The Brave, The Bold, The Brilliant
Brenau University is proud to help its students begin new chapters armed with the skills to succeed in their chosen careers. For active-duty and veteran students, beginning a second career is perhaps more challenging, but Brenau aims to help ease the transition.
Brenau University is ranked one of the Best Colleges for Veterans in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and is designated as a Military Friendly School by Victory Media for the third consecutive year. Among the students enrolled at Brenau are a number of our nation’s heroes: veterans or active-duty military personnel working during what free time they have to pursue an education.
Rosanne Short, director of Brenau’s Veteran Military Services, takes great pride in and puts great effort into working closely with the university’s military students to ensure they can balance service life and their education. She has created policies to accommodate time zone differences for students who are suddenly deployed out of state, and if any student is facing difficulties in getting their work done, she jumps right in to help.
“We just had two online military students, husband and wife, that were suddenly transferred to California,” says Short. “He deployed when the California wildfires started. The wife had to evacuate the home with two toddlers and stay in a hotel. Online classes were the last thing she could think about. It was so much disruption at one time, we intervened to make sure she didn’t fail because of their circumstances and that she and her husband could retake the classes.”
Dedication and passion to see military students succeed draws many who serve or have served in the U.S. armed forces to Brenau University. Here are three stories from our military students and alumni.
Randal Robison: A new calling
Retired Army chaplain Randal Robison is pursuing a MAT with an emphasis on special needs. It was inspired by his experience raising his four children, especially his son Nolen, who has Down syndrome.
Sandy Strong: giving back
Sandy Strong teaches second grade at Edmonds Elementary in Forest Park, Georgia, he aspires to help the underprivileged children in his community by establishing an after-school boys club.
Christopher Russell: Motivated to Succeed
After 10 years of service in the Navy, Christopher Russell, BU ’98, knew he wanted something more.At age 26, Russell was up for shore duty and wanted to find a location near a college campus. He wound up in Kings Bay, Georgia.
In summer 2006, Brenau President Ed Schrader attended a worldwide symposium on military education and decided to create a reduced tuition rate of $250 per credit hour for military students and to give veterans and spouses a 10 percent tuition discount. Implemented in 2009 and originally offered only for online classes, the Brenau Military Discount Program was later expanded across all platforms to include on-ground classes at all five campuses. This past year, Brenau had about 245 military students, including 54 students on active duty, as well as 80 female and 60 male veterans.
