Military students balance school and service
Photo by Shay MacLean.
Lee is home to a variety of students with unique backgrounds, careers and life experiences. This certainly reigns true for active-duty military students who spend their weekdays on campus and their weekends working on a military base.
In May, the university’s Veterans Affairs Office welcomed a new VA representative, Rebekah Cofer. Lee’s Veterans Affairs Office helps eligible students navigate the process of obtaining veterans benefits. The university is approved for the certification of educational assistance for eligible students and is enrolled in the Yellow Ribbon Program.
Cofer said her role is to help veterans on campus with benefit certification and degree progress.
“The role is to take care of veterans and to certify their benefits through the Veterans Affairs Office,” Cofer said. “Basically, I am here to certify benefits and make sure students are taking classes within their degree.”
Within the past few months, Cofer said she has certified around 100 students with benefits.
“Those [benefits] are not all active military. Some of them are dependent on either retired military, spouse or parents, but it’s around a 100 to 105 that have certified so far this semester,” said Cofer.
For students like Haley Howard and Kaylee Wilson, most of their weekends are reserved for their lives outside the Lee bubble.
Howard, a senior TESOL major, serves in the Air National Guard and works as a drill status guardsman once she steps foot on her base.
“I’m in the Air National Guard and am a DSG,” Howard said. “I’m just drill status, so I only go one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer, unless I were to deploy. There are also opportunities for [DSG’s] to go to work for a few weeks if they can get on orders.”
During these monthly trips to the base, Howard is required to work the full weekend.
“It’s not bad at all. People ask me [if it is] a lot,” Howard said. “It’s not taxing. It’s almost nice. It’s basically like going to work on a weekend. I get off at 4:30 and then can do whatever I want until I have to be back at 7 [a.m.] Sunday morning.”
Howard decided to enlist after completing her freshman year at Lee. While returning to college, she said she experienced a hard but necessary transition.
“I had a very hard transition coming back because I was here freshman year and took a semester off before coming back,” Howard said. “I remember that I felt lonely, and I felt I was out of place with a lot of people and couldn’t figure out why. My family kept saying, ‘Oh, it’s because you went through this experience that matured you, and most people you are surrounded by haven’t experienced something like that.’”
When it comes to time management, Howard says preparation is necessary when balancing her time between college tasks and the military.
“It’s a double-edged sword. Sometimes it can be challenging because there are days that I might spend the whole Saturday doing homework,” Howard said. “It’s not that bad if you just prepare and say, ‘Okay, I know I am going to have drill this week, so I’m going to [catch up] on my homework because I know I’m going to be gone for the weekend.’ So, if you time manage and prepare, it’s not that bad.”
Senior communications major Kaylee Wilson started her first semester at Lee as a transfer student last Spring and is currently enlisted in the Air National Guard. Like Howard, she experienced the difficulty in transitioning from life on a military base to an on-campus environment.
“I was living my best life. I was loving being in uniform, and it was the greatest thing in the entire world, and then I had to take off that uniform and become a student again,” Wilson said. “It just felt like I was stripped of what I was meant to do. It was really difficult, but as time goes on, I am learning that I can’t do what I love unless I fulfill [college]. I’m wanting to be an officer in the military and have to have a bachelor’s degree to do that.”
Wilson said she is expected to periodically report to base for work.
“[We] have to work once a week in a month and two weeks out of the year,” Wilson said. “Other times, you can be down there. Right now, if I had a day off of school, I’d be expected to be there and start my on-the-job training.”
Wilson decided to enlist to spread the gospel to others in her branch.
“I joined with hopes of being the delight of Jesus to everyone in the Air Force, and I felt like God has really worked through that,” Wilson said. “Basic training was just all through Him. It was incredible.”
Students who have any VA questions can contact the Veterans Affairs Office by email at veterans@leeuniversity.edu or by phone at (423) 614-8514.
