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VA Selects College For Yellow Ribbon Program
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VA Selects College For Yellow Ribbon Program
College Launches Veteran Education Program to Better Serve Veterans TRENTON, N.J. (June 5, 2009) —Thomas Edison State College has been selected by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as a participating institution in the Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program.The Yellow Ribbon program, a provision of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, allows colleges and universities in the United States to voluntarily enter into an agreement with VA to fund tuition expenses that exceed the highest public in-state undergraduate tuition rate. The college’s participation in the program will be especially beneficial for veterans interested in earning a master’s degree and will enable some veterans, depending on the type and amount of their GI bill education benefits, to earn a college degree with little or no out-of-pocket expenses.
Thomas Edison State College’s designation as a Yellow Ribbon institution comes as the college prepares to launch a new program designed to help veterans and their family members maximize their GI bill education benefits and ease the transition for students moving from active duty to veteran status.
The new Veteran Education Program at Thomas Edison State College will accommodate the unique needs of veterans and their spouses and dependents. The program features a personal Academic Program Plan for veterans that applies knowledge gained through military training, previous college credits and other professional training toward a degree, and creates a seamless educational transition for service members who begin a degree program during active duty and complete that degree using GI education benefits as a veteran.
“We are uniquely positioned to leverage our decades of experience serving active duty military personnel to provide excellent service to veterans of the U.S. military and their families,” said George A. Pruitt, president of Thomas Edison State College. “We are honored to serve those who have served our country and use our expertise in providing flexible, high-quality educational programs for adults on behalf of our country’s veterans.”
In addition, Thomas Edison State College is partnering with the state’s senior public colleges and universities and the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities in the Operation College Promise effort. The group was awarded a $100,000 ACE/Wal-Mart “Success for Veterans” grant that is being used to provide statewide access to information that will help veterans to use their education benefits, and to share best practices for serving veterans and service members with all of New Jersey’s institutions of higher learning.
Thomas Edison State College has received national and local recognition for its work designing academic programs for active duty military personnel. For the past two years, Military Advanced Education magazine named Thomas Edison State College as one of the top ten schools in the country for service members. In 2008, the New Jersey State Senate presented the college with a resolution its commitment to providing educational programs to the United States military.
ABOUT THOMAS EDISON STATE COLLEGE
Thomas Edison State College provides flexible, high-quality, collegiate learning opportunities for self-directed adults. One of New Jersey’s 12 senior public institutions of higher education, the College offers associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in more than 100 areas of study. Students earn degrees through a wide variety of rigorous and high-quality academic methods that can be customized to meet their individual needs. Identified by Forbes magazine as one of the top 20 colleges and universities in the nation in the use of technology to create learning opportunities for adults, Thomas Edison State College is a national leader in the assessment of adult learning and a pioneer in the use of educational technologies. The College is home to The John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy. The New Jersey State Library is an affiliate of Thomas Edison State College. Further information about admission to the College may be obtained by calling (888) 442-8372, via e-mail at info@tesc.edu or by visiting the College Web site at www.tesc.edu.
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