It’s generally assumed that veterans have a sweet deal with all kinds of school benefits and educational grants. The reality, though, is that there are various programs and qualifying factors that mean that some can receive educational grants, while others struggle to pay off hefty student loans, just as civilians do.
There are a substantial number of service members who seek higher education during, before, or after their service, and have to take out costly loans to pay for their education. Contrary to most people’s assumptions, there aren’t necessarily educational grants for all military personnel and veterans to seek debt relief.
As a response to this problem, two veterans, Eli Williamson and Roy Brown, started a non-profit called Leave No Veteran Behind, which provides educational grants to help debt-burdened veterans repay their student loans.
Because not all veterans are covered under government grant programs, Leave No Veteran Behind addresses the issue by taking private donations and applying them directly to veterans’ student loan accounts. In return, all veterans helped through the program are required to give back 100 hours of community service.
Leave No Veteran Behind works in conjunction with other non-profit organizations, educational institutions, governmental agencies, and religious social service groups so that veterans get the chance to use their skills to improve people’s lives in their communities and elsewhere in the country.
Leave No Veteran Behind is a 501(c)(3) organization that received $65,000 in start-up funding, plus a big boost from being endorsed by Oprah Winfrey. They’ve since begun enrolling veterans, and in three weeks’ time, they enrolled 14 veterans and received inquiries from many more who are interested in being helped by these education grants.
The initial interest was just a result of publicity through personal contacts and word of mouth. Now that other forms of outreach are in progress, especially publicity as influential as a mention from Oprah, many more veterans will be seeking help. Consequently, Leave No Veteran Behind seeks monetary donations from individuals, foundations, and corporations to continue their direct assistance to veterans with education grants.
If you’d like to learn how you can benefit from educational grants from this organization, or if you’d like to help them out, or if you’d just like to learn more, you can visit them at LeaveNoVeteranBehind.org.