______________________________________________________________________________
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
?
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
John L. Winn
Commissioner of Education
F. PHILIP HANDY,
Chairman
T. WILLARD FAIR,
Vice Chairman
Members
DONNA G. CALLAWAY
JULIA L. JOHNSON
R
OBERTO MARTÍNEZ
P
HOEBE RAULERSON
L
INDA K. TAYLOR
Memorandum Number 05-17
July 22, 2005
M E M O R A N D U M
TO
: Community College Presidents
FROM
: J. David Armstrong, Jr.
SUBJECT:
Partnering with the Florida National Guard
I am writing to encourage your support to the Florida National Guard in their efforts to increase
educational opportunities for the citizens of Florida. The Florida National Guard is currently
partnering with a couple of our colleges to collocate a staff person on a community college
campus and is interested in expanding this partnership around the state where feasible. The
obvious benefit to our educational system is increased enrollment and utilization of our
educational programs with little cost to our colleges.
Currently, many of you have a single Veterans Affairs Counselor assigned to your college. By
partnering with the Florida National Guard to allow them to locate an advisor on your campus,
you will in effect gain a counselor
litate the administrative process
and counseling of students on membership funded programs. These programs include new
initiatives by the Florida National Guard, known as Hire-A-Hero and Helmets-to-Hardhats, that
provides numerous employment opportunities to Guard members, and add to your local
workforce.
J. DAVID ARMSTRONG, JR.
Chancellor, Community Colleges and Workforce Education
325 W. GAINES STREET • SUITE 1314 • TALLAHASSEE, FL 32399-0400 • (850) 245-0407 • www.fldoe.org/cc
Memorandum Number 05-17
Page Two
July 22, 2005
Being embedded in our institutions will help forge relationships that may allow service members
to remain enrolled through distance learning opportunities while being deployed. This in itself is
a win-win. I strongly encourage you to support the Florida National Guard in this initiative to
expand their efforts to assist current and future members in the fulfillment of their civilian career
and educational ambitions. While assisting our citizen-soldiers in the pursuit of professional
education, we help ourselves by maintaining and even increasing our student populations.
A Florida National Guard representative will be contacting you in the near future to request
collocation. I wholeheartedly recommend you commit your support.
JDA/swj
c:
?
Commissioner Winn
CPT Kelly D. Chestnut
