Veterans Benefits GI Bill

Online universities and military personnel are a match made in heaven. With the hectic schedules and changing locations active duty face; the chance of deployment for reserve; and the challenges of reestablishment for veterans; online education is an attractive option for military students from all walks of life. The dependents and spouses of military personnel are attracted to distance learning as well from having to move so often.

If you’re a student seeking a military-friendly college for your future education, consider the following top 10 Benefits of Online Education to Military Students. You’ll find many online universities are equipped with the staff to help with military financial aid and other military needs due to the extensive popularity of distance learning in the military student community.

The U.S. Department of Education sponsors a free-to-the-veteran education program to assist low-income, disabled, and first-generation college bound veterans which is designed to help them “knock the rust off of their academic skills” and then enroll in the school of their choice. There are approximately 46 such Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) programs located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The best way to find out if there is a VUB program in a specific city or state is to go to the National Association of Veterans Upward Bound Project Personnel website.

The National Association of Veterans Upward Bound Project Personnel (NAVUBPP) is the professional association for Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) staff personnel. Veterans Upward Bound projects, supported by NAVUBPP, are designed to help develop the personal potential of military veterans. The VUB staff and instructors assist veterans by improving, developing upon, and extending the educational access of opportunities that veterans are eligible for. This is determined through academic needs assessment, instruction, enrichment, and other academic support activities.

The 3rd Annual Guide to Military Friendly Colleges and Universities is now available to view. This guide includes colleges and universities gathered together from the editors of the KMI Media Group that provide military-friendly benefits, programs, and support. This uniform, pertitent information should help prospective students select a school to begin or continue their advanced education. Some of the schools in the guide offer a broad range of educational choices; others are highly specialized.

The Council of College and Military Educators, of CCME, is anon-profit organization founded over three decades ago to help deliver quality educational opportunities to service members and their families; their services extend out to veterans, reserve, active duty members, and any and all branches of armed services. Their members include military educators, civilian educators, post-secondary educational institutions, and suppliers of military-friendly educational services.

Students looking for a college or university for their Post 9/11 GI Bill, MGIB, or other military benefits may rely on schools that are members of the CCME for quality military education. Take Hawai’i Pacific University, for example; CCME recently selected Hawai’i Pacific University for the 2010 Institution Award for the significant contributions made to the cause of voluntary off-duty military education programs.

Military-friendly colleges participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program extend beyond the universities and colleges that focus on traditional subjects. For example, there are military-friendly chiropractic schools that participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program. Students that attend chiropractic schools won’t find the standard array of college degrees; instead, chiropractic schools focus exclusively on preparing students for a health care career in chiropractics, a nationally and globally growing occupation that held a mean salary of over $100k in 2007.

Chiropractic school prepares military students for a rewarding health care position that focuses on a philosophy and technique based on: wellness for the community; the ability to heal the body; and career success.

With all the hustle and bustle about family transferability in the Post 9/11 GI Bill program and military members wanting to offer their benefits to their spouses, I thought I’d share a military spouse benefit program at a college located in the United States, but on the far reaches of our country where global studies really shine: Hawai’i Pacific University. This scholarship is available only to those that do not receive other benefits, such as the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

Hawai’i Pacific University’s Military Spouse Benefits Scholarship Program covers 25% of the educational expenses of all the HPU MCP (Military Campus Program) undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is available to non-active duty spouses of active duty military (and Coast Guard, and members of the Reserve / National Guard). The active duty/military member must fulfill the following requirements for the spouse to qualify…

Hawaii Pacific University is a military-friendly located in an ideal center point between the United States mainland and many other countries. The rewarding academic programs are taught by faculty trained and respected in their fields and accommodate students from all over the world, bringing a mesh of cultures into everyday student life.

Hawaii is located in the middle of the Pacific, gathering students from American, European, and Asian culture into one central point. This is beneficial for both foreign military career advancement and professional business careers that focus on international trade. In fact, one of Hawaii Pacific University’s most exciting programs, the Master of Arts in Organizational Change, is based on the grounds of diversity and innovative thought offered at HPU.

Your military career is supported by thirteen plus years of education. The knowledge from K-12 and beyond is taken into the workforce and heightened by those popular educational degrees you hear about like “bachelor degree,” “master degree,” and “doctoral degree.” You may work with technological or sensitive equipment that requires you to go to “career training,” “job training,” or “vocational training.” In the military, your lifelong learning is endless.

Some people look at this with despair. So many years of learning and school, and you just want out! But lifelong learning could be more beneficial than you think.

The Veterans Benefits GI Bill blog partners with Discover Online Learning to bring prospective and current college students the resources needed to research online degrees in the healthcare and business industries, as well as in hot degree subjects like Information Technologies and Criminal Justice. Discover Online Learning brings several blogs together in one, comprehensive source for the prospective college student.

Still haven’t enrolled for the fall semester? Prospective students looking for an online, military-friendly college should take a moment to visit American Sentinel University and peruse the educational programs available. American Sentinel University is currently offering one of three enrollment incentives to students that schedule 6 units of classes by August 27th, to be completed by December 31st.

One of American Sentinel University’s incentives is a Dell Netbook, a miniature version of a laptop equipped with the functionality to take your online classes anywhere you go. If you already have a laptop handy, the Kindle 2 is another one of American Sentinel University’s August enrollment giveaways, equipped with the functionality to make your textbook reading, personal reading, and other text-related activities easier. If neither of these catch your attention, the third option for the August enrollment incentives is a free unit of class.