Because you’re making a difference, hopefully, to people all over the planet,” said Bonk. “The MOOC is about helping people build connections, helping them reflect on their lives and how they teach, helping them share what they’ve done.”

As MOOCs are a relatively new phenomenon, it is difficult to ascertain how the future will shape them. Though online education offers many benefits, it cannot offer some of the advantages of traditional universities such as one-on-one interaction and in-person professor-student relationships. “[Our] students … learn from their course projects and the papers they write—none of which can be replicated in the online experience—and they learn from interactions with their professors and peers that they would not have in an online course. MOOCs enable our faculty to share their expertise with a much broader range of people, but that is very different from the interactive teaching that they do on campus,” said University of Michigan’s Pollack. “Our experience with Coursera is still so new and there’s a lot of activity occurring with online courses, so it’s a bit premature to speculate on where we will be in the next few years. However, it’s a very exciting time and we look forward to helping shape the future of online education in a meaningful and positive way.”

The University of Pennsylvania’s provost represented a similar attitude. “We are very

pleased to be one of the first universities to partner with Coursera, and we look forward to exploring the future together,” Price said. “The principal challenge—and one we embrace with this initiative—is to experiment and learn from our experience, to develop the knowledge sufficient for separating true value from hype, and to deploy these technologies effectively in service of Penn’s educational mission. We remain firmly committed to the personal, face-to-face and highly collaborative aspects of teaching and learning that have stood the test of time. These values are at the core of our university community, and our online education initiatives must be considered a vital means of extending and advancing them.”

However, professors who have taught MOOCs see many possibilities for their development. “Some people see it as a revolution; I see it as a continuum,” said Al Filreis, a poetry professor at University of Pennsylvania who has used technology to enhance his courses for decades.

“I fear that the pressure toward monetizing and bureaucratizing MOOCs—tuition, credit, etc., is going to grow and grow until unfortunately it becomes impossible to maintain what’s best about them,” said Professor Soltan. “They’re free, open, democratic, done out of unfettered love and interest. I fear they will become yet one more horrible online forprofit phenomenon—the sort of enterprise that has scandalously been taking advantage of military veterans, for instance.”

“It’s hard to predict the future,” acknowledged Bonk. “But what I think is going to happen is that the cream of the crop—the high engaged students that might go to Princeton or Harvard or Yale—may just max out and go to the MOOC … get credentialed in computer science, engineering, mathematics statistics—[any discipline] that’s easily scored … and get a high-paying job in corporate immediately.”

Regardless of what the future holds, students, professors, universities and companies will all continue to shape the evolution of online education. As for now, thousands of students from all over the world will continue to explore the increasing assortment of online courses. O

For more information, contact MAE Editor Laural Hobbes at lauralh@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mae-kmi.com.

www.MAE-kmi.com

CCME GRAPEVINE

Is Your Veterans Center Being All It Can Be?

By Marc Churchwell Director, Military and Veterans Resource Center University of West Florida

The growth of our veteran population has increased the need for veteran resource centers. Many centers have opened over the past couple of years, and much has been learned regarding their operation and ability to meet the needs of the veteran students. However, it is not enough to simply open a center: It must be able to deliver the assistance promised as well as build their students’ and administration’s confidence in the center’s ability to do so.

Often veteran students have requests for assistance and/or information that are beyond the current capability of the Veterans Resource Center. In this situation, it is difficult for a veteran student to hear, “Sorry, we can’t help you with that here.” The correct answer must be, “We will help you figure it out.” A Veteran Resource Center must be flexible, resilient, resourceful and well-versed in customer service skills and practices. The goal is to encourage and support veterans who are pursuing educational interests, not to run them off with unmet expectations.

The veterans resource center must be developed with a clear understanding of the services needed and the numbers of veterans expected to be served. The staff must prepare by participating in a comprehensive training program, and implement a tracking system to record the questions of veteran students as well as any follow-up required. Certainly it would be helpful to suggest, “Go online to the VONAPP site, create an eBenefits account, and complete and submit either the 1990 or 1990E. Provide a copy of the confirmation page to the institution’s certifying official along with the approved TEB, if applicable.

If you have other approved financial aid that may be applied to your tuition costs, provide it to the institution’s certifying official. Finally, a request for VA enrollment certification that identifies the courses to be funded by VA must be submitted to the institution’s certifying official before the payment deadline.”

Imagine for a moment: A veteran, David, recently separated from active duty, has made the commitment to go back to school. Most likely, he has attended few, if any, college courses during his active duty time. He may 26 | MAE 7.8

suspect that going to school after leaving the military is going to be a little challenging; admissions and registrar’s offices are typically designed for the traditional student and do not know or understand the process a veteran must follow to get their GI Bill educational benefits. If David is not fortunate enough to locate an institution with a proactive center, he could easily become accepted and enrolled without having completed all required documentation for GI Bill funding and find himself in the position of having to pay for classes out of pocket—or drop his classes all together.

Now let’s assume David is attending an institution that boasts a veteran-friendly campus and a proactive veterans resource center.

This institution’s website makes finding the veterans resource center information easy, and David reads on the center’s website what he must do to be accepted, enroll and attend classes at this institution. He decides he wants to take advantage of the services provided by the veterans resource center, so he locates and arrives at the center. The center’s staff must be trained and ready to guide him through each of the steps.

Following up with David is a key component in helping him succeed. A well-trained staff member should assist David with completing and submitting his 1990 on the VONAPP website, arrange for him to meet with an adviser, and tell him to complete and submit a VA enrollment certification form to the certifying official.

With the different pieces of data being thrust at him from the veterans resource center, his program adviser, admissions, the registrar and financial aid, David forgets to complete and submit the VA enrollment certification form. He receives a notice of payment due for his courses, which he promptly ignores because he knows his tuition is being paid with his GI Bill. Soon, he receives another email notice that he is to be purged from his classes for non-payment. He contacts the registrar who tells him not only his courses are not paid for, but there is also a late payment fee added. David is referred to either financial aid or the cashier. Ideally, he will be

immediately referred to the veterans resource center so they can help sort out the problem.

Even though David received “adequate” assistance from the Veterans Resource Center, the result is a frustrating experience. A couple of things could have been done differently in our scenario: A report could have been provided to the veterans resource center showing all veterans using benefits who were enrolled but not yet coded as receiving those benefits, and therefore in jeopardy of being purged. The center staff could have then checked the student’s status and contacted him directly to complete additional documentation to prevent late payment fees.

Another option would be for the veterans resource center to have their own tracking system in place to check the status of firstsemester veterans to ensure all required documentation is received by a certain deadline date. If everything is not completed, the center would contact the veterans directly to inform them of the discrepancy and to offer further assistance.

It is not enough to have a center and simply provide direct assistance upon request.

We must anticipate needs and look for ways to support our veterans so that their efforts can be better focused on a successful educational journey. Preemptive measures taken to avoid potential issues are typically much more productive and successful than recovery actions. It is incumbent upon those of us who know the recurring situations penalizing our veteran students to take the necessary action to prevent these issues from occurring as much as possible. O Note from Joycelyn Groot, president of CCME: This month, Marc Churchwell, the director of the Military and veterans resource center at the University of West Florida, wrote an insightful article about making your campus veterans center as good as it can be. I hope you enjoy the article and I look forward to seeing you all at the February 25-28 2013 CCME Symposium in San Diego. Conference registration and hotel reservations are now open. Please go to www.ccmeonline.org for more information. www.MAE-kmi.com

The advertisers index is provided as a service to our readers. KMI cannot be held responsible for discrepancies due to last-minute changes or alterations.

MAE RESOURCE CENTER Advertisers Index The Art Institutes...................................................................................... 9 www.veterans.artinstitutes.edu Ashford University.. .................................................................................. 21 www.military.ashford.edu/mae Auburn University..................................................................................... 7 www.business.auburn.edu Baker College Online.. ............................................................................... C3 www.bakercollegeonline.com Barry University...................................................................................... 16 www.barry.edu/ace Berkeley College...................................................................................... 13 www.berkeleycollege.edu/military Colorado Technical University..................................................................... 20 www.coloradotech.edu/military DeVry University and its Keller Graduate School of Management.. ........................... 5 http://lp.keller.devry.edu/mae1a Empire State College................................................................................. 18 www.esc.edu/military Florida International University................................................................... 19 www.fiupmba.com Park University........................................................................................ 6 www.park.edu/mae Penn State World Campus.......................................................................... 24 www.worldcampus.psu.edu/maggiestory Texas Tech University and its Rawls College of Business.. ..................................... 27 http://mba.ba.ttu.edu Thomas Edison State College....................................................................... 23 http://tesc.edu/militaryinfo University of Maryland University College....................................................... C2 http://military.umuc.edu/learnmore University of Nebraska Online.. .................................................................... 11 http://online.nebraska.edu/mission University of Phoenix................................................................................ C4 www.phoenix.edu/mil Western Governors University...................................................................... 25 www.wgu.edu/educateatwgu

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Calendar October 29 – November 31, 2012 American Association of State Colleges and Universities New Orleans, La. www.aascu.org February 25–28, 2013 CCME 2013 Symposium San Diego, Calif. www.ccmeonline.org

November 2012 Volume 7, Issue 9

Journal of Higher Learning for Today’s Servicemember

Cover and In-Depth Interview with:

Catherine Lovelady

Education Service Officer, Bagram Education Center

Features • Supporting Military Spouses

Special Section • ESO Roundtable

MAE asks education services officers to share best practices in advising servicemembers.

Military spouses can also receive tuition benefits from the GI Bill. What education programs and career initiatives are best suited for them?

• Immersion Courses

Mastering a foreign language empowers individuals to enjoy more career options. MAE takes a look at language immersion classes in the defense field.

• Yellow Ribbon Law Schools

Servicemembers transitioning out of the military intrigued by the legal system are in luck, as more law schools are becoming Yellow Ribbon-certified.

Insertion Order Deadline: October 18, 2012 • Ad Materials Deadline: October 25, 2012

www.MAE-kmi.com

MAE 7.8 | 27

UNIVERSITY CORNER

Military Advanced Education

J. Micheal Smith, Ph.D. Vice President of Corporate and Military Relations Ashford University J. Micheal Smith joined Ashford University in 2012. As vice president of Corporate and Military Relations, Smith is responsible for promoting Ashford University’s academic offerings with corporate partners and military leadership. He leads a high-performance team focused on providing best-in-class programs to corporate and military students.

Smith has nearly 40 years of experience in various leadership positions in corporations and the military. Prior to joining Ashford University, he had a career in aerospace, winning and executing over $2 billion in new business. He retired from the United States Air Force at the rank of colonel after more than 25 years of service. His military decorations include Legion of Merit, three Meritorious Service Medals, two Air Force Commendation Medals, and an Air Force Achievement Medal.

Smith holds a Ph.D. in organizational management from Capella University, an M.A. in business management & supervision from Central Michigan University, and a B.S. in basic science from the United States Air Force Academy.

Q: To begin with, could you please provide a brief overview of Ashford University’s history, mission and curriculum?

A: Ashford University [AU] was founded in 1918 by the Sisters of St. Francis in Clinton, Iowa. Originally named Mount St. Clare College, it was intended to serve the higher education needs for residents of Clinton and the surrounding areas. First accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in 1950, AU has since maintained that accreditation and has continued to offer a multitude of degree programs to its students.

The mission of AU is to provide accessible, affordable, innovative, highquality learning opportunities and degree programs that meet the diverse needs of 28 | MAE 7.8

individuals pursuing integrity in their lives, professions and communities.

AU offers practical and progressive associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs online, as well as bachelor’s degree programs at its Clinton campus.

Q: What is AU’s background in military education?

A: AU’s online programs cater to those serving the military abroad and within the continental United States. The university’s faculty and staff provide military-friendly service at all levels to those students serving in the military work. In addition, AU has a specialized military division that focuses on the educational needs of the military community. AU is proud of our military division—this team is composed primarily of prior military members, so they better understand and can relate to the needs of our military students.

materials, as opposed to textbooks, [such as] eBooks into the curriculum. And for those students who like to maintain communication with their professors, the Ashford mobile app allows students to do so.

AU caters to the military student and ensures the best interest of the military student always takes first priority.

Our online degree programs allow military members to work towards their degree from all corners of the globe. We routinely have servicemembers overseas taking our degree programs while on deployment.

Q: How has your school positioned itself to serve military students?

A: Ashford University acknowledges the challenges of being a military student and therefore, provides accessible service to those military throughout the world. Using online technology, AU military students are able to partake in classroom discussions and submit their assignments from wherever they are stationed. In addition, AU’s military division offers specialized support services and guidance to military students—from assisting students with their TA benefits to deciding on the best degree program to enter to ensuring the student’s progress is aligned with their academic goals.

Q: Do you have any closing thoughts?

Q: What makes your school unique in the benefits and programs you offer to military service members?

A: At Ashford University, we have engaging curricula for a military student to gain further knowledge in their area(s) of interest. From homeland security to health informatics, AU offers programs to military servicemembers that will help them during and after their military careers.

To measure and aid student learning, AU professors utilize computerized assessments and incorporate digital

A: Ashford University has several academic programs and services to guide a military student to their academic success. With ever-changing roles and relocations military servicemembers experience, it is important for the servicemember to select an academic institution they feel comfortable with that works with their lifestyle. In this day and age, online education seems to be the best choice for those in the military, and allows military students a chance to pursue a degree while still being able to serve our country. O www.MAE-kmi.com

Photo used with consent of UT2 Nicholas Waldo, USN. Use does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

We’re here to help your servicemembers shine.

Whether the plan is to continue in the military or transition to civilian life, Baker College® Online can help your military personnel receive a regionally accredited college degree.

Our programs are available 100% online with 24/7 access from anywhere in the world.

“With Baker Online, I was able to complete my degree while I was deployed in Kuwait.”

Nicholas J. Waldo— Baker College, BBa, ‘11

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WhaT “MiliTary FrieNDly” MeaNS TO US. • The application fee for qualified military students is waived at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

• at the undergraduate level textbooks are included for qualified active duty students.

• The course fee for your first course, COl112 College Success Online (regularly $60.00) is waived.

• Free and honest evaluations of your military experience, testing, and training credits.

• Six-week quarter structure helps you finish your degree faster.

• regionally accredited, founded in 1911.

• Being a not-for-profit institution allows us to invest in our students rather than focus on shareholders.

• all Baker graduates receive lifetime employment assistance—free and forever.

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Baker College is a member of the Goarmyed and aU-aBC programs as well as DaNTeS, SOC, and Va approved.

To help your servicemembers see how online classes work, watch our multimedia demo at bakercollegeonline.com.

ATTENTION ESOs:

X6409BCO

Visit bakercollegeonline.com or call (800) 469-4062 for information about our programs or to schedule a face-to-face meeting on your base.

OVER 100 YEARS

of successfully preparing people for new careers.

An Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Institution. Baker College is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association / 30 North LaSalle Street, Suite 2400, Chicago, IL 60602-2504 / 800-621-7440 / www.ncahigherlearningcommission.org. Baker Center for Graduate Studies’ MBA program is also accredited by the International Assembly of Collegiate Business Education (IACBE).

For more information about our graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed the program, and other important information, please visit our Web site at www.baker.edu/gainfulemployment.