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Free nursing, teaching degrees for veterans

Tyrone Wilder helped save a lot of lives using medicine, advanced diagnostic equipment and proper care while in the Navy.

He hopes to have an even greater effect on lives in his new position, using a different set of tools: classrooms, textbooks and the one-on-one attention he gives to students at Catalina Elementary School in Orlando, Fla.

Wilder made the career switch thanks to the University of Central Florida’s Soldiers to Scholars program, which assists former service members pursuing college degrees in teaching and nursing.

All service members are welcome, although the program’s administrators particularly hope to recruit more minorities and more men to the two fields.

Wilder left the military in 1992 as an E-3. He decided to stay in Orlando, where he was stationed at Naval Hospital Orlando.

Now he’s a behavioral specialist at the Orlando elementary school. He’s one of only three African-American men teaching at the mostly black school, where many of the students live in poverty and 95 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Many of the children are from single-parent homes.

Soldiers to Scholars paid for Wilder’s tuition and provided a housing allowance while he earned a bachelor’s degree in instructional education and a master’s in vocational education.

In return, Wilder spent 10 hours each week volunteering in a youth center in the neighborhood around Catalina Elementary.

“I really enjoyed working with the community and the kids in the area,” Wilder said.

The inspiration

Former Florida legislator Alzo Reddick, an Army veteran, proposed the Soldiers to Scholars program during his tenure as a state lawmaker. Reddick served as an Army medic from 1961 to 1964. He later became a high school teacher and coach before seeking state office.

Soldiers to Scholars simply made sense, Reddick said.

“I knew there were voids in our education and health care systems, and both of those programs needed more minorities and males,” Reddick said. “This is one way that I felt we could help veterans coming out of the service who wanted an education while filling these great voids.”

Reddick found a ready partner in the University of Central Florida, an Orlando-based state university with an enrollment close to 50,000.

Reddick points to one statistic when showing how desperate Florida’s education system is for more black men in the classroom. Black men make up about 15 percent of the state’s population but about 60 percent of its prison population.

Without positive male role models, many young men are not equipped to succeed, Reddick said.

Good for vets, good for kids

Reddick views Soldiers to Scholars as a chance to help two groups.

“When you have a 40-year-old veteran whose GI Bill benefits are long gone, he may be working as a truck driver or a security guard, but we can help him get a degree.

We show them what a teaching career has to offer,” Reddick said.

Like Wilder, Navy retiree Roosevelt “Clutch” Northern Jr. is one of the program’s star alumni. He received a Disney’s Teacherrific Symposium & Awards honor for Top Program in 1999, for developing a weekend mathematics program.

“I have enjoyed the people, the community and the mission of teaching. I am here to save young lives for America’s future. I love what I do,” Northern said.

About a dozen Soldiers to Scholars students have earned varying degrees. Two students are working toward nursing degrees, and 39 are in UCF’s education program.

“Nursing programs are very competitive, and that’s why we don’t have more participants involved who are nursing majors,” Reddick said.

What’s required

Applicants do not need to be Florida residents, and no previous college experience is needed. Some enter the program holding General Equivalency Diplomas as opposed to traditional high school diplomas.

Former service members with honorable discharges qualify, and program officials will consider the applications of National Guard and reserve members who have reached the rank of E-4.

The program has its own code of conduct.

Participants must maintain the same fiscal responsibility required in the armed services; those with recent bad checks or credit problems may be refused. Soldiers to Scholars students are expected to avoid criminal convictions and show self-discipline, integrity and responsibility.

Students must eventually be accepted to UCF, which requires certain grade-point averages and ACT test scores. Many applicants are first referred to community colleges, and program participants can usually gain entrance to UCF after as little time as a semester. Participants still receive the same benefits while attending community college.

“Once our students get their associate’s degree, the rate of success is very high,” Reddick said.

Many Soldiers to Scholars participants do work while they’re going to school, Reddick said. Wilder worked full-time as a lab assistant while managing a family, a full-time course load and his community service obligations.

“We pay for the tuition and books. Any money they earn through other sources, they can use to pay their bills,” Reddick said.

After graduation, participants must work in Florida for one year.

A better future

Reddick said he hopes one day to expand the Soldiers to Scholars program to serve more than 50 students at a time. He’d like to see it become a model that could be applied nationwide.

Wilder hopes by serving as a positive role model that he’ll show the boys at his school alternatives to unemployment, crime and incarceration.

“At home, they see so much negativity,” Wilder said.

Wilder thinks more people would become teachers if they could spend a day in a teacher’s shoes.

“With Soldiers to Scholars, participants go into the schools while they’re still freshmen and sophomores,” Wilder said. “You can see how the teacher interacts, and you know very quickly if this is for you.”

What you get

Soldiers to Scholars pays for up to 100 percent of participants’ tuition, books and required supplies at the University of Central Florida or a community college in the greater Orlando area.

The program also provides a housing allowance to students who agree to live in designated central Florida neighborhoods.

How to apply

Veterans and service members who will soon be leaving the service can apply for Soldiers to Scholars online at http://www.soldierstoscholars.org.