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Veterans Now Receiving Incentives From Area Community Colleges

You can now call Eastern Iowa Community College a “CHAMP.” The EICC School District – which includes Clinton, Muscatine, and Scott Community C...
EICC

You can now call Eastern Iowa Community College a “CHAMP.”

The EICC School District – which includes Clinton, Muscatine, and Scott Community Colleges – was designated as a Home Base Iowa CHAMP on Friday, March 6th, 2015 during an announcement by Governor Terry Branstad in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

CHAMP stands for Certified Higher Academic Military Partner Program. EICC is the only educational institution in the QCA to receive the designation. The program ensures Iowa is an attractive place for transitioning military members who choose to pursue education first or in addition to private sector employment, said a press release.

“We’re real proud of our efforts as an institution,” said Karen Vickers, Vice Chancellor for Student Development at EICC. “We see this group as an important group to serve. They’ve served us and so we want to be able to serve them.”

To become a Home Base Iowa CHAMP campus, education institutions must meet certain criteria such as on-campus veteran resources, mindfulness of service member transitions, and financial considerations. At EICC, Vickers says they put together a task force a few years ago and now have a VA-Certified Facilitator, as well as more than 400 military-based students.

“Our Facilitator works with all of our VA students as they come in to make sure they are aware of what steps they need to take in order to register for classes, get their VA benefits, and then she works with them to make sure they’re staying on track in their programs and in their classes,” said Vickers.

EICC also has created Student VA Clubs on each campus.

“We know that our VA students have very unique needs coming in,” Vickers said. “Many of them have been out of school for a lot of years and so it’s just assisting them to transition so they can be comfortable and be successful with us.”

In total there are 12 schools that are Home Base Iowa CHAMP campuses: Mercy College of Health Sciences, Iowa Central Community College, Eastern Iowa Community College, The University of Iowa, Iowa State University, University of Northern Iowa, Hawkeye Community College, University of Dubuque, Upper Iowa University, Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC), and Mount Mercy University.

There are also 13 areas that are Home Base Iowa Communities, which has its own set of criteria: Webster County, Hancock County, Humboldt County, Carroll County, Clay County, Union County, Mitchell County, Dubuque County, Greene County, Howard County, Clarke County, Floyd County, and the City of Marion.

The Home Base Iowa CHAMP is part of the Home Base Iowa Act, signed into law in May 2014. Incentives include in-state tuition for military members and their families, credit for military training and experience, as well as state income tax exemptions for military pensions. To learn more about the Home Base Iowa Act, click here.

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