Soldiers Into Students

Soldiers Into Students
Veterans, Educators Try to Ease Transition


By Emma Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 13, 2009

The new GI Bill went into effect this month, and President Obama marked that milestone last week when he addressed about 350 military veterans and advocates on the campus of George Mason University.

"It's driven by the same simple logic that drove the first GI Bill," Obama said of the legislation, passed by Congress last year and expected to help a quarter-million veterans pay for school by 2011. "You pick the school; we'll help pick up the bill."

The federal government plans to spend $78 billion over the next decade to provide veterans free in-state undergraduate education and allowances for books and housing. But across the country and at George Mason, veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are asking for more than cash to ease the transition between military and civilian student life. Their needs include resource centers to help servicepeople navigate the unfamiliar world of academia and ramped-up mental health services to help them deal with the emotional aftermath of war.
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Veterans Educators Try to Ease Transition