Hunter College

Professor: Philip Swan

Josué López
Library 100
May 22, 2018

Final Assignment

Research Question:

Academic Search Complete Database

D'Aoust, Rita,F., et al. "Got Your Six: Supporting Veterans’ Move into Professional
Nursing." Nursing Education Perspectives 37.6 (2016): 340-2. Web. 19 May 2018.

In this scholarly article, written by Rita F. D'Aoust, Alicia G. Rossiter, Evan Itle, and John M.
Clochesy, discuss the process of many veterans moving into nursing education. First, they give
an insight that for a veteran to succeed from the transition from combat to college, academic
support is necessary. Besides 12% of post 9/11 veterans being unemployed as the text states,
many are taking advantage of an education benefit program called 9/11 GI Bill; whose goal is to
get many veterans into the civilian market, that is, jobs that do not relate to the armed forces or
war. In order to help veterans with these transitions, programs and campaigns such as "Got Your
Six" was created not only to help the veterans to enter into the civilian life, but also with their
academic needs. In terms of the nursing program, thanks to the OVS (The Office of Veterans'
Services, which has to do with the management of programs related to veterans) the colleges of
nursing received federal grants, where programs such as V-CARE were created. This program
provides veterans with medical training experience as medics for them to have the opportunity to
receive a bachelor's of science degree with a major in nursing. Even though the text
acknowledges that many veterans faced challenged while enrolling in this program, they were
going to learn how to interact with patients and staff members, which is really important for
effective emotional support towards veterans. Lastly, these authors emphasize the importance of
these programs guide the veterans from those transitions from combat to civilian life and how
these programs keep evolving. This is an excellent scholarly article because it presents that
veterans nowadays are not alone regarding their education.
Lokken, J. M., Pfeffer, D. S., McAuley, J., & Strong, C. "A Statewide Approach to Creating
Veteran-Friendly Campuses." New Directions for Student Services, vol. 2009, no. 126, Summer
2009, pp. 45-54.

In this source, Jayne M. Lokken, Donald S. Pfeffer, James McAuley and Christopher Strong
discuss ways on how different organizations respond to the needs of veterans, their military
members, their family and above all, their educational needs. In this text, Lokken, Pfeffer, and
Strong begin by introducing the problems that many veterans have in terms of belonging to a
community. In order to address this issue, different colleges and universities of Minnesota
collaborate with the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs using the term veteran-friendly.
The work of collaboration between these entities by using this term is to help veterans to
transition from military life to college life, to push them to reach their educational goals and to
provide information regarding benefits and services. Besides that, they mention how veterans'
lives have been cognitively and mentally affected, as the article states, "The U.S. Department of
Defense Task Force on Mental Health (2007) reported that 49 percent of National Guard
members, 38 percent of Army soldiers, and 31 percent of Marines who have been in combat
report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or anxiety at 90 to 120 days after
returning from war" (46). On the other hand, the article mentions the initiative of higher
education in Minnesota to provide returning veterans support and different legislative efforts to
carry out the help towards veterans through these programs mentioned previously. It is really
impressive to see how different institutions and programs are created in order not only to provide
this educational support to veterans, but to also recognize their efforts to protect the nation of the
United States of America.

Mantel, Barbara. "Career Colleges." CQ Researcher, 7 Jan. 2011, pp. 1-24,

library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2011010700.

As the title of this source suggests, Barbara Mantel explores the dependence of many Americans
students on loans due to the low rate of jobs. Also, she mentions how many Americans students
have enrolled at for-profit schools known as career colleges for them to have a career such as the
career of computer technology, among others. But an investigation has found out that many
students have high problems of debts and graduation, and that's where the Department of
Education takes place, since it imposes strict regulations regarding financial aid. Due to this
regulation, Mantel adds in question mode "should the government restrict student aid to career
and trade schools?", which is one of the most interesting thematic discussed in this article.
Regarding the veterans, Mantel discusses a bill passed by Congress in 2008 that provides the
veterans educational benefits in contrast with the for-profit corporation that causes problem to
students, in this case, veterans, as Mantel declares, "One veteran enrolled in an associate degree
program at a for-profit school after being told he could finish in less than two years…then
transfer to a traditional college for a bachelor's degree. But after using $25,000 in GI Bill
benefits supplemented with $22,000 in loans and his own money, he was told by the local
community college that it would not accept his academic credits". Finally, Mantel discusses that
The Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs are seeking for solutions to
prevent this issue. This article is a great piece of collection for my research because it provided
me with information that I did not know about the for-profit education, and again, presented the
other side of the coin regarding the benefits that most students, in this case, veterans receive.

Opposing Viewpoints Database

"Group Relieves Veterans Of Student Loan Burdens." Morning Edition, 8 July 2010. Global
Issues In Context, https://bit.ly/2rTY1Ba. Web. 20 May 2018.

In this source, Diana Douglas from the NPR (National Public Radio) shares the extraordinary
story of two men called Roy Brown and Eli Williamson through an interview, where they
encountered student debts. Douglas explains that these two men studied in the same college and
joined the army forces, but one day, their lives were under bad circumstances because of a debt
they had to pay regarding their education. As Brown states, "Here I am in the middle of the night
at 2 a.m., instead of calling my mother, I have to call a student loan company about a payment
that needs to be made". Both wanted to contact Oprah Winfrey as their last resource of help and
salvation. This interview does not explain if they received aid from Oprah, but one way or
another, they solved their student debts. Indeed, this affected their lives, not because they were
only fighting in a war, but because of these debts that did not let them continue their education.
Thus, to help others with the same problem, Douglas adds that Mr. Brown and Mr. Williamson
founded a non-profit organization called Leave No Veteran Behind. Something really interesting
from this interview is when she declares, "Brown and Williamson now offer to pay off the
student loans of vets who fall on tough times. They see the government's education programs for
service members as inadequate. The GI Bill, for example, won't pay back student loans people
took out before joining, or for classes that get interrupted by deployment". This is important to
consider because the GI Bill law that helped many veterans decades ago is now becoming
deficient as Douglas indicates. Finally, Douglas manifests that Mr. Brown and Mr. Williamson
are working hard to convince private citizens to help them not only with their organization since
the government takes irrelevance in all these matters as Douglas emphasizes, but to help the
veterans that are through student debts. This is an excellent interview because it provides the
other side of the coin in terms on how veterans are being helped. That is, veterans not always get
benefits, they also face challenges such as the one that Douglas described.
Weinstein, Adam. "Let's Enroll!." Mother Jones, vol. 36, no. 5, Sep/Oct2011, pp. 11-12. Web.

In this source, Adam Weinstein explains the controversy and the problems of the GI Bill, as
many for-profit colleges are taking advantage of this program that provides benefits for veterans.
Explicitly, Weinstein mentions different for-profit schools/colleges that take advantage not only
of the program, but also from veterans, as he states, "the program has also become a cash cow for
for-profit schools like Capella, DeVry, ITT Tech, Kaplan, and the University of Phoenix, eager
to capitalize on vets coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan". Also, he adds that for-profits
colleges are receiving the same amount of military money as public colleges, which is not fair
because the veterans become one of the main targets of these for-profit corporations that want to
earn more money than they already have. Therefore, Weinstein reiterates the negative aspect of
some for-profits schools, as he expresses," Some for-profits have cleaned out students' military
benefits while also signing them up for thousands of dollars in loans without their knowledge".
This is problematic because this not only prevents a veteran to receive educational aid to study,
but this could be a tendency for these corporations to ruin most of the veteran's desires to pursue
an educational career. Besides that, Weinstein emphasizes," A vet who enrolled at the largely
online Ashford University after being told the GI Bill would cover his tuition ended up owing the
school $11,000", where that veteran told to the Senate investigators "I felt that I have been
misled, deceived, or even outright lied to". Compared to my previous source, this one shows that
the GI Bill has become a weak point of support for veterans and shows the harsh side of these
for-profit corporations that affects many veterans' lives educationally.