{"id":27422,"date":"2019-06-18T05:30:43","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T10:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=27422"},"modified":"2019-06-18T00:31:16","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T05:31:16","slug":"austin-peay-national-guard-partner-on-tuition-deferment-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2019\/06\/18\/austin-peay-national-guard-partner-on-tuition-deferment-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay, National Guard partner on tuition deferment program"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – On Monday, June 17th, 2019, Austin Peay State University (APSU) and the Tennessee Army National Guard announced they\u2019re partnering on a special tuition deferment program for Guard members.<\/p>\n

\"Lt.<\/a>

Lt. Col. John Rigdon, commander for the Recruiting and Retention Battalion of the Tennessee Army National Guard, greets retired Lt. Gen. Ronald Bailey, vice president for External Affairs at Austin Peay State University. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The program is an extension of the Tennessee STRONG Act, which provides Guard members tuition funding toward a first-time associate or bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

In the agreement, Austin Peay State University will cover the up-front tuition of eligible students, and the National Guard will reimburse APSU through the Tennessee STRONG Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese events are the kinds of things I\u2019m thankful for, to be at a really unique institution in a really unique community at a really unique time,\u201d Dr. Alisa White, APSU president, said to several Guard members who attended the ceremony. \u201cWe have 2,600 military-connected students. If you count every military-connected student at every other Tennessee university, public and private, we have more.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hearts are in it,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The Opportunity To Come Here<\/h3>\n
\"Staff<\/a>

Staff Sgt. Michael Howard, APSU military science instructor and Army National Guard recruiter, and Austin Peay State University President Dr. Alisa White hold the Tennessee STRONG Act deferment agreement. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

Lt. Col. John Rigdon, commander for the Recruiting and Retention Battalion of the Tennessee Army National Guard, echoed White\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the new battalion commander, and when I got in here, the first thing I heard was about what you\u2019ve got at APSU,\u201d he said. \u201cI have heard nothing but wonderful thing after wonderful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

[320left]Middle Tennessee Recruiting Commander Maj. Robert Hancock was an assistant professor of military science with the Austin Peay ROTC in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a special place in my heart,\u201d he said. \u201cI love the Govs. I love their program. Now that we have the STRONG Act, we can bring National Guardsmen to go to school here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a big relief,\u201d Hancock added. \u201cIt\u2019s going to give more people the opportunity to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n

You Make Us A Better Campus<\/h3>\n
\"In<\/a>

In the agreement, Austin Peay State University will cover the up-front tuition of eligible students, and the National Guard will reimburse Austin Peay through the Tennessee STRONG Act. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Tennessee STRONG Act stands for Support, Training and Renewing Opportunity for National Guardsmen and funds up to 120 credit hours for an associate or bachelor\u2019s degree. The act also supports the Drive to 55 goal of equipping 55 percent of Tennesseans with a degree or certificate by 2025. Former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed the act in April 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou all really mirror what we believe as educators,\u201d White told the Guardsmen. \u201cYou are lifelong educators, you are lifelong learners, and the folks who sign up to the National Guard really make a lifelong commitment to serve and to lead with continuing education and expertise.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor that, we want more of you,\u201d she continued. \u201cBecause you make us a better campus. You make us a better student body. You make us better faculty. You make us better administrators.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more about the Tennessee STRONG Act at Austin Peay, visit www.apsu.edu\/admissions\/tn-strong\/index.php<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – On Monday, June 17th, 2019, Austin Peay State University (APSU) and the Tennessee Army National Guard announced they\u2019re partnering on a special tuition deferment program for Guard members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[22711,23,11642,12466,262,8513,512,825,24758,33755,33757,33756,20672,23395,12682,33754,10007],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-78i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27423,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27422\/revisions\/27423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}