thedrifter
10-24-06, 06:44 AM
Moving on to bigger things
October 23,2006
JOE MILLER
DAILY NEWS STAFF
The Pythagorean theorem. Parallel and perpendicular lines. Acute and obtuse angles.
Many students in high school often wonder if they will ever use this stuff. But many Marines at Camp Lejeune see years later just how valuable it can be.
Coastal Carolina Community College teaches a program on base to help Marines with math, written communication and study skills, a type of refresher course, called the Military Academic Skills Program.
The program is designed both for Marines who want to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test and stay in the Corps and for those leaving the service and heading on to higher education.
“We try to help them improve … because they want to qualify for another (military occupational specialty),” said Coastal math instructor Shane Muravsky. “Some of the Marines are actually getting out … and want to go onto college.”
Program organizers say about half of the participants typically are preparing to return to civilian life, including Sgt. David Buenaventura from Long Beach, Calif., who wants to attend college and become a law enforcement officer.
Buenaventura said before the program he knew practically nothing about math. At the beginning, he said his math skills were only at about a middle school level but have since improved dramatically.
“As a Marine, I grasp it a lot better than I did when I was a kid in high school,” said Buenaventura, a member of the 2nd Battalion, 10th Marines.
The program’s professors say they’ve heard from Marines that they learn more during the four-week classes than in four years of high school.
“The adult learner is different than a teenager walking out of high school,” said Muravsky.
In the last four years, there were nearly 1,800 participants in the program and an 85 percent completion rate, college officials say.
“Command is committed to letting them go for four weeks,” said Ed Blizard who is also a Coastal math teacher and program instructor.
“It makes them better Marines.”
Sgt. William Payen, a seven-year Marine veteran and member of the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance, didn’t remember a lot of what he had learned in high school, but this program helped him jog it out of his memory.
“It’s like I’m kind of having a flashback,” he said.
The program has caught the attention of Erskine Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina system, who is considering a similar program for the universities.
Buenaventura believes if he had this type of program in high school, he wouldn’t be a Marine now.
“I’d be in Harvard,” he said.
Contact staff writer Joe Miller at jmiller@freedomenc.com, at 353-1171, Ext. 236 or at jmiller.encblogs.com
Ellie
October 23,2006
JOE MILLER
DAILY NEWS STAFF
The Pythagorean theorem. Parallel and perpendicular lines. Acute and obtuse angles.
Many students in high school often wonder if they will ever use this stuff. But many Marines at Camp Lejeune see years later just how valuable it can be.
Coastal Carolina Community College teaches a program on base to help Marines with math, written communication and study skills, a type of refresher course, called the Military Academic Skills Program.
The program is designed both for Marines who want to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test and stay in the Corps and for those leaving the service and heading on to higher education.
“We try to help them improve … because they want to qualify for another (military occupational specialty),” said Coastal math instructor Shane Muravsky. “Some of the Marines are actually getting out … and want to go onto college.”
Program organizers say about half of the participants typically are preparing to return to civilian life, including Sgt. David Buenaventura from Long Beach, Calif., who wants to attend college and become a law enforcement officer.
Buenaventura said before the program he knew practically nothing about math. At the beginning, he said his math skills were only at about a middle school level but have since improved dramatically.
“As a Marine, I grasp it a lot better than I did when I was a kid in high school,” said Buenaventura, a member of the 2nd Battalion, 10th Marines.
The program’s professors say they’ve heard from Marines that they learn more during the four-week classes than in four years of high school.
“The adult learner is different than a teenager walking out of high school,” said Muravsky.
In the last four years, there were nearly 1,800 participants in the program and an 85 percent completion rate, college officials say.
“Command is committed to letting them go for four weeks,” said Ed Blizard who is also a Coastal math teacher and program instructor.
“It makes them better Marines.”
Sgt. William Payen, a seven-year Marine veteran and member of the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance, didn’t remember a lot of what he had learned in high school, but this program helped him jog it out of his memory.
“It’s like I’m kind of having a flashback,” he said.
The program has caught the attention of Erskine Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina system, who is considering a similar program for the universities.
Buenaventura believes if he had this type of program in high school, he wouldn’t be a Marine now.
“I’d be in Harvard,” he said.
Contact staff writer Joe Miller at jmiller@freedomenc.com, at 353-1171, Ext. 236 or at jmiller.encblogs.com
Ellie