Eric Cox was deployed multiple times to Afghanistan and Iraq while he was in the U.S. Army. During those deployments, he worked with medics and saw the tasks they performed were essential on the battlefield.
"I thought it was very compelling what they could do with the training that they had," said Cox, a veteran who is pursing a nursing degree at Montgomery County Community College. "After I retired, I was working as a photographer for a few years and kind of lost interest in that. I thought nursing might be something I'd like to pursue, so here I am."
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At a Veterans Day event Monday, the Independence Blue Cross Foundation saluted Cox and other veterans pursuing college degrees through its Service Scholars Program, which enhances educational benefits offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Yellow Ribbon Program.
Through the Service Scholars Program, veteran students can receive scholarships, non-tuition aid and beyond-the-classroom supports like career development opportunities and mentoring from American Corporate Partners, an organization that helps veterans transitioning to civilian careers.
The Service Scholars Program currently supports more than 18 veteran students at five nursing schools: Community College of Philadelphia, Gwynedd Mercy University, Montgomery County Community College, Thomas Jefferson University and Villanova University.
Cox anticipates graduating from the program in August 2026.
"They've given me some money to help with things other than tuition – I can use it with books, transportation, things like that. It's been very beneficial," Cox said. "This always comes down to 'hey, can I go to school this semester?' or do I need to put it off – paying for tuition – because I'm running out of GI Bill benefits soon. This is helping me fill the gap essentially."
The Service Scholars Program aims to help veterans transition to civilian life while also addressing the national nursing shortage. Fewer than 200,000 nurses are projected to enter the workforce over the next decade, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But that amount only will fill the projected openings for a single year.
In Pennsylvania, the demand for nurses will increase by 9% by 2030. That puts Pennsylvania among the five states with the widest nursing gaps, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Andrea J. Lawrence, a service scholar at Community College of Philadelphia, did a tour in Afghanistan in 2011 when she was in the Army National Guard. When she came back in 2012, Lawrence knew she wanted to go into nursing, but she didn't have the prerequisites.
"This is a long journey for me," Lawrence said. "I currently work at the Veterans Administration, but I knew I wanted to go back to become a registered nurse. So, I applied to CCP; I'm in the PA 25 program for post bachelor's, second career nursing."
Fourteen months in, Lawrence said it is a "wonderful program, inexpensive, and I'm able to fit it into my lifestyle while I work. It's a huge cost savings – community college."
Heather Major, executive director of the IBX Foundation, oversees IBX's philanthropic initiatives, including the Service Scholars Program.
"We have been dedicated as a company and as a foundation to nursing education for over two decades," Major said. "When we launched our foundation in 2011, there was an opportunity to continue our scholarship support to 21 area nursing schools, which we've done."
IBX has looked to evolve these programs to ensure that they're strengthening the nurse workforce through different opportunities.
"This was a really great time for us as an entity to work with these schools differently and to make sure that we're also addressing the needs of veterans who are transitioning out of the military," Major said.
Since launching the Service Scholars Program, Major said IBX has learned "there are a lot of uncertainties for veterans who are looking to leave their military service and have a meaningful career as a civilian. Some of those uncertainties are financial and some of those are career itself. At the top are where to access an education and how to access an education."
Through the program, Major said the IBX Foundation learned that the foundation can help ensure the credits veterans earn through their military experience are accepted at colleges and universities and that Yellow Ribbon Program benefits are underutilized. The Yellow Ribbon Program helps cover tuition and fee expenses of veterans attending private and out-of-state public schools.
Another lesson?
"Who are these students and how can we better support them within mentoring and career development, professional development?" Major said. "That's another opportunity that we took on as a cohort – we want these students to feel like they're part of a unit."