Morgantown, WV -- Marines of Recruiting Station Frederick presented career opportunities at the 2014 Student Success Summit in Morgantown, West Virginia, July 31, in an effort to inform educators about the military careers available and how students can apply the skills they learned while serving in the Marines when they return home.
“You earn college credits the entire time you’re in the military,” said Staff Sgt. Henry Ginn, the staff noncommissioned officer in charge of Recruiting Sub-Station Morgantown and a Grantville, Georgia native, when speaking at the summit on how military training will transition back to the civilian labor market.
Ginn focused on how to take military jobs and apply them to civilian jobs and vice versa drawing from other Marines’ experiences as well as his own personal experiences.
“I was able to train with civilian law enforcement and take that back to the military,” said Ginn.
The Marine presenters had a one-hour block during the two-day conference that was available for all the educators in the state of West Virginia to attend. The conference is geared toward dropout prevention and student success.
“(It) is a collaborative event focusing on creating seamless and supportive, lifelong, learning systems for our state's students,” according to the College Foundation West Virginia website.
The Marines focused on military jobs but also touched on the rigorous qualifications that students need to meet in order to get into the Marine Corps such as testing scores, moral qualities and tattoo policies.
“We are looking for the most highly qualified individuals at all times,” said Ginn.
After the presentation, Ginn’s counterpart, Staff Sgt. Dennis Miller, a recruiter transitioning off of recruiting duty, sat down and talked with Kelly Mordecki, a lead counselor from Beckley Center School and a board member with The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and the West Virginia Department of Education, regarding the misconceptions of military entrance and how to better prepare the students to accomplish their goals.
“I like all the individual attention, I like being able to ask the questions because some of these kids need to go somewhere better,” said Mordecki. “I have always been interested in the military, my uncle was in the military and I always want to know what they have to do to get in.”
The West Virginia Student Success Summit is held annually and is a collaborative effort of many West Virginia education enthusiasts to include The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, the College Foundation of West Virginia and High Schools across the state.
For more information, visit http://www.cfwvconnect.com/studentsuccesssummit.html.