Photo by: Jason Luong
Sydney Covington, U.S. Army combat veteran and president of Georgia State’s Student Veterans Association (SVA), said the university doesn’t do enough to help ease the transition from military life to college life.
“Georgia State didn’t help at all, which is why I’m passionate about the Student Veteran’s Association,” she said, “I had a very hard time [in college] at first. [In the military], I knew where to be, what to wear, what to do… pretty much my life was given to me. When I was no longer in the military, it was kind of strange. I got to decide what to wear each day. I didn’t know how to adapt to that kind of choice.”
Georgia State’s campus houses a Military Outreach Center (MOC), an office which facilitates the disbursal of GI Bill educational benefits to student veterans.
Covington said the university’s MOC, “doesn’t do jack anything.” She claims the “Outreach” part is a misnomer, as the center doesn’t reach out to advocate on behalf of the students at all.
SVA, however, tries to offer the outreach that the MOC fails to provide, according to Covington.
“We host services such as teaching [student veterans] to translate their military jargon back to civilian jargon so when they apply for jobs, they seem more qualified,” she said.
And Shamsud-jin Jabaar, a Georgia State senior and U.S. Army vet, said acclimating to civilian speech is among the many burdens of leaving a military-structured lifestyle.
“The culture isn’t too much different but once you get out of the military there’s so many different acronyms you’ve learned,” he said. “And as you transition out…you don’t know how to speak without using these terms and you’re not sure what terms are used outside the military.”
Jabaar said although military experience fosters lasting professional skills, it is important for veterans to be able to communicate their abilities to potential non-military employers.
“You may have a lot of skills and training from the Army,” he said. “But you may not be able to speak the language to really translate it and be understood when you apply for a civilian job.”
Jabaar said his experience with the MOC has gone “pretty well” thus far in his Georgia State career. He said the office works with the VA to circulate his GI Bill paperwork in order to claim his educational benefits.
Getting school paid for with the GI Bill
Jabaar said if a student vet is not on top of his paperwork, his payments could slip through the cracks of the VA’s system.
“It’s such a large agency and they have so many [military men and women] coming out…that you have to do your due diligence, make sure you have your paperwork together,” he said.
And Covington, who also attends school on the GI Bill, said adapting to the financial change of civilian life can be taxing on student veterans. She claims Georgia State cogs up the process of dispersing benefit bills to the VA.
“The way Georgia State processes the payments is a little inconvenient,” she said. “A lot of students have already received their refunds, but as a student veteran, I haven’t received mine.”
Covington said she worries her check may not show up until November.
“[Georgia State] postpones to send the bills to the VA which makes it hard on students who rely school benefits,” she said. “It makes it harder for me sometimes, especially this time of the year.”
Jabaar, Georgia State Student Government Association’s newly appointed transfer liaison, came to the university from Campbell University in North Carolina. Like Covington, he pays for tuition with funds from the GI Bill.
Fighting for disability benefits
But Jabaar said, even with the GI Bill, it is tough for some soldiers to claim disability benefits once they leave the service.
“There really is a big difference between disability and using the GI Bill benefits,” he said. “I don’t really have a problem with the GI Bill benefits, but I know many veterans who have had problems applying for disability.”
Photo by: Jason Luong
Former Panther and U.S. Navy Veteran Adam Hygema said he meticulously monitored his disability claim to ensure it didn’t get swallowed up in the VA abyss. Hygema lost his leg in a car accident while he was stationed in Portsmouth, Oregon as a hospital foreman.
“I’m very lucky that I got the services that I did, but that’s also because I was calling my rep every week of every month just to figure out where in the system my claim was,” he said.
But Hygema said he knows vets who were put through the ringer attempting to claim disability benefits.
“I know a lot of other veterans who have to jump through a lot of hoops just to get a small percentage of their claim to go through,” he said.
Covington is one of those denied disability status. She said she injured her hip while deployed in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and the VA awarded her zero percent of her disability benefits claim.
“I need to go in and get my injury looked at [by VA] because they don’t seem accurate,” she said. “I know they [deny claims] a lot.”
Hygema said he spends as little time as possible working the VA so to avoid “jumping through a ring of hoops on fire” to get prosthetic help.
“I go in. I get my treatment. Then they don’t hear from me for months at a time,” he said. “If I have to schedule regular health checkup, I have to wait six months for an open date. At the same time, I know there are veterans who… are waiting way longer for an appointment.”
A report leaked in August by Huffington Post revealed that a system glitch at the Atlanta VA’s office computers led to more than 35,000 combat vets being denied health care nationwide.
The veterans interviewed by The Signal were not aware of anyone afflicted by the computer glitch, but they all said keeping up with forms and folders will help things with the VA run much more smoothly.
“While you’re active duty, everything’s cake if you keep your paperwork in line,” Hygema said. “Once you’re out of the military, you have to make sure you’ve got duplicates and triplicates of every paper you handle.”
When prompted for comment, the MOC referred The Signal to Ms. Covington.
