College Creates Program for Military Spouses

Coastline Community College extended its commitment to the military family by launching its one-of-a-kind Military Spouse Program. This unique program offers an affordable tuition rate of only $59 per unit, and textbooks are provided free of charge to military spouses. Additionally, the program features accelerated 8-week online courses, 5 Associate degree options to choose from and a mere 12 semester hours needed to meet residency requirements.

Many times military spouses have needed to delay or postpone their educational aspirations due to a pending move, lengthy and multiple deployments, the need to balance work and family or the lack of educational resources in their local area. Such hardships can have an effect on the military family’s sense of readiness, can erode retention and can deteriorate a family’s financial stability. Coastline college is setting out with a unique and affordable program to solve those hurdles and help the military spouse to directly attain their educational goals.

“A very appealing aspect of our Military Spouses Program is that textbooks are provided free to the military spouse. The cost of textbooks has become exorbitant. In a military family with two people taking two courses each, textbooks alone could exceed five or six hundred dollars. Coastline is covering that part of the expense by offering textbooks to military spouses at no cost to them,” said Ed McKenney, Dean of Military Education Programs for the college.

Along with the daily challenges of military life, military spouses shoulder many burdens and provide the stability that allows Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen to perform their very critical missions. Military dependent spouses require and deserve the same types of educational support and opportunities enjoyed by Servicemembers: affordable tuition and books, self-paced “anytime-anywhere education” courses delivered online, and degree programs that are achievable in spite of frequent changes of duty stations.

Coastline’s distance learning courses allow students to login and access content at any time and any place right for them. The military spouse likely doesn’t have the time, after managing the home front, to attend a physical classroom at a traditional campus. Only distance learning can offer that flexibility. “I think it’s important that our military spouses feel they are an integral part of the Coastline Military Program, and not just an afterthought. We have support staff at the college to assist them with enrollment and accessing their courses. Also, every Coastline instructor in our military program is asked to respond to all student inquiries, whether by fax, phone, message board or e-mail within 48 hours. That’s the identical service we offer their uniformed classmates,” said Mr. McKenney.

Coastline has a long history of educational innovation. It was originally founded in 1975 as a college “without walls”, dedicated to distance learning. Drawing upon its vast experience producing Emmy award winning telecourse content and its extensive selection of internet and CD-ROM courses, Coastline began specifically serving the military audience in the very early eighties. Now, Coastline even offers courses in cutting edge technologies like handheld devices (PDAs) and Smart Phones. Coastline graduated over 1500 military graduates in 2007, from every branch of service and throughout the world-- as near as your local base and as far as Iraq or Afghanistan. They are a regionally accredited college based out of Fountain Valley, California. The school offers multiple MOS/AFSC/Rating related degrees, and can award up to 40 AARTS/SMART/CCAF/other military credits toward a degree.

The military family is a team. Recognizing this fact, Coastline is hoping to provide the same high quality distance learning opportunities to military spouses that they have offered to their uniformed counterpart.

Spouse enrollment for the Fall II session is open from September 4th through September 21st. For Spring I, 2008 enrollment is projected to begin November 19th. For more information about this unique program, visit the Coastline website at http://military.coastline.edu, and click on the Military Spouse Program link.

Shawn A. Mann
Manager of Military Outreach Programs
Coastline Community College
714-241-6272
smann@coastline.edu

Coastline Community College is committed to offering accessible, flexible, student-centered education within and beyond the traditional classroom. Founded in 1975 as a "college without walls," Coastline has attained international acclaim for its Emmy award winning telecourses, PDA/handheld program, internet course designs and military education programs.

This release was published on openPR.