Education Never Stops

On Wednesday October 26, we held our Muster & Mingle in Tipp City. Dinner was donated by Fazoli’s in Troy, and we had cake and cupcakes in honor of one of our veterans birthday.

Our speaker for the evening was Joe Raterman, Veteran Service Specialist at Edison State Community College. He spoke about Edison’s designation as one of 33 colleges in Ohio as a Collegiate Purple Star designee. These colleges are selected for their work supporting military and veteran students. Joe spoke on the work that Edison continues to do in order to support and grow their active duty and veteran students. They have created a veteran lounge, a quiet place to study or relax open only to veteran students, monthly events for veterans to connect with fellow students and resources both on campus and in the wider community, and they are constantly working to make sure that they are filling in all the gaps to ensure that all students with military connection are able to have a fulfilling education. Joe shared stories of several current and former veteran students, and it was very clear that he thought highly of them. He spoke on several program that are currently being offered to make higher education more accessible to all ages of veteran. First he talked about the 25 & UP Finish Fast Tuition Waiver, which applies to any accelerated associate degree, short-term technical certificate or one-year certificate offered in-person or online at Edison State. The program covers 100% of tuition related fees for interested students. He also spoke on a program by Governor Mike DeWine to encourage a return to skilled trades, in an effort to bring manufacturing jobs back to Ohio.

After Joe’s presentation, our veterans were free to ‘mingle’ and they enjoyed doing just that. There were several new faces, and we were happy to see everyone enjoying their evening. Our next Muster & Mingle event will be on Wednesday November 30th, and you can find all that information here. We hope to see you there!