Fair connects Soldiers with educational opportunities

FORT JACKSON, SC, UNITED STATES

11.24.2020

Story by Josephine Carlson 

Fort Jackson Public Affairs Office

Joining the military comes with many additional benefits beyond a steady paycheck and a place to live. One of those benefits is education, and the education center at Fort Jackson makes sure you have all the resources available to take advantage.

Soldiers (and others in the Fort Jackson community) can use the education center throughout the year to find out about the education benefits available to them, how to apply, and many other educational services, but during the Fort Jackson Education Fair held Nov. 18, Soldiers could actually talk to college representatives.

Jude Marranco, division chief with the Army Continuing Education System, said this is the first education fair since the pandemic started, and they are taking precautions.

“We're having a small event, usually we have 25 colleges, but this year we only have 10,” she said. “Four of those are our own on post colleges, and there's six local colleges to Fort Jackson that we invited. We wanted to keep it small. We wanted to do extra social distancing because we wanted to protect the school representatives who came here and also the Education Center staff.”


The schools that participated in the Education Fair were:

Midlands Technical College (on-post)
University of South Carolina (on-post)
Claflin University (on-post)
Webster University (on-post)
Voorhees College
Benedict College
Allen University
Columbia College
Lander University
ECPI University

Michelle Cannon from Midlands Technical College said she’s been working on Fort Jackson for a number of years and she enjoys having the Soldiers come through and learn about educational opportunities. She also added that the college provides an opportunity for those who need testing.

“Any Soldier or Family member who’s interested in taking CLEPP or DANTES testing (can come here), Midland Tech is the national testing center here on Fort Jackson,” Cannon said.

“The education fair is for Soldiers to come and to start their academic journey,” Marranco said, “or if they've started it before and need to get a push to start again.”

(Editor’s note: For more information about educational opportunities, available on-post see the July 30 issue of the Leader.)

• Date Taken: 11.24.2020
• Date Posted: 11.24.2020 10:34
• Story ID: 383660
• Location: FORT JACKSON, SC, US