"Who wants to go to school?" A few hands rose among the Soldiers in the audience.
Reaching into her bag of candy, 1st Lt. Lisa Cullen began tossing candy to those who had raised their hands.
"Now who wants to go to school?" The presenter said. Cullen chuckled as more hands rose around the room.
Many Soldiers interested in furthering their education know that receiving educational benefits is not as easy as raising your hand and catching candy. That is why Soldiers from the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division took time out of their busy schedules to attend a seminar presented by Minnesota State Colleges and Universities in the Red Bull Chapel on March 11 and 12.
MNSCU is an organization of Minnesota public colleges. It works closely with the National Guard to ensure that veterans receive the benefits they deserve.
"We want to provide services for veterans so when they come back from deployment they can hit the ground running," said Capt. Dan Price, a National Guard liaison officer with MNSCU. "We help Soldiers navigate the maze of the Federal GI Bill, the State GI Bill, and the federal benefits."
"In a perfect world, you'd enter your social security number and you'd see what you're entitled to," said 1st Lt. Michael J. Griffis, Red Bull Visitor's Bureau deputy.
Griffis wanted to know how to turn his Licensed Practical Nursing diploma from St. Paul's College into a bachelor's degree. "There's so much information out here – so many situations. Right now you have to sort through all this information, and it's not easy to understand what you qualify for."
Soldiers like Griffis were directed to MyMilitaryEducation.org, where Soldiers can view a flowchart showing them to what benefits they are entitled, a list of scholarships for veterans and a checklist of things to do before taking college courses. In addition, Soldiers can talk to one of 12 regional coordinators and 57 campus veterans' resource centers.
The MNSCU presenters also talked about online courses with Soldiers like Pvt. Michael Matheson, a paralegal with the 34th Inf. Div. Headquarters.
"I didn't want to take a year off," said Matheson, who added he wants to work toward a law degree.
Matheson received one-on-one training on MinnesotaOnline.mnscu.edu, which was established by MNSCU to act as a portal for online courses and programs offered by MNSCU's 32 colleges and universities. After going through a quiz to see if online courses were the right option for him, Matheson put in his information and clicked to see how many courses were available to him.
There were 150.
"I learned that there are a ton of options out there," Matheson said. "This program is definitely handy to anyone who wants to further their education."
During the downtime hours of their deployment, Soldiers should know that there are people out there willing to help them further their education.
"I love working for veterans. You can have the worst day, and if you help one veteran, it'll turn around," said Don Pfeffer, a Vietnam War Veteran and one of the presenters with MNSCU.
With the help of people like Don Pfeffer, Griffis was able to find his answer.
"It's not necessarily what you know," Griffis later said, "but where to find it."