IWU is one of only 87 GEM schools in the country, only school in Indiana
In keeping with its efforts to support the educational needs of military personnel, Indiana Wesleyan University is partnering with the U.S. Air Force to help active-duty, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves personnel further their education through the General Education Mobile (GEM) program and the Air University Associate to Baccalaureate Cooperative (AU-ABC).
Both programs provide active duty, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves personnel serving anywhere in the world an opportunity to further their education online while serving. With 300,000 active, guard and reserve enlisted personnel, the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF) is the world’s largest community college system.
Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) is one of only 87 universities in the country approved for the GEM program, and it is the only GEM-approved university in Indiana. IWU is also one of just 64 approved AU-ABC schools in the country and one of two in Indiana.
“We are proud to be one of the few colleges accepted to participate in these Air Force programs,” said K.C. Haight, director of military and veteran recruitment at IWU-National & Global. “Both the GEM and the AU-ABC programs allow enlisted members to maximize their military experience while enrolling in an accelerated program that allows them to achieve their educational goals.”
IWU-National & Global has more than 10,000 adult learners throughout the world who study online or at 15 education centers in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. Airmen are required to complete 15 semester hours of general education to earn an Associate of Applied Science.
Enlisted airmen, when assigned to an Air Force occupational specialty, are admitted to the Community College of the Air Force, Haight said. The CCAF’s GEM program provides active duty, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve enlisted personnel the opportunity to complete their General Education requirements as a single block and from the same institution, allowing for faster completion of the CCAF Associate of Applied Science degree.
The Air University Associate to Baccalaureate Cooperative offers active duty, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves enlisted personnel who have earned an Associate of Applied Science through the CCAF to complete a bachelor’s degree from participating colleges and universities online. As an AU-ABC category 1 partner, Indiana Wesleyan University allows CCAF graduates to earn an approved bachelor’s degree with the guarantee that no more than 60 semester hours of additional credit will be required to complete their degree.
“Indiana Wesleyan University is honored to work with the Air Force to provide the men and women serving our country the ability to pursue their academic goals while serving,” said Matt Lucas, Art.D., chancellor of IWU-National & Global. “Our participation in these programs represents another way we are committing ourselves to helping those in the military further their education.”
Currently, students can earn a Bachelor of Science in Management through the AU-ABC program at Indiana Wesleyan University. The school is working to expand the number of bachelor’s degrees that active duty students can work towards.
“The U.S. Air Force promotes education pretty vigorously — in fact, it’s the largest degree-conferring institution in the country,” Haight said. “It behooves a university that wants to be military-friendly to work with the members of the military to maximize their military training.”
As part of its participation in the GEM and AU-ABC programs, IWU offers members of the military a preferred tuition rate of $250 per semester hour; a voucher of up to $200 per course to offset the cost of textbooks, resources and technology fees; and a dedicated military program representative. IWU also offers the ability to complete the courses completely online.