PERRYSBURG, Ohio — A federally supported program to help veterans connect with the college of their choice will soon be available here in Northwest Ohio.
Owens Community College was recently approved for a $1.4 million federal grant to help launch the first Veterans Upward Bound Program in Ohio.
"Fill out financial aid, paperwork and testing that's associated with it, if they don't have a high school equivalency we can connect them to those resources as well," Erica Parish, the executive dean of academic affairs at Owens, said. "So, the funding will go to direct service for veterans and their families."
The program also provides assessment and enhancement of basic skills through counseling, mentoring, tutoring and academic instruction.
Parish said Owens will also be hiring new staff to fill the need.
It is not an Owens enrollment program itself, but will be run by Owens' staff to connect veterans to whichever college they chose to attend.
"This is to connect veterans to any college in the state, pretty much, or anywhere they want to go. If they want to go out to California, we will help them to do that, anywhere they want to go," Parish said.
She said the administrative setup for the new program should be in place in the next month or two, at which point the program will be fully up and running. Any Northwest Ohio veterans interested in utilizing the Veterans Upward Bound Program can reach out to the Owens Community College admissions office.