From the Military One Source Website: The Department of Defense is expanding the Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts — MyCAA — for military spouses of active duty and activated Guard and Reserve service members worldwide beginning in mid May 2009. In mid May, MyCAA will officially open its doors for eligible military spouses worldwide to receive up to $6,000 of financial assistance to help pay for licenses, certifications and education in high growth, high demand portable career fields.
Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know about you, but this warms my little academic heart! More military spouses than ever are pursuing higher education, especially with the increase of accredited online campuses which help us as we follow our military member across the world. This is a wonderful resource to help defray the costs that come with the territory.
Hop onto the site and look around. I am pleased to announce I have already completed the process and am using the benefits for my summer session. The whole process took a week to do. Too easy. The only confusing part was figuring out how to get started…you have to create an account. After that, the site leads you through a series of screens where you fill in appropriate information. Additionally, you also have to contact your university’s Finance Office and let them know you have received this funding (there is a document to print out that you can fax/email them). If you have questions, there is a number to call and a counselor will talk you through it.
I highly encourage any milspouses seeking higher education to pursue this source of funding. What a great way to support the families of our military members!
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To all you spouses out there! First, thank you for your sacrifice! I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be in your shoes.
I have some awesome news! I work for National Laser Institute, and we are an educational facility that teaches laser hair removal, IPL photo facials, tattoo removal and MORE!!! We have just gotten approved by the VA that any military spouse can receive a $6000 scholarship to attend our school!!! Contact me for more information! While your husbands are away, why not start a fun and exciting career in laser aesthetics!!! You can be trained in as little as 8 days!!! Check us out! I look forward to hearing from you!!!
THANKFUL FOR MY MILITARY SPOUSE
I want to start by saying how grateful I am for my spouse, as all of my fellow soldiers are as well. Mary is very supportive of me and my military career and the military as a whole. One of the many reasons that I love Mary is her dedication to me and the military, her career and her drive to succeed. Unfortunately, Mary’s career has been negatively affected by the many moves that we have had to make in regards to tenure. Her career is very important to her as well as for her to feel that she assists me in providing financially for our family. In all reality, many employers are not apt to hire someone when they know they will only be able to stay three or four years. With our recent move to Northern Virginia, she has had a tough time finding employment in her field, much tougher than our other moves. As a businessman, I could understand this, but as a husband it hurts me to know that she isn’t given a chance even though she is qualified and sometimes overqualified, and it is due to her status as a military spouse. Mary tries to shrug it off and say that if the potential employer doesn’t support the military and her status as a spouse, then she does not need to work there anyway, but sometimes I know the rejection gets to her even though she tries to not let me know how much.
Mary has also been interested in completing her Bachelor’s Degree, so I was so excited to learn that starting August 1, that I could be eligible for the Post 9/11 GI Bill and in turn transfer the benefits to her as my dependent. I applaud the Department of Defense (DoD) for this and think it is definitely overdue. I am happy that the Army could provide our family with this benefit which could help to further her education and help her in the future, and for our post-military life.
In addition, Mary was told about the Military Spouse Career Advancement Account grant (My CAA) that is sponsored by the DoD and is handled through Military One Source. It is a $6,000 grant that is available to military spouses of active duty and activated Reserve and Guard service members which began in May of 2009. It is available to help pay for additional education, licenses and certifications. The process was very easy to do, once you get direction from Military One Source on how to get started.
I am very thankful to the DoD for providing the above benefits to my spouse in addition to the normal benefits that she gets. Mary is so excited and thankful as well. I am glad to know that this is a way to help with some of the sacrifices she has made.
And again thanks to my Mary and to all military spouses for all you do and all of your sacrifices.
Major Matt G. Dorsey, student, ILE 02-09 Class-29C, U.S. Army, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
The MyCAA funds can even entirely cover your education costs with certain schools. With Career Step (http://www.careerstep.com/mycaamoney/?uid=socmblogs), an online healthcare school, spouses can train for portable careers in medical transcription or medical coding and billing with all costs paid through the MyCAA funds. Check out http://www.careerstep.com/mycaamoney/?uid=socmblogs to learn more!
Vivian:
I received your letter of June 9th regarding the ODU scholarship funded by my late parents (they passed away within 6 weeks of each other in Dec. 2003 & Jan. 2004).
Having endured a PhD program, myself, and also as a mom, I was touched by your letter and have tried to locate you. The website above is for the Jazzercise Center I own in N. Va.–I live in D.C. but come often to Va. Beach–we have a family beach house there.
Would love to hear from you, but not expecting anything. Keep doing what you’re doing–it is impressive!
Best regards,
Anne Constant
i am a wife of an active army reservist who
was originaly scheduled to be deployed in
june he was injured in pre deployment trainig;
he now works as specialist for the military;
however during that time i received no financial assistance only medical; he sued
me for child support and won; he took my daughter and gave her to his mother; eventually due to child support i was paying which was garnished and in addition he also
received all my income tax checks; more importantly when i did have my daughter he filed income tax claiming her while he was away.
As a result i became almost homeless; i was evicted and now live in less comfortable
conditions.
do i have any recourse?
Military Spouses looking to use their CAA benefits- Please watch out for adds like are listed above in June. There is a specific way you are to apply and register for your CAA benefits. Operation LIfe transformed who is a partner and Supporter of MilSpouse as well as work closely with Military OneSource. We will take you step by step through the process to make it a snap for you as well as get you set up for your portable career- We work with active Duty Spouses, Caregiver Spouses, and Widow/Widowers of our fallen heroes.
For information please see more about us at: http://www.operationlifetransformed.org
or email me at ksaul@lifetransformed.org
thank you for all you do.
Kristina – Navy spouse of 21 yrs.
Hi, I have tried to sign up for the MYCAA financing and my school isnt listed and they told me it would take 90 days for them to add the school to the website! Well my school starts first thing september and i guess there is no way i will be attending. I understand this process takes time but not even being able to apply for 90 days. My husband is deployed to iraq. I wanted to go to school full time and have my degree by the time he gets back. Do i have any other options i tried the va thing but i doubt it will work and it takes 6 weeks to even get a response.