Twitter
Facebook
The Ramstein Education Office hosted an education fair for all Department of Defense ID card holders and their families Jan. 31 at the Kaiserslautern Military Community Center on Ramstein.
This event is held annually to inspire people to get started on their education or to further pursue a degree. Sixteen different organizations from around the KMC area attended to inform the community about the educational opportunities available to them.
“These types of events are used to raise awareness. I think a lot of people would be surprised how many are not utilizing the tuition assistance that is available to them,” said Keith Davis, chief of education and training. The fair was held in the KMCC in order to reach the largest audience possible. The fair’s goal was to educate not only active duty members, but their spouses and children as well.
“It affects everyone, whether they have a degree or not,” said Mark Rix, education service specialist. “In today’s world, you need to have an education. We are able to help anyone get an education, whether it’s a dependent’s scholarship, a spouse using the GI Bill or active duty members continuing school while working a full time job.”
The Ramstein Education Office has won two major awards in the last two years highlighting their military customer service. In 2011, they were awarded the Government Agency Executive award and last year they were awarded the United States Air Forces in Europe Nathan Altschuler award.
“We are the busiest, most diverse education office in the United States Air Force,” said Davis. “There have been a lot of hurdles, but our excellence was still recognized. We want people to know we’ll take care of them and make it easy for them to achieve their goals.”
The Air Force is the only branch that has its own degree program. The Community College of the Air Force is a federally-chartered degree-granting institution that serves the U.S. Air Force’s enlisted total force. CCAF partnered with more than 90 affiliated Air Force schools, 82 education service offices located worldwide and more than 1,500 civilian academic institutions to serve more than 320,000 active, guard and reserve enlisted personnel, making CCAF the world’s largest community college system, said Rix.
“There are a lot of things you can do with an education; you can take it into society and your workplace. There are no negatives to having an education,” said Rix. “It’s like what Nelson Mandela said, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.’”
For more information contact the education office at 480-2032 or 06371/4802032.
