Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Helping Others Become Successful Military Spouses


As most of my regular readers know, I am the wife of an Army Veteran. He is no longer actively serving due to an injury sustained in the military, but we will always consider ourselves a part of the military community, and have family all over the globe from the years we served. We made life-long friends, and we will always cherish the years we spent in the Army.

As a young military wife, having just moved away from my family and my home to a totally different state - and a totally different world to say the least - I wondered, where is my place as an Army Wife? Should I get a job? Should I go to school? At the base we were located at, there were not a lot of options as far as jobs for military spouses. A lot of places did not want to hire military spouses because of the fact that there was no guarantee on how long you would be in one place at a time. We were fortunate enough not to have to move around a lot, but still it was a struggle for me to find steady work. And it was hard, because with my husband gone training in the field, or for the 13 months he was deployed to Iraq, I was lonely, and bored. Back then, I did not know about all the great programs out there for military families. I certainly wish I had known about MyCAA.

The Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts (MyCAA) program provides up to $4,000 over a two year period of time of Financial Assistance for military spouses who are pursuing degree programs, licenses, or credentials leading to employment in transferable career fields.
Martinsburg College has been successfully serving military men and women world-wide since 2004. Service members benefit from a number of certificate and degree programs designed to meet their distinctive needs. Martinsburg College is listed on the DANTES (Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support) website. The college’s Student Services Department understands the precise needs of deployed personnel and their families, and participates in the MyCAA program to assist military spouses in gaining skills for portable careers.

The college even has a great Facebook group! The Martinsburg College Military Spouses Facebook group provides and shares resources and information to benefit military spouses wanting to achieve their own career and educational goals during their time serving alongside their spouses! In the group, you can share stories and encourage each other along the way to help get things done together! Support from other military spouses goes a long way, and networking is a great resource!

If you are a military spouse, or know one, then passing along this info could be of great value to them! Maybe they do not know about these great programs, just like I didn’t! These benefits are there for military families, let’s help them take advantage of them, like Whytney Pruitt. She completed the Medical Office Administration program and Martinsburg helped her avoid the pitfalls that many military spouses have experienced after relocating for her husband. Her story can be found here
 
I was compensated for this post by Martinsburg College through my relationship with the Quality Blue Community. All opinions are my own.

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Happy Palm Sunday

~Hayley