Area veterans learn of second chance for education

It was a different crop of prospective students that showed up Friday morning for orientation at the College of Southern Nevada.

Instead of fresh-faced high school graduates, about forty mainly gray-haired military veterans gathered in hopes of improving their prospects.

The down-on-their-luck veterans, some of whom were homeless, previously thought going back to school wasn't an option. They couldn't afford it on their own and didn't qualify for the GI Bill.

"I didn't think I could" go back to school, said Steve Anderson, a 52-year-old U.S. Navy veteran who was laid off from a warehouse job in June. "Then I was messing around online and saw this. It sounded pretty good."

Anderson qualified for a new federal program that helps unemployed and homeless veterans attend college or training programs.

The Veterans Retraining Assistance Program provides eligible veterans with twelve months of education assistance - equivalent to $1,475 per month - at community colleges or technical schools.

College of Southern Nevada staffers have been working with local shelters to identify veterans who are between the ages of 35 and 60, unemployed and ineligible for other VA education benefit programs.

Many, like Anderson, don't qualify for the GI Bill because they didn't contribute to the plan while enlisted and served before 9/11, when new educational benefits for veterans became available.

"I was a stupid 17-year-old kid when I went in" the Navy, Anderson said. "I didn't contribute."

Anderson, who lives in a mobile home near Nellis Air Force Base, has lived on his savings since he lost the job he had held for more than two decades. He plans to enroll in the college's diesel mechanics program. One day he would like to be a truck driver.

The new funding for veterans is part of the federal VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011, which also provides tax credits for employers who hire veterans with service-related disabilities.

About a hundred people have applied for the program at CSN, said Vanessa Robledo, the college's veterans affairs coordinator.

"We're seeing a lot of vets who got out of the service a long time ago, who thought all their benefits were done and gone," Robledo said. "This is the savior for those veterans."

Robledo encouraged anyone interested in the program to call CSN's veterans educational center at 651-5060.

Chantay Lee, a U.S. Air Force veteran, can't wait to start classes this fall and work toward an associate degree in early childhood education. She would like to be a teacher.

"This is going to get me restarted," the 46-year-old said. "It's exciting for me. Look what we veterans have going for us. There are resources out there for us."

Lee, a divorced mother of two grown children who both serve in the military, was in the Air Force from 1984 to 1992 but didn't contribute to the GI Bill.

She has struggled in recent years and wound up homeless in early 2011.

"I depended on a man," she said. "He lost his job, and we were together on the street."

The relationship eventually went sour.

Lee now has a studio apartment in a transitional housing complex for homeless veterans. She is trying to get back on her feet but has had difficulty finding work.

She learned about the new program at CSN at exactly the right time.

"To have this, to at least be able to go to school " she said, her voice trailing off. "If you really want to succeed, it's out there."

Lee is ready to work hard to achieve her dreams.

"I served my country, but you can't sit back and say, 'You owe me,' " she said. "You got to keep giving, going to school, doing something."

And she had a prediction.

"I figure within a year you'll be writing about me again. I'll be a success story."

Contact Lynnette Curtis at Lynnette.Curtis@yahoo.com.