Eleven Tennessee colleges will roll out new programs\u00a0for student veterans in the\u00a0fall\u00a0thanks to $1 million in\u00a0state funding that is part of a wide-ranging effort to draw more veterans\u00a0to the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gov. Bill Haslam’s office announced the recipients of the Veteran Reconnect Grants on Monday.\u00a0The schools may use the money\u00a0to\u00a0fund their plans, which include new staff positions, added training and computer systems geared toward meeting veterans’ unique needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The added\u00a0funding\u00a0is one of the state’s\u00a0various efforts\u00a0to court a veteran population that continues to grow as the military\u00a0dramatically reduces its ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Army officials earlier in the\u00a0summer announced plans to\u00a0cut 40,000 soldiers over the next two years. The Department of Veterans Affairs counts Tennessee as one of the states with the\u00a0smallest population of young veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Haslam formed the\u00a0Veterans Education Task Force in 2013 to consider ways to bring more young veterans into the state for college.\u00a0He announced funding for the Veteran Reconnect Grants\u00a0during his State of the State address in February. The grants are part of\u00a0Drive to 55, the governor’s\u00a0effort\u00a0to boost the number of Tennesseans with a college education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We want Tennessee to become a destination state for veterans across the country,” Mike Krause, Drive to 55 executive director, said.\u00a0“We as a state are trying to leverage our resources so (veterans) can succeed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of the schools plan to use some of their grant funding to enhance training for faculty and staff who work with veterans. Officials say understanding and meeting\u00a0a veterans’ unique challenges could be the key to retention and success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Krause, who enrolled in college soon after returning from a tour of duty with the Army in Iraq, said transitioning from the battlefield to a\u00a0college\u00a0campus forced him to\u00a0flip his worldview quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You go from a very structured military environment\u00a0to a higher education\u00a0environment that actually values a lack of structure,” he said.\u00a0“It’s very disorienting.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Krause said most of the 11 schools that got funding proposed programs that would help ease veterans’ transitions during their first days and weeks on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dozens of schools\u00a0met in March at Austin Peay State University\u00a0to sculpt policies and projects that would form the bedrock of their grant requests. That group will continue to meet for five years to discuss veterans’ education in Tennessee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are the schools receiving the grant: Belmont University,\u00a0Lipscomb University,\u00a0Middle Tennessee State University, Volunteer State Community College,\u00a0Chattanooga State Community College,\u00a0Columbia State Community College,\u00a0East Tennessee State University,\u00a0Jackson State Community College,\u00a0Maryville College,\u00a0Northeast State Community College and\u00a0University of Memphis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eleven colleges will roll out new programs for student vets in the fall thanks to $1 million in state funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":88470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2423],"class_list":["post-49334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-transition"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"XLOUZCMTNNCDBJAFQ7NNPHVN6U","arc_canonical_url":"\/education-transition\/education\/2015\/08\/11\/veterans-are-focus-of-grants-to-11-tennessee-colleges\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n