Two weeks ago we announced that veterans were no longer allowed to use their earned educational entitlements (e.g. the GI BillⓇ) at NSS. We offered tuition assistance to the 10 veterans who had already been accepted to NSS through a combination of scholarships and a modified version of NSS' Opportunity Tuition, our deferred tuition plan. Our goal was to remove the need to pay anything to the school before graduation so the student could use any available financial resources to cover the cost of living during class. As a result, 7 of the 10 students are still able to enroll in their original bootcamp. You can read our original blog post here and our follow up here.
In losing their entitlement these students lost not only their tuition reimbursement, but also their monthly housing allowance. For a full-time student living in the Nashville area, the housing allowance (or cost-of-living stipend) is around $2000/month (less for a part-time student). While we were still wrestling with how to help support their cost-of-living, something unexpected happened. A number of NSS graduates, who are veterans, asked for a way to financially help their fellow veterans.
For this reason, we’re launching this GoFundMe to give the community a way to support the cost of living needs of these veterans while they are enrolled at NSS. The 10 veterans impacted by this arbitrary revocation of our approval will be able to request support from this fund until they graduate or the fund has been exhausted. To cover the cost-of-living stipend for all 10 students, it would cost approximately $107,000. If support from the community exceeds the needs of these 10 students or should they choose not utilize the full fund, the remainder of the fund will be used towards scholarships and cost-of-living expenses for more veterans to attend NSS.
You can make your donation here.