The Disabled American Veterans’ Mobile Service Office will be making a stop at Kent State University on Oct. 22. As part of its tour of college campuses, the Mobile Service Office program will be outside of the Schwartz Center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Mobile Service Office program travels the country providing counseling to veterans and their families and helping them to develop and file claims for benefits. One of the focal points of the program is to reach recently discharged veterans in college who are using the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
Joshua Rider, assistant director of Kent State’s Center for Adult and Veteran Services, says that there are 647 GI Bill recipients at the Kent Campus.
“The Mobile Service Office provides a great opportunity for these veterans [on campus] and veterans in the community to learn about their benefits,” says Rider.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill, which was passed in July 2008, created a new education benefits program for veterans. Some aspects of the bill include tuition provisions, monthly living stipends and stipends for books and supplies. The amount of coverage from the bill is based on a tiered system that takes into account the time spent in active duty.
The Mobile Service Office is the first office of its kind and will travel to colleges and universities in five different states during its college tour. Jacob Drost, national service officer for the Disabled American Veterans, says that the Mobile Service Offices helps veterans of all ages.
“The idea of the Mobile Service Office is to get the information about benefits out to veterans while they are young because many of them are not aware of what is entitled to them,” says Drost.
The Mobile Service Office offers services free of charge and is open not just to veterans who are in school but also veterans who are interested in learning about different benefits.
“Veterans with veteran service organizations as an advocate have a 40 percent better chance of being successful in receiving benefits,” says Drost.
For more information about the Mobile Service Office or Disabled American Veterans, visit www.dav.org.