ESO Roundtable

Written by Diana McGonigle

Campbell is ESO for the Army at Area I in Korea. He is responsible for ACES programs at four bases, Camp Casey, Camp Hovey, Camp Stanley and Camp Red Cloud. He has worked at Area I for nearly five years.

Womack is with the Air Force and has worked at the RAF Menwith Hill AFB since December 2003. She has 26 years of federal government experience (mostly in education for Army and Air Force) and education and training experience for the state of Massachusetts. She received an A.S. from Mt. Wachusett Community College, a B.S. and M.Ed. from Fitchburg State College, Fitchburg, Mass, her M.B.A. from Western New England College, Springfield, Mass. and her Ed.D. in Education Leadership from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She also attended Nova University, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and the University of Maryland, College Park. She has many hours of additional training and has written several articles.

Bagwell has been with the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego (MCRDSD) for more than seven years. He has 30 years and nine months of ACES training. He retired from the United States Marine Corps after 22 years of service. He was senior enlisted and key advisor to the commanding office of all companies’ matters pertaining to an average of 200 personnel. He attained a Bachelor in business administration and a Master of Public Administration. Bagwell is currently working on a Master of Education. Before accepting his current position, he worked as an admission counselor at a local university. He attends annual training from VA on current policies.

Q: What is the mission of your office?

Womack: RAF Menwith Hill is an integral part of the U.S. DoD world-wide defense communications network and provides intelligence support for U.K., U.S. and allied interests Bagwell: The primary mission of the base is the recruitment of civilian and [to] train them to become basic trained Marines. The Lifelong Learning office caters to roughly over 3,400 Marines, Navy and Coast Guard personnel and 232 civilian workers at MCRDSD. At any given time there are between 4,000 to 5,000 recruits aboard MCRDSD. The Recruiter School and Drill Instructor School all has tenant activities on the base.

Q: What are your duties in the Education Office?

Campbell: At present, I am a jack of all trades now, I am on the staff of the Area I commander, Education Services Officer for the area, manage the ACES program, and counsel. Womack: My duties are to manage the Education Center on the base—we offer the following:

• Testing [DANTES, CLEP, ECI, USAFE Driving Exam, DLPT/ DLAB/APT, UMUC, CTC, GED, ACT, SAT, TABE, etc.] • Counseling [Army and Air Force and Ministry of Defence (local nationals)]

• Training—MOD, military and civilian

• Support to RAF Digby—small base three hours south (testing and counseling)

Bagwell: My duties are as follows:

• Oversee the operation of lifelong learning (LLL) education. • Advise the director of community services on educational programs and opportunities.

• Prepare and justify budget submissions.

• Counsel clients on personal and educational goals.

• Act as quality control officer for services provided by institutions on MCRDSD.

• Conduct and evaluate needs assessment.

• Develop education plan.

• Conduct information briefings and lectures.

• Assure that all reports are compiled and submitted.

• Responsible for ordering supplies.

• Conduct local unit education briefings.

• Maintain relevant statistics.

• Process TA forms.

Q: Do you advise servicemembers looking for a college?

Bagwell: The Lifelong Learning Center’s goal is to be the premier education center by assisting depot personnel in reaching their educational goals. This is accomplished by offering information and counseling on a variety of educational and training programs. MCRDSD is not a DANTES test center but believes by proving information and working closing with Navy Base 32nd St. and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar through their examination programs, the Lifelong Learning Centers strives to provide as many professional certification examinations as possible. The education officer works with the tenant units to provide courses that offer college credit and also meet a pressing unit need, i.e. Arabic language courses, and EMT courses for deploying personnel. The Lifelong Learning Center also works with the community colleges and universities to offer a variety of classes on board the depot. Further, the office communicates with various other colleges, universities and vocational institutions throughout the country to ensure that professional and technical degree programs are available to depot personnel.

We continue to seek ways on how we can better serve our service member. We do not want to inundate servicemember with so much information they don’t have time or a place to store it all.

Campbell: Yes.

Womack: I advise servicemembers, family members, civilian employees and local nationals looking for college preparation, promotion options, education college courses and degree programs, career related training and/or specific college information and scholarships.

Q: Do you have enough information?

Campbell: Yes.

Womack: I feel that information is available in the books and online links available to us as well as information that is provided to us at conferences/symposiums and USAFE HQ. Bagwell: We have just enough information at this time.

Q: What more information would you like to have?

Campbell: I feel that I get an adequate information from professional publications, professional organizations that I am a member of, professional meetings, my colleagues, and DANTES.

Q: Do you work with academic advisors at universities and colleges?

Campbell: I do not work with academic advisors at universities and colleges, but I do work with some advisors who are here in Korea and others through various means of distance communications.

Womack: I work closely with academic advisors at the universities and colleges on the base—less so with online programs.

Bagwell: The governor of California wants California to become the nation’s leader and model in providing education opportunity and assistance to active duty and veterans. With this said, Secretary Bersin want to provide an implementation plan for the partnership goals in order to create a model for veterans and active duty members education by defining academic outreach, admission and enrollment plans that targets the exiting veterans who are California residents or who exit the service in California. A committee was established and formed Troops to College. I have been working on the committee for over a year.

Purpose of the Partnership: The governor’s partnership is a first of its kind partnership with military and education leaders. It includes pledges to:

• Improve outreach efforts to active duty and exiting veterans; and improve academic and financial aid advice and counseling to active duty and exiting veterans.

• Better employ existing admissions programs for active duty and veterans.

• Appoint an oversight committee to set goals and review the progress of the partnership

Q: If so, do you find them to be “military friendly?”

Campbell: Yes.

Womack: I find the colleges on base to be military friendly, but some of the online programs are not all military friendly Bagwell: One of the key problems that we face with most of the state colleges and universities are transferability of credit. Through [the] Troops to College program, veteran organizations are being established at each institution to help to bridge the gap.

Q: Are they familiar with military educational benefits?

Campbell: Those that I deal with are very familiar.

Q: What are some of the most challenging aspects of your work? What are some of the most common situations that you see in the education office?

Bagwell: Funding is one of the most challenging aspects of my job. The cost of tuition continues to increase and the amount of money that is authorized for tuition assistance for service member does not.

Q: Is there anything you would like to add?

Campbell: My experience with most colleges and Universities has been positive. They appear to be glad to assist military personnel in the pursuit of their educational objectives.

Womack: This base is comprised of intelligent, educated and highly trained individuals. They do need formal education, but since we have a small population, it is sometimes difficult to offer enough variety of courses and programs.

We sometimes have to cancel courses and programs if there are too few students.

Bagwell: The Voluntary Education Community is small, but very close within the Marine Corps. We meet once a year to discuss, evaluate and review our best practices. Over the years, Lifelong Learning [LL] working group has made a variety of refinements to Marine Corps policy. For example, College 101, basic skills training requirements, and developmental education, are just a few. These refinements have strengthened our Corps. ♦

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