This semester the University of Maryland became a part of the Yellow Ribbon Program, designed to help cover costs university tuition that GI Bill benefits do not.
Unlike most traditional undergraduate students, veterans in college are often married with families and struggle with financial obligations that people often face in the professional realm, said Brian Bertges, coordinator for Veteran Student Life.
“I know veterans that had newborn children,” Bertges said. “They’re in engineering, and it’s finals week, and … they have a brand-new baby.”
Other veteran students have “rusty academic skills” after several years away from education, said Marsha Guenzler-Stevens, Stamp Student Union director.
“A lot of them again may have gone to high school and joined the service after high school or had a little bit of college and joined the service,” she said. “Suddenly, they’re back in a math class or in a chem lab or wherever they are and it’s been a long time.”
To help remedy some of the challenges, this semester this university became a part of the Yellow Ribbon Program, which is designed to make up costs of out-of-state or private university tuition that GI Bill benefits do not cover.
Guenzler-Stevens, who serves as chair of the Veterans Services Steering Committee, said while many of the about 1,000 veteran students at this university qualify for in-state tuition, there was still unmet need for graduate studies and other expenses.
“Even though students get federal monies through the veteran administration via the GI Bill to attend, it doesn’t cover all the costs,” she said. “What we began to discover, and particularly because of our colleagues over in the business school, is that you had folks that had GI Bill benefits but weren’t going to use them all during their undergraduate experience who might benefit from Yellow Ribbon scholarships — or grad students who might benefit from Yellow Ribbon scholarships.”
Each college at this university has pledged to provide Yellow Ribbon scholarships that vary in size and number, Guenzler-Stevens said. In addition, when a college or university participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program, the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department matches the amount the school contributes to the scholarships, she added.
Participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program might also help the university recruit more veteran students, Guenzler-Stevens said. Many veterans might have chosen not to apply to this university or chosen to attend elsewhere, because this university was not a Yellow Ribbon school, she said.
Terp Vets, a university veterans student organization, is also raising money for the Veterans Crisis Fund, which “supports veteran students when the chips are down for whatever reason,” Guenzler-Stevens said.
This fund was established by a private donor last year and provides money to veteran students who are facing financial emergencies, said Aaron Bricco, a former Terp Vets president.
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“They just basically can’t do it anymore,” Bricco said. “They either … are about to drop out of school to focus on their priorities, or they just have a complete meltdown, and you know they can’t handle what’s going on around them.”
In an online testimony video for the fund, one veteran explained he was going through a divorce when one of his former Marines died, so he did not have the money to travel from Maryland from Texas to pay
his respects.
Another student in the video said she was planning to live in her car for the summer because she could not afford to pay for housing.
Bricco, who served in the Army for seven years before attending this university, said most veterans tend to be “kind of hard-nosed” and hesitant to ask for help. Terp Vets is striving to reach enough money to provide help when it is needed, he said. The group started a Launch UMD campaign and is accepting donations until Nov. 22, with a goal of
raising $8,500.
“We don’t really know what type of emergencies are going to arise, whether it be small or large or many or few,” he said. “So we’re trying to prepare for the worst.”
Bricco said veterans receive about four years of GI Bill benefits. Those benefits cover just enough time to earn a four-year degree but can “run out very quickly” because veterans often have to take additional classes to catch up after years away from education.
Bricco said this university has provided “a very hospitable learning environment” for him, and university staff and faculty have been helpful in his experience, but added that priority registration for veteran students might help them take these additional classes in a
timely manner.
Guenzler-Stevens said recruiting and supporting veteran students makes this university a better place and is also “the right thing to do.”
“These are individuals who served in harms way to protect all of us and so its kind of like paying a debt,” she said. “But I don’t think you do it just altruistically … veteran students bring gifts and talents that you won’t find anywhere else.”
