By Taylor Gigeous//
“It is exciting to again be recognized as a Best Value college. We continually strive to make Hood affordable while also ensuring an excellent education for our students,” Hood President Andrea Chapdelaine said.
Hood College was ranked 21st in the Best Values Colleges for Veterans to attend in the north region. The college offers many different military resources to ensure that Veterans are provided with any and all resources to be successful in their experience at Hood.
Hood specifically offers a unique way of assisting students in attending college and becoming an Army officer. The U.S. Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) offers two, three, and four year full-tuition scholarships. The scholarships also provide a monthly stipend and book money. After completing all requirements to graduate cadets commission as Army officers with the rank of second lieutenant. They have the choice of serving on Active Duty, the Army Reserve or the National Guard.
Select Cadets who choose National Guard get chosen to participate in the SMP program. This means a cadet will attend drill and preform as a regular guard member. CDT Durham, a three year scholarship winner, said, “ROTC provides many experiences for me that many do not get to go through.”
She went on to tell how the structure of waking up early and attending physical training (PT) has given her more discipline. CDT Durham is also an SMP cadet. She attends ranges to qualify and shoot many different weapons systems that an everyday person and even other cadets in the program.
CDT Afriyie is a graduate student. He would not have been able to attend college is he did not get the two year scholarship from ROTC to assist in paying his tuition. He served two years in the National Guard before becoming a graduate student.
“Being a college student and participating in ROTC does have its down falls. We devote a minimum of 10 hours a week doing ROTC activities and sometimes even long weekends in the field.” Said CDT Afriyie.
Being a student, cadet, and guard member all at the same time limited CDT Afriyie with his free time. He has no free time to have a job to make any extra income. But he mentioned frequently if it wasn’t for ROTC he would be getting his master.
HM3 Jacob is a potential Hood student. He was granted tuition assistance to go back and attend a college of his choice to complete his degree. For two years he has tried to attend online school and work full time at the hospital on base but it became extremely overwhelming. Attending Hood will give him the opportunity to take a break in his field of work and further his career by getting his bachelors.
Many Veterans attend Hood College, currently serving and retired members. The school has very helpful resources and a veterans community that his supportive and encouraging. Being a Veteran has it owns struggles and combining it with being a student have be easy for some and hard for others. The community that Hood has provided the veterans is special.