Why you should consider Alternatives to Military Service:
Just the Facts:
***According to the US Veterans Administration, only 35% of veterans receive GI Bill funds for college, while 70% of students who apply for civilian financial aid receive help paying for college.
***
Mangum and Ball, Ohio State researchers who received funding from the military, found that only 12% of male veterans and 6% of female veterans surveyed made any use of skills learned in the military in their civilian jobs.
***
Prominent labor policy specialist Stephen Barley found that the average recent
veteran will earn between 11% and 19% less than non-veterans from comparable socioeconomic backgrounds
Best General Purpose Sites
Americorps http://www.americorps.org/
Combines jobs, travel, community service and training with ways to earn money for college and relief from student loans. Programs for teens and for upper level college students.
Youth & Militarism Site http://webarchive.afsc.org/youthmil/alternatives/altjob.htm
American Friends service site has one broken link but provide excellent alternatives to War for youth including a site on social activism!
Facts.org - http://www.facts.org
Interactive planning site from the Florida Department of Education with lots of excellent information including access to your records so you can evaluate what you are eligible for.
Idealist Social Action Website - http://www.idealist.org/firsttime.html
List many job and volunteer opportunities that include training, education and travel
Education
Fastweb - http://fastweb.monster.com/fastweb/content/aboutus/index.ptml?
Online database with over 600,000 scholarships matched to your needs with an online application process
Bright Futures Scholarships - http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/ssfad/bf/
There are both academic and vocational versions of this Florida scholarship opportunity
Florida College Planner - http://www.floridanext.com
A guide to the more than 1 Billion $$ in scholarships offered in Florida each year
Florida Assoc. of Student financial Aid Administrators -http://www.fasfaa.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=25677&orgId=fasfaa
Their goal is to promote financial aid awareness - lots of "how to's" here
Jobs and Training
Santa Fe Community College - http://inst.sfcc.edu/~intech/
Apprenticeship programs pay you to go to school!
America's Job Bank - http://www.ajb.org/
Career one stop site with lots of guides to finding a career. Register to take self assessments to discover your job skills, apply for financial aid and jobs online
Job Corps - http://jobcorps.dol.gov/
Job training and support from US Department of Labor for low income Youth
Inroads Home
- http://www.inroads.org/
Leadership training and internships for talented minority youth
Employment & Training for Youth - http://www.doleta.gov/youth_services/
US Department of Labor site lists many resources
Travel
See Americorps (above) for travel inside the US with pay and help for college
Religious sponsored travel: By denomination but all denominations do not require youth to belong to their church:
Presbyterian Student Service - http://www.pcusa.org/nvo/
Young Adult travel - internships, Mission service, Travel Summer or year long
Methodist - Global Justice Volunteers
- http://gbgm-umc.org/vim/features/globalj.htm
International travel for stud nets with one year of college - 2-6 months in a community abroad.
American Friends Service Opportunities -
http://www.afsc.org/volunteering/default.htm
In the US and abroad