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LIKE MANY TEENAGERS, Cody Noren didn’t spend a lot of time worrying about international politics when he was in high school.

Then the World Trade Center towers fell. Americans felt under siege, and Noren’s future crystallized. At 17, he joined the military, compelled to serve his country in the U.S. Navy.

Nine years and 17 countries later, Noren is a PSU criminology student in his final year, grateful for the impact the military has had on his worldview and for the revamped GI Bill that has changed his life.

Noren is one of the more than 300,000 veterans nationwide taking advantage of the strongest educational assistance package offered since the original Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944. The new Post-9/11 GI Bill took effect in August 2009, and provides a full ride to college, including books and a generous living stipend, for veterans who have served at least three years of active duty since September 11, 2001. Veterans who have completed at least 90 days but less than three years receive partial benefits. And the bill allows for active duty personnel to transfer their benefits to family members.

 

Pursuing a degree in criminology would likely not have happened for Cody Noren without the new, more generous GI Bill.

In comparison, the 1984 Montgomery GI Bill, the most commonly used veterans education program before the overhaul, pays student veterans a flat rate of up to $1,321 a month.

President Barack Obama has called the new GI Bill a reward for Americans who stepped up to protect their country during wartime.

IN OREGON, the new bill is expected to pay for college for thousands of returning military personnel, including some of the 2,700 Oregon Army National Guard soldiers who have returned from Iraq in the past year. Portland State has experienced a 30 percent jump in veteran enrollment since last year and now has 700 GIs studying on campus.

But moving from combat to college isn’t always an easy transition. Some veterans bypass the benefits altogether because they are hesitant to re-engage with the military or are simply flummoxed by the maze of forms and bureaucracy.

One of the most basic adjustments veterans must make is to a life without the military’s clear, specific directions: wake up at 0530, report for assignment at 0900, prep your vehicle, and so on.

“When you go into school, if you don’t show up for class on time, no one’s going to be there to yell at you about it,” says Noren, who immediately sought out the University’s Student Veterans Association to help him settle in when he arrived on campus in 2009.

THE STUDENT Veterans Association at PSU is helping GIs who served in Iraq and Afghanistan make the transition to a school setting. This is fitting considering the University’s origins. The Vanport Extension Center, which eventually became PSU, was started in 1946 by veterans for veterans who were back from World War II and motivated to pursue a college degree in Portland on what was then the new GI Bill.

Veterans are again assisting each other to stay in school and make the grade.

Paul Polsin, who was deployed to Iraq in 2005, recently transferred from a California community college to PSU, where he is taking advantage of the new GI benefits to study business. Polsin says PSU’s Student Veterans Association office helped answer his questions and ease his transition, but sometimes just being a veteran introduces challenges, and at 25, he finds himself older than other students in his classes.

“I have difficulty connecting with some of the younger people,” Polsin says. “The challenge for me is I’ve had quite a few experiences between working different jobs, my military experience, and traveling.”

U.S. Marine Corps veteran Kris Williams remembers walking on campus and searching for classes in the maze of PSU buildings. Having transferred from a small community college, PSU’s population of nearly 29,000 students was almost overwhelming.

In a class, Williams happened to meet a fellow veteran who directed him to the Student Veterans Association. The group helped connect him with the campus veteran certification officer to fill out vital paperwork to access his benefits.

This fall, Williams joined the association at an information table, where members met hundreds of student veterans and tried to spread the word about available benefits. Yet, a few students started backing away as Williams tried to discuss the necessary steps to sign up for their education benefits. After leaving the military, some veterans simply want to be done, he says.

“They’re trying to get away from being told what to do,” says Williams, now in his second year at PSU.

Paul Polsin served in Iraq and is now earning a business degree at PSU using funds from the new Post-9/11 GI Bill.

THIS EXPLAINS WHY, campus veterans say, many student vets aren’t signing up for the benefits they’ve earned. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, only 5,813 Oregon veterans had received GI education benefits as of 2008. The state estimates there are about 341,000 veterans in Oregon. Last fall, the Oregon University System started granting out-of-state veterans a discount on tuition beyond what is covered by GI Bill benefits. And through the federal Yellow Ribbon Program, several private schools have agreed to waive up to 50 percent of their costs while the federal government matches the rest.

Noren, one of the first members of his family to go to college, urges all the veterans he knows to ask for help with their benefits. Thanks to his education at PSU and experience as a military police officer, he is sure that a career as a parole and probation officer is in his near future.

“To be able to go ahead and graduate, that says a lot,” he says. “If it wasn’t for the GI Bill, I wouldn’t be able to do it. There’s no question about it.”

Su Yim is a graduate assistant in the PSU Office of University Communications.