This quarter at Lincoln’s Southeast Community Col- lege there are more than 12,000 students enrolled. The students come from all walks of life and are all ages from 18 to over 60.
Approximately 440 of those students (3.7 percent of the student population) are active, reserve and retired members of the United States Armed Forces, according the Associate Director of Financial Aid and Veterans Affairs Certifying Official Charles Brewer.
Brewer added the duties of serving as the VA certifying official at the Lincoln campus in August 2011. While he has 440 students this quarter, during the winter quarter Brewer said he had 510 students and he averages about 2,000 students per year. What is the VA certifying official and what do they do?
“My responsibility is to certify students who are eligible and want the GI Bill benefits,” Brewer said.
The GI Bill (Montgomery GI Bill) Brewer refers to provides educational benefits for active, reserve and retired members of the armed forces who want to go back to school or start their college education. Benefits can include tuition assistance, a books and supplies stipend as well as a housing stipend.
While the GI Bill has seven different chapters providing benefits to members of the military based on their service, Brewer said many of the students he sees are getting benefits from Chapter 33 as well as Chapters 1606 and 1607. Chapter 33 benefits are for members of the military who served at least 90 days in active duty since the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
The post-9/11 students who take advantage of the Chapter 33 benefits program receive the most assistance as they get tuition assistance paid to the school, a monthly housing stipend paid to the student as well as a books and supply stipend paid quarterly. The other two chapters apply to members of the military reserve such as the Army and Air National Guard. Between these three groups, Brewer said he has about 265 students enrolled at SCC this quarter.
In addition to helping students apply for GI Bill benefits, Brewer can also help them apply for financial aid from the state and federal government, as well as help dependents of military members as well as their spouses apply for financial aid.
“The majority of them (active, reserve, retired military members) are eligible for financial aid,” said Brewer.
Students who served in active duty at least 90 consecutive days “qualify for the maximum benefits they are eligible for,” added Brewer. Under Chapter 33, the maximum benefits add up to $1387 per quarter.
Many of the students who come to see Brewer for the first time are surprised that they may very well qualify for financial aid as well as the benefits available to them through the GI Bill.
“They think they can only get veterans benefits through the GI Bill,” Brewer said. “They don’t know about financial aid or scholarships.”
The average age range of students Brewer sees are 19 to 20 years old and right out of basic training. His oldest student this quarter is 60 years old, he said.
A relatively new veterans program has helped increase the number of non-traditional students (over the age of 30) back in school, said Brewer. The Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP) is a one-year program for unemployed veterans who have exhausted all other sources of educational benefits, he said. VRAP provides up to $1600 a month.
“A lot of retirees take advantage of this program,” Brewer said.
VRAP program participants are 35 to 60 years old and were discharged from the military for a variety of reasons other than a dishonor-able discharge. The program was started in July 2012 and the Department of Labor offers employment assistance to every veteran upon completion of the program.
Brewer said he was happy that VRAP was introduced as another form of education benefits for veterans and he hopes at some point the pro-gram will be extended to last past 12 months. This spring, 25 students at SCC are getting VRAP benefits, and last winter, there were 20 students, according to Brewer.
“I think that adding VRAP was a great component for veterans,” Brewer said. “It (VRAP) is a way to get more veterans back to school. It pays for school and gives them money for personal use,” said Brewer.
In January of 2013, Brewer added another staff member to assist him with his work with veterans.
Lauren Rinne joined the staff at SCC as the Veterans Assistant Representative. She is the point person for the VA program, Brewer said, and she is the first person students see when they inquire about what benefits are avail-able to them, once they are enrolled at the college. Rinne works part-time at SCC and has previous military experience in the US Air Force.
Once students see Rinne and figure out what benefits they are eligible for and what programs would benefit them, Brewer said he handles the next step in the process.
“I handle all the paper-work for the students,” he explained. “I handle the student benefit folders. I approve the paperwork and submit it for the student.”
While Rinne reports to Brewer, he reports to Dave Sonenberg, dean of student services. He also works closely with a VA education liaison representative at the VA office in Lincoln. Regarding his education, Brewer has a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Concordia University and is on track to receive his master’s degree in management in May 2014 from Doane College.
While Brewer is happy with the number of benefit programs available to members of the military through the GI Bill and the recently added VRAP program, he thinks the military could do a better job of educating its members on the educational benefits that are available to them either while they are in active duty, the reserves or after they separate from the military.
“A lot of students I have talked to didn’t know what to do regarding education benefits (once they separated from the military or came back from a deployment),” Brewer said.
“I think there are some people that don’t understand the full variety of services and benefits available,” he added.
When it comes to what program they want to enroll in – what course of study they want to pursue – Brewer said most of his students know what they want to study when they come to see him.
About 30 percent need to talk to one of the career advisors at the school to get direction. More times than not, VRAP students need to see a career advisor, said Brewer.
Helping veterans out when it comes to getting them educational benefits or financial aid is what Brewer likes about the work he does at SCC.
“The thing I find really refreshing is telling the VA students what benefits they have,” Brewer said. “They really don’t know what is offered to them. Tuition assistance, the GI bill and financial aid; usually those are the three most common benefits.”
Brewer can be contacted at SCC by phone at (402) 437-2668 or by email at cbrewer@ southeast.edu. Rinne can be contacted by phone at (402) 437-2614 or by email at [email protected].