More News

Spc. Melissa Barber and Sgt. Trey Savitz joined the Army to gain discipline and direction. They both left with career skills and the financial support to help them pursue their goals.

Barber and Savitz are students at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville, two of many students countywide attending school through federal GI bills. The federal Montgomery GI Bill, enacted in 1984, provides up to 36 months of educational benefits such as college, technical or vocational courses and job training to eligible veterans. The Post-9/11 GI Bill, signed into law in June 2008, includes additional benefits such as a living allowance and money for books to veterans who have served in active duty on or after Sept. 11, 2001. Benefits can also be transferred to immediate family members.

There are 275 students at Montgomery College on the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post-9/11 GI Bill, according to Joanna Starling, a program assistant at the school's Combat2College program, which helps veterans with the transition from the military to academic life. The school has students who are veterans but are saving their benefits for when they transfer to another school and students on active duty who are receiving tuition assistance from the military, she said.

There are 14 students at Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park on the GI bills, spokeswoman Angela Abraham said.

The Universities at Shady Grove do not have data on how many of its students are attending school through the GI bills, according to Marketing Director Joe Bucci.

Savitz, 35, of Germantown spent two semesters in college immediately after high school before signing up for two years in the Army. He stayed for seven years, spending a year in South Korea and meeting his wife, now a doctor at National Naval Medical Center. He left active duty before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"It allowed me to be able to hold decent jobs before I went to school but I always knew I needed to get my degree," Savitz said of his time in the military. "The Army is a great stepping stone."

Savitz started taking night classes at Montgomery College about five years ago while he worked full time as a branch manager at Wachovia Bank. He works in the communications department at the Universities at Shady Grove and hopes to stay in public relations after he graduates in December. The Montgomery GI Bill covers almost all of his school costs and will enable him to earn his degree without going into debt, he said.

"There's a lot of overlap" between the Army and the working world, Savitz said. "I was 21 years old and a sergeant, so you learn to communicate with people on all levels. Also the discipline, and how to conduct yourself in a work environment."

Like Savitz, Barber was looking for direction after high school but was not ready to go back to class. She joined the Army when she was 22, a journey that took her from her native Texas to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she was stationed for four years at a microbiology lab.

"I didn't want to be a waitress for the rest of my life but I wasn't ready to go to college," said Barber, 29, of Gaithersburg, an inactive duty reserve. "It was the best decision I ever made."

Barber, a junior, has a job researching multi-drug-resistant bacteria at Walter Reed and is pursuing a biological science degree. Barber was on the Montgomery GI Bill when she began school but is now on the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

"School was something that I was always going to find a way to do, but with the old [GI Bill] I had to save up. This one, they pay for everything," Barber said. "... I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today without the GI Bill."