April 20, 2008
From active duty to college study

Area veterans use GI Bill aid to continue education

By SARAH WEBSTER
STAFF WRITER

There is something Melissa Ciriello, Luis Ruiz and Angel Quiles have in common. Besides having sacrificed personal freedoms and risked their lives to fight in the Gulf War, the trio has dreams of pursuing new careers with the assistance of military education benefits.

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Melissa Ciriello, 27, of Lacey is funding her education at Ocean County College in Toms River through the Montgomery GI Bill in hopes of one day becoming a nurse.

"I like helping people, and the job is secure," Ciriello said, and "I also can change my Navy occupation if I choose to."

Ciriello is in the U.S. Navy Reserve. For about four years, she has been stationed at Earle Naval Weapons Station, Middletown.

She served on active duty in the Navy from 1999 to 2003 and during that time was stationed on the USS La Moure County and the USS Carter Hall, homeported in Middle Creek, Va. She went on three tours overseas, one to South America during June 2000, one to the Mediterranean during June 2001 and one to the Mediterranean and in the Persian Gulf in 2003, she said.

A freshman at OCC, Ciriello said her transition into college life did not go so smoothly.

"If it wasn't for Robert Brown (financial aid adviser at OCC), I would have never figured out all the benefits of the GI Bill. I applied to many schools, but Robert was the most helpful adviser," she said. (Brown can be reached at rbrown@ocean.edu or (732) 255-0400, ext. 2315, for more information).

When Ciriello is not performing her reserve responsibilities at Earle, she is participating in the work/study program at OCC under Brown's supervision. She said instead of worrying about working a 40-hour week, she receives help from both work/study and the GI Bill to meet her financial needs.

"It's very flexible, and also it gets me to meet other veterans at the school," she said. "It's a great way to keep us connected."

Sophomore Luis Ruiz, 24, of Toms River funds his education at Ocean County College with the GI Bill and a military college fund "kicker" (a supplement to the GI Bill based on additional service and other factors.)

Ruiz is a Navy veteran attached to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., and served from 2001 to 2007. He spent nine months in 2004 and 2005 in Fallujah, Iraq, with the 2nd Marine Division.

He hopes to become a microbiologist.

"Unfortunately, they don't have that degree (at Ocean County College), but I'm getting my liberal arts degree, and then I'll transfer to a four-year school," he said.

Ruiz involves himself with other military veterans at school. He is president of OCC's XGI Club.

"Like any other kid, I decided to join the Navy to fund my college. I went through some rough times being in the military during wartime," he said.

Leaving the military and transitioning into the life of a college student was a difficult adjustment, he said, because he had been out of school for six years and because of the change in environment.

But XGI brought a feeling of familiarity, he added.

"The club is people that you know, people you're familiar with," he said. "We were all in the military."

Angel Quiles, 24, of Keansburg joined the Marines in July 2001, and spent three years stationed with the 1st Battalion 5th Marines in Camp Pendleton, Calif. During that time, he did two overseas tours, spending time mainly in Baghdad and Fallujah, Iraq, where he was wounded by a mortar that fell into a garage where he was parked in a Humvee.

Once back home, the veteran attended Brookdale Community College in Middletown, where he was honored as the Outstanding Student for Social Sciences, said Carol Ann Hafner, Brookdale spokeswoman.

Last fall, he transferred to Columbia University, an Ivy League school in New York.

Quiles started paying for college through the GI Bill but ran into difficulty when he transferred. He then applied to the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program, which completely funds education for disabled veterans who attend school in their state of residence.

"I reside in New Jersey and go to school in New York, so it was hard for them to come up with a decision," he said.

Eventually, the VA did agree to continue funding his education in political science and pre-law through the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program.

Quiles, a veterans' advocate, said, "Vets should be able to go to any school that they want to. The GI Bill is insufficient. With the GI Bill, all that we're receiving is just a debt."

He is the vice president of Military Veterans at Columbia University, Monmouth County Human Relations Commissioner representative to the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the incoming commander for VFW Post 4247 in Keyport.

"We're going to have so many vets coming out of the military. We need to go ahead and pay back these vets. We're not asking for a lot — we're just asking for what we deserve," he said.

Veterans deserve the best education possible, and if one wants to go to Harvard or Columbia, he or she should be able to, he said.

"We don't have enough scholarships or VA benefits to help us right now. With education inflation, you need more than a bachelors' (degree) to have a good income, and professional schooling costs lots of money," he said.

When veterans get educated, he said, they feel like they have a purpose in life and will strive to achieve more.

"Military members already have leadership skills. So if you keep improving these individuals, who already have these skills, that individual will become superb in life," Quiles said.

Ellie