Greetings GI Bill Partners,

As part of the Digital GI Bill® modernization effort, Enrollment Manager will go live on March 6, 2023. This milestone could not have been achieved without input from School Certifying Officials (SCOs), like you. Over the past year, we listened to you and gathered insight as to what functionality would make your jobs easier so that you could spend more time where it counts, with students.

We are excited to provide you with an intuitive, user-friendly system to certify and submit student enrollments. By incorporating your feedback and hearing from you at usability testing sessions throughout the year, we are confident this is a system built for SCOs, with SCOs.  

I want to personally thank you for all your support and feedback throughout the development process that has helped shape Enrollment Manager. With the Digital GI Bill modernization efforts, we aim to provide world class service to students and trainees, and I am grateful for our partnership with you.

Respectfully,

Joseph L. Garcia

Executive Director, Education Service

Completing the Enrollment Manager trainings in the SCO Portal, does not grant you immediate access to the VA Education Platform Portal and Enrollment Manager. They will be open for SCOs on Monday, March 6, 2023. 

Until then, please create your ID.me or Login.gov account.  Please watch this video to learn how to create your ID.me account to log in to Enrollment Manager. You can visit VA & ID.me Help Center if assistance is needed (VA & ID.me – ID.me Help Center).

When planning one’s future, having a helping hand providing guidance is a worthwhile connection. Kent State University’s (KSU) Bob and Ann Woolf Veteran Career Initiative (VCI) provides student and graduate Veterans with valuable business and personal connections that help with translating military experience into a civilian resume.

VCI, a donor funded partnership between the Center for Adult and Veteran Services (CAVS) and Career Exploration and Development, pairs Veterans who have graduated in the past three to fifteen years with current student Veterans. The program aims to help student Veterans plan for their careers, translate service skills to civilian competencies and gain mentorship from Kent State Veterans.

VCI has finished its 3^rd cohort of students with 35 students having completed over 3 years.  The 2022-2023 cohort, set to be biggest yet, has 20 enrolled student Veterans.

A large number of military connected students are supported by KSU. The unique experience that every military student and mentor has is important because they’re able to link shared military experiences to civilian life. Transitioning from one to the other can be a challenge for many, so these commonalities help everyone involved. 

“We encourage monthly connections while they're a part of the program,” Director of Career Services for the Admiral Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship Kristin Williams said. “Every single one of our students has reported that they continue those connections with their mentor after the program has ended.”

This program allows students to create new connection and gain news skills that will drive their careers forward.

VA--ONCE will sunset tomorrow, February 24, at 8 p.m. EST to migrate data to Enrollment Manager which will become available to School Certifying Officials on Monday, March 6, 2023. We highly encourage you to submit any unsubmitted enrollments or changes, and to look back through past records to make sure there are no old unsubmitted documents (status 2 or 3).

The transition period will take place Saturday, February 25, 2023 – Sunday, March 5, 2023. During this time, VA will not accept any enrollment certifications. We encourage you to attend The Enrollment Manager Experience, a series of office hour sessions that will be hosted during the transition period to help you learn more about Enrollment Manager. Please register for the session that works best for you:

• Tuesday, February 28, 2023, sessions (registration full)
• Wednesday, March 1, 2023, sessions
• Thursday, March 2, 2023, sessions
• Friday, March 3, 2023, session

Additionally, Education Service leadership is hosting soft launch events with a small group of selected SCOs to validate the system before it becomes widely available.

If you have not already, please complete your EM 100, 101 and 102 training courses and pass the final assessment by Monday, February 27. The three trainings should take less than 2.5 hours to complete.

Failure to complete your trainings by the deadline may result in you being unable to perform the necessary activities in Enrollment Manager to submit enrollments and could cause disruptions in your students’ Monthly Housing Allowance payments, as well as tuition and fees payments to your school. We appreciate all your input and feedback that has made this new system possible.  For more information, check out Enrollment Manager frequently asked questions webpage

Has your office recently had a change of School Certifying Official? If so, be sure to follow the proper protocol by completing a VA Form 22-8794 and sending it to your Education Liaison Representative. This helps VA to ensure that we have the correct information in our systems, including the Web Enabled Approvement Management System (WEAMS). As well, our primary method of updating SCOs is through GovDelivery email updates. Ensuring that your school’s SCO contact information helps to ensure that your school is receiving important updates from VA.

Regardless of where your students are in their education journey, VA has a useful resource that can help them make decisions about what to do next. It’s a three-part guide, “Building Your Future with the GI Bill^®”:

• Part One: A Guide to Choosing Your Education Pathway
• Part Two: A Guide to Understanding Your Benefits
• Part Three: A Guide to Furthering Your Career

Please share with students as you think will be helpful.

You can help students studying for STEM degrees by letting them know about the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship. This scholarship is for Veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill^® and Fry Scholars and allows them to extend their benefits by up to 9 months or $30,000.

Students must:

• Be enrolled in a qualifying STEM program,
• Have completed 60 standard credit hours (or 90 quarter credit hours) towards their degree,
• Have 6 months or less of their benefits left (if they apply too soon, they’ll be denied).

Students often don’t now about benefit supplements like this, so your help sharing the word can make a real difference! If they need more information, or want to apply, you can share our webpage on the benefit or our explanatory postcard.

Federal Hall has been a gathering place for free speech throughout our Nation's history. Following ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788, the new federal government began operating on March 4, 1789. The Senate convened for the first time on that date, but only eight of the 12 members needed to form a quorum appeared in the new chamber at New York City's Federal Hall.

Once a quorum was established, the Senate turned to its first order of business, certifying the election of President George Washington and preparing for the Nation's first presidential inauguration.

Federal Hall, New York City

Credit: U.S. Senate Historical Office