Shane Hogsett wouldn't be in college if it weren't for the Veterans Upward Bound program.
Hogsett, a 2001 graduate of Billings West High School, was a U.S. Army combat medic in Iraq, serving in a hospital in Baghdad's Green Zone before returning home.
In 2005, Hogsett, 27, went through a 12-week program to ease veterans into college classes.
After graduating from the program, he enrolled in Montana State University Billings. After attending two semesters in 2005, he dropped out for a year before returning for spring semester 2007.
Although majoring in business, he has a special interest in geology and computers. He may transfer to a university that offers a computer science degree and eventually would like to work for a law enforcement agency doing computer forensics.
Hogsett, who has service-related injuries to his left knee, wrist and finger, is paying for college through programs helping disabled veterans.
Hogsett is one of 1,430 students who have gone through the Veterans Upward Bound program since it began at MSU Billings in 1992.
Funded through the U.S. Department of Education, it encourages low-income veterans and veterans who are the first in their families to attend college to go on to higher education.
The Montana VUB program is headquartered at Cisel Hall at MSU Billings, where veterans also take classes.
This fall, students will spend mornings, five days a week, taking classes in algebra, writing, grammar, computers, literature, French and public speaking.
Once they graduate from the course, veterans can enroll in any campus they wish, although most from the Billings program go to Montana schools. Former students have become nurses, engineers and social workers.
A key part of the program is helping veterans make important decisions for themselves. "In the military, they are used to being told, 'This is your job,' " said Matt Borron, who manages the college preparatory program.
The Cisel office also is a one-stop center for information about how veterans can finance their education, get academic and career counseling and connect with local social services.
They also help veterans who find themselves in unexpected financial trouble and even may be homeless.
This fall, students who have served the required time in the military can tap into a new Post-/11 GI Bill, called the most extensive education benefit since World War II.
Some of the details of the program still are being worked out, said Luke Petriccione, director of the Montana Upward Bound program.
But in general, veterans who have fulfilled the required time of service may have their tuition at public universities in the state paid for, plus $1,000 a year for books and a $950-a-month stipend for housing.
The old GI Bill gave benefits for 36 months of schooling. The new bill gives 48 months.
Men and women serving 10 years or more may give their GI Bill benefits to a spouse or child.
An important part of the Upward Bound program is that most of those working for it are veterans, too, and a few are graduates of the program.
Petriccione and Joe Cobos, student recruiter, are combat veterans of the U.S. Marines Corps who served in Vietnam.
Ann Denny, in charge of the Tribal College Academic Bridge Program, served with the U.S. Army in Berlin, Germany, and throughout the United States.
After going through Upward Bound college-preparatory classes, she entered MSU Billings, where she earned a bachelor's degree in human services. She is working on a master's degree in social work.
She credits Upward Bound with not only helping her through college as a nontraditional student, but also with setting a high standard for her children to aim at.
Her oldest son, Daniel, 22, will be an MSUB student this fall. Another son, Clayton, 18, recently graduated from Marine boot camp. She's grooming her middle-school-age daughter for college.
Borron, who recently received a master's degree from the University of Montana in Missoula, served eight years in active and reserve duty with the U.S. Army.
Veterans of the Gulf and Afghan wars generally are better educated than some Vietnam-era veterans because the U.S. military has required more recent recruits to be high school graduates, Petriccione said.
Younger vets also arrive with better technical skills than older veterans had.
If they differ in some aspects, the two generations are similar in other ways.
Both want to make up for lost time and be competitive with their peers who didn't serve in the military.
And they often don't realize the leadership skills, level of maturity and world experience that they gained while in the military that they can put to good use in the classroom and their future careers.
"They made life-and-death decisions," Petriccione said. "They need assurance that their experience is valuable."
Montana campuses acknowledge that experience by giving three academic credits to incoming veterans for military training and four credits for Marine training.
In turn, schools benefit from having veterans on campus.
"They (veterans) are looking for an education with meaning and application," Petriccione said.
