As a higher education professional working at SUNY New Paltz to help veterans like me navigate college, I know firsthand the significant lifetime value of achieving a degree. But when it came time to return to school to seek my master’s degree, I still faced the same question so many of the students I work with do: How will I afford this?

Though immensely helpful, I exhausted the GI Bill® benefits earned during my Naval service to obtain an undergraduate degree in adolescent education at SUNY New Paltz. Hugely beneficial, it still took me only to a certain point in my career before I hit the ceiling, needing a master’s degree to advance but knowing I would have to pay out of pocket. The issue is because I served in a non-combat role, I wasn’t eligible for the state’s Veteran Tuition Awards program, which historically has been restricted only to those who served in combat. 

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