A Program of Value
Last year’s participants recall the 2007 CCME
Symposium and anticipate this year’s conference.
By Diana McGonigle
Symposium and anticipate this year’s conference.
By Diana McGonigle
The annual CCME Symposium is an opportunity to be updated on new programs and to network with fellow educators. Military Advanced Education asked eight educators in a variety of occupations who attended in 2007 about their reactions.
“Symposiums are always positive, since the subject matter experts are often the presenters,” said Major Ronald G. Lee, DANTES. “The ‘view from the top’ is helpful; the briefers are usually the ones who have invested the time and energy into developing or improving the programs that they present.”
“Last year’s program was my first, so I wanted to meet my counterparts from other commands and schools,” added Jerral Behnke, dean, Academic Governance and Development, Workforce Development, Navy Medicine Manpower Personnel Training & Education Command. “A number of the schools were willing to talk about the different ideas I had on helping our students.”
Meredyth A. Leahy, M.Ed., who is dean, School of Liberal Arts at Excelsior College really appreciated the timely and useful variety of topics on the program. “The program of offerings seems to get better every year. And, this is the place to learn about the current status, recent changes and new ventures being considered by all of the services, as well as DANTES and SOC. It is always helpful to spend a few days with individuals from around the world who are focused on and dedicated to voluntary military education. We reconnect and accomplish a lot in a short period of time.”
“Last year’s program was very good in that it had the different venues; they talk about the different programs. [For example,] what is SOCCOAST?” said Waymon Bryant, regional education officer for the Coast Guard in the Gulf region, New Orleans, La. “Also, they had DANTES in different breakouts. Also, it was a smaller setting than the DoD Symposium. You got to talk to the different personnel that are doing the same job you are. [I] got a little more intimate with the college, talking about the different programs in detail. The ones I’ve gone to before didn’t have that much time and didn’t specify that much what the programs are offering.”
What John Mills, an academic advisor who works with active military and veterans at Penn State University, World Campus, liked was the updates from all of the chiefs of the different services.
“I was in the Army back in the early ‘80s and the first time I got stationed I went to my commander and said I’d like to take college classes, he said. “‘No, you’re not taking college classes,’ he said. ‘We’re deployable all over the world within three days. I’m not letting you take any classes.’ When I first went to the CME conference I thought this is so nice that they’re trying to [create] a better military, a smarter military. I really enjoyed the updates.
“I thought the conference was well put on; all of the information was really relevant to what I was doing to the best practices on how to serve military students,” Mills continued. “I really enjoyed the networking. That was probably the biggest [plus] of the conference. I think we’re all competing for students, but I think we’re all willing to help each other out with questions about military students. That’s real refreshing.”
“There were many things that made 2007’s CCME conference a success,” said Jeff Haycraft, guidance counselor and sexual assault response coordinator, Florida National Guard, St. Augustine. “Multiple sessions of concurrent topics, relevant topics of the concurrent sessions, appropriate length of sessions, excellent array of exhibitors, fantastic site location…Most importantly, it provided precious time to network with new associates and renew ties to old friends and associates.”
New Information
“I’ve always got my ears open for new developments with the Montgomery GI Bill. Last year’s symposium offered a taste of what the new changes would likely look like, but without any definitive answers,” Dantes’ Lee said. He was also impressed with the level of support offered to servicemembers by many of the colleges and universities in the exhibition hall.
“I spent more time talking with schools and my counterparts, asking about programs we at NAVMED MPT&E are trying to get started for the enlisted sailors in Navy Medicine,” Behnke said. “We have one proposal that we are trying to help our independent duty corpsmen take an online program to become physician assistants when they leave the service. I had many more questions for the schools and my counterparts.”
Leahy added, “Probably what stands out most from last year’s conference was the briefing provided about the Air Force’s new AU ABC [Air University Associate to Baccalaureate Cooperative Program]. Since then Excelsior has joined the consortium and become quite active in that program. At CCME we also garner a good bit of informal but very valuable feedback about Excelsior’s programs from colleagues at other colleges and universities as well as from ESOs, education counselors, education specialists and others—what’s working well and what might need tweaking.”
Bryant learned about how the colleges are tailoring themselves to the services and the needs of the servicemembers. Specifically he was interested in how they tailor themselves to the individual services.
“I’m with the Coast Guard,” he reported. “The Coast Guard is pretty much new on the scene. Now we have those programs—they weren’t aware of the Coast Guard and I didn’t know that they didn’t know anything about us. So I got a chance to spell out exactly what we do and what’s provided to the members and the programs that are offered. ..They have a lot more programs for us that I didn’t know that they had. For instance, the different types of collaborations that we can have with the colleges…before I didn’t have the availability of going out and have the colleges come on site and give courses and have instructors and that sort of thing. Whereas now they’re more than willing to come. They know about us now.”
“One of the things that impressed me the most was to learn about the concerted effort of DoD associated educational organizations, SOC, DANTES, Army National Guard Education Support Center, Navy College,” Haycraft said...“ to be innovative in the operation of their programs and to assure pertinent assistance to the clientele of the Education Services Offices. On the civilian side, I was pleased to learn about Troy University’s remote proctor devise. The more distance learning is used as an instrument of matriculation the more scrutiny is going to be placed on the creditability of the learning outcome. Troy’s innovation is a great step forward in assuring the integrity of distance learning.
All are planning to attend the 2008 CCME Symposium. Lee will be moderating the Reserve Component Education Panel. Bryant will be bringing two of his career development advisors. “They’re like an extension of my office and promote the Coast Guard’s benefits,” he said. “They’re on the road talking to members and saying ‘Hey look, I recently went to CCME. There are these different programs. I hear Coastline Community College has this PDA program and has the laptops.’ That helps me out a lot.”
Haycraft said, “I have attended four previous CCME conferences and have come away from each and every one enriched with information that has enabled me to better serve my clientele.”
They all had definite ideas about what they wanted to learn in the 2008 sessions.
Coming Up Next
“I’m interested in the current status of DIMHRS,” Lee said. “I believe that this database will provide the necessary platform to launch more “purple” [joint] programs throughout the Department of Defense.”
Lee would also like to see the development of a common tuition assistance form and a consolidated program, and centralized funding for tuition assistance across all services, to include DoD civilians.
“More than anything I’ll want to learn everything we need to know to stay up-to-date with military voluntary education,” Leahy stated. “Over the last 10 years or so it has grown and changed at an incredibly rapid pace and will, no doubt, continue to do so. It is an exciting and challenging field.”
Donna G. Brubaker, chief, Education Section, Los Angeles Air Force Base would like additional information on VA, Troops to Teachers, and CCAF.
“I pretty much have my finger on the pulse from the last CCME,” said Bryant. “I’ve networked with a lot of the colleges. So, the thing that I would like to know is, are there more courses for those members who are transitioning out of the service in regards to teaching? I have a lot of members come to my office to talk about becoming teachers and getting an education. Only two colleges that I’m aware of now are giving courses for members on that career track. I would like to know if there are more colleges expanding their curriculum for the members who are transitioning out of the service.
Mills is looking for more updates from the directors and chiefs of education and also, working with veterans and the GI Bill. “One of the things I would like to look at is how to use technology especially since Penn State; World Campus, provides different education online classes for military students,” Mills said. “Look how technology can help us out further, such as PDAs, iPods. Look at other institutions and how they are using that technology to get that information to the students.”
Haycraft was very specific: “As usual, there are so many offerings and so little time. I am most interested in the presentations, Microsoft’s “Schools of the Future,” DANTES’s “Campus in a Pocket: Learning Any Time, Any Place,” and the Coast Guard’s ‘Military Friendly. What Does it Look Like?’”
“I can summarize my reaction to CCME by saying it is a priceless opportunity to network with key people in the military and civilian communities,” said Michael Lambert, chief executive officer, Distance Education Training Council. “I learned a great deal about new DoD initiatives. It is a fabulous venue for genuine exchanges to take place. There is nothing else like it in higher ed.” ♦