North Georgia opens veterans center focused on education benefits
Contact: Joshua Preston, University Relations
706-864-1949, jipreston@ngcsu.edu
Dahlonega, Ga. (May 28, 2009) - To coincide with the nation's tribute to American armed service members this Memorial Day week, North Georgia College & State University opened its Veterans Success Center Wednesday on the military college's campus in Dahlonega.
The Veterans Success Center, a 289-square-foot office decorated wall-to-wall with posters of tanks, aircraft and one of Uncle Sam that reads "I WANT YOU TO GET FINANCIAL AID," has been designed to be a clearinghouse for all financial aid information and many educational benefits available to military service members enrolled at North Georgia.
The campus's significant military population includes former active duty military members and reservists in every branch of the armed services. The university's unique 770-member Corps of Cadets includes a majority of these service members, who are primarily soldiers in the Georgia Army National Guard or U.S. Army Reserve.
"The mission for the center is to be a place where veterans and their families can find out about veterans educational benefits," Jill Rayner, director of financial aid, said. "We also hope it will be a place where we can promote other services on campus that will benefit veterans, such as career services, tutoring assistance, disability services and academic services."
North Georgia has several financial aid options specific to the institution, including the state's Georgia Military Scholarship and stipends for cadet leaders in the military program. The Veterans Success Center will be a single location for members of the military to complete paperwork for the Montgomery G.I. Bill and where they can find assistance to other services such as Tuition Assistance.
The center's major service will be to help cadets and veterans, active or reserve, to receive the maximum educational benefits for which they are eligible, Rayner said. Financial aid staff members at the university deal regularly with soldiers and are sensitive to the nature of the military lifestyle, which is one reason the Veterans Success Center was developed.
Units within Georgia's largest combat group, the National Guard's 48th Brigade, are deploying to Afghanistan, and many students will be affected by the deployment.
"We want to be ready to assist veterans and their families to start at NGCSU or continue their education" after the deployment, Rayner said.
"Our ultimate goal is getting the local community involved as well. We would love to have our local veterans be a resource for our returning soldiers, for those veterans to be a sounding board and for the Veterans Success Center to be a safe listening place for soldiers to share their experiences."
