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Education Center to host classes on financial aid

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Maria Bowman
  • 375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  In light of current Tuition Assistance uncertainties, base Education Center officials will host a series of classes about alternative funding sources to help servicemembers continue their education goals. The classes are scheduled from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., April 11, 16 and 18 in room 74.

The course aims to explain the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process, overview of the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post 9/11 GI Bill, school scholarships and grant search processes and tools as well as other funding options.

"With the current situation of Tuition Assistance unknown, we feel it was imperative to try and assist our servicemembers in pursuing their education goals," said Michael Thyne, an Education Center counselor. "We want to provide them with some hands-on navigation tools to ease the time it takes to search the Internet for financial options."

Roland Smith, Education Center manager, encourages attendees to bring laptops with wireless capability, but they're not a requirement. The orientation will consist of lectures and hands-on training to navigate through various benefit websites dealing with education tuition assistance and financial-related topics.

"Tuition Assistance may or may not come back in a revised format, and we need to re-emphasize other methods of funding that are not directly from the Department of Defense," Smith said. "We want attendees to become less confused by the methods for identifying financial aid offered through schools and the federal government. Our goal is to simplify the process."

Smith recommends that anyone with a pro-active approach toward education and non-tuition assistance funding attend one of these sessions.

"We want to see Airmen who aren't going to stop their education development goals because of the TA setback," Smith said. "As members are progressing through the military, one of the key components of their success is the continued progression of professional development goals. There are other ways to receive funding to help meet those goals, and that is what we want to show them."