Tag: EDUCATION

After my previous blog, I went downstairs to meet everyone for the bus rides over to the BBQ. The organizers split us up into our two teams East and West and that's where the competition began. I walked through the gate and found my player, J.R. Ferguson, #53, Team East. I had watched him on the videos I'd Googled so I knew I was getting a pretty talented and well-spoken player. I was not wrong but where I thought he couldn't surprise me, I completely underestimated him. J.R. is all the well-mannered young man I thought he was and then some. We hit it off right away and talked about where he was from, what his goals are and well, a lot about football. I know there may be some recruiters from various colleges that are wondering if he might have told me where he's going to school (J.R. hasn't made his decision known yet) but he hasn't. :) I'll save ya'll the trouble of reading through the rest of this post!

What everyone should know about this young man is that he's courteous and a gentleman. When the competitors for the East vs. West push ups, sit ups and eat-off competition were in the heat (Team East WON, of course!), he politely asked some very big ball players to let us through so my sister and I could see. Later on, while all of us had gathered at the hotel to watch a college ball game on huge screens and eat Hooters wings, I met a couple of J.R.'s coaches, Bill Tierney and Andy (Assistant/Chaperone Coaches) from Don Bosco High School in New Jersey. Bill talked to J.R. about his school work and commented on his dedication and commitment. He said J.R. was a smart kid, too, but not before he razzed him a little bit about the defensive end from Team West. THAT guy looked pretty big... but I'm pretty confident J.R. is way faster on his feet. He's also got some moves. : )

Not too long after we got to the latter event, I pulled out the new Flip video recorder I got from my sister for New Year's. I did a short interview and then handed it over to J.R. to take the reigns. J.R. was a natural. A complete and utter natural both in front of and behind the camera. He proceeded to make his way across the room and back again, interviewing players and their Soldier Heroes. It was jaw-dropping amazing. Here's a guy who knows what he wants to go to school for... Business Administration and Broadcast Communications because he wants to own his own business and become a sportscaster. He doesn't just think about football, he knows what he wants to do along with and beyond football. When I asked him earlier why he hadn't picked a college yet, he said that the pressure to pick a school can be tough and that recruiters stay on these guys to make a choice. His main missions? It's not to pick a college or stress about what is or isn't the best choice, he's looking forward to enjoying playing his last ball game in high school and then he wants to focus on basketball season. (Yes, he's a basketball player, too!)

After listening, watching and learning as J.R. interviewed all of these guys, I realized that there's an extreme amount of pressure on them to make decisions that will impact the rest of their lives, at the ages of 17 and 18. Where they go to college can set them on the path to pro ball and the rest of their lives. That's not unlike young women and men that join the military. They too, are making life-changing and very serious choices that require direction, commitment, dedication and passion, uncommon in many of their peers. J.R. asked a lot of the All Americans and the Soldiers, what they would tell young Americans that were dreaming of going into the military or playing college football and you know what most of them said? "Put school first, study hard, work hard and stick with it."

It's amazing, watching them. I am in awe of the character of these young men and I have high hopes for all of them. You could feel the energy in the air. There was this sense of something very special going on in that room.

In just a couple of short hours, people from all walks of life and from two different career paths, generations and even some genders (service women Soldier Heroes matched up with All American players) came together and found that we have so much more in common than we could have anticipated.

It is truly, such a great honor to be here. I will never forget this. I hope I can make as good of an impression on my All American, as he has on me. I was never really into college football, but I can tell you one thing, I'm on the edge of my seat with everyone else, about where J.R.'s going to school. I know that wherever it is, they'll have a dedicated new fan in this soldier.

It's almost 11:00 PM and I am going to try to upload the photos and videos that were taken tonight. I'll post the link to J.R.'s videos on a later post. I've already received word that they might be going up on the Army's YouTube page! Remember this, everyone... J.R. Ferguson is a name to be remembered.

Hit time is 0630 tomorrow... Off I go.

SSG Chase

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My name is Jonathan Freudenthal. I was born and raised in Nashville, TN. I attended college at Western Kentucky University and started my career in the US Army. I served on Active Duty for six years and was fortunate to have served in both Afghanistan and Iraq with some of the best military and civilian organizations in the world. I am currently working for US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) as both an Army Reservist and Federal Employee. As a civilian, I am a Strategic Planner (GS-13 level) for SOCOM and work in the Current Operations Directorate. As a Reservist, I am a Staff Sergeant (E-6) and I serve as a Counter-Terrorism Analyst.

I am fortunate that both elements of my professional career provide me the opportunity to support Special Operations Forces worldwide. I love being apart of the Army Reserve and fully enjoy the benefits that accompany that role. Not only do I get to further my career as a soldier but the Army Reserve affords me the opportunity to further my educational goals by utilizing both the Montgomery GI Bill and Tuition Assistance funds allowing me to attend school for free! Considering the constant rise in educational costs I find it very beneficial to use this method to obtain something I consider to be a priceless commodity.

I am very excited to be able to participate in this year's Army All-American Bowl. It truly is an honor to have been selected for such a unique event. I have never participated in an event at this level. I'm really looking forward to meeting the other Soldiers participating and getting to know some of the players involved in the game. Having played football through grade school as well as at the intramural level in college and within the Army I am hoping we get an opportunity to "throw the rock around" for a few. Maybe get a fun game of flag football together or something at that level. I'm hoping the weather holds and maybe we'll get lucky enough to have a warm front come through during the week. One can hope, right? Anyway, I've got to get back to packing. Look for more updates tomorrow from the event. Talk to you soon!

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My apologies to those who are reading this blog regularly for the scarcity of updates here in the past couple of weeks. As things start to come to a close here, the to-do list starts to grow. Not only am I starting to kick into high gear on the studying, but the I'm also figuring out the pieces of the logistics puzzle for leaving Monterey in December and conducting the move to Jordan at the beginning of next year. This move is a bit more complicated than most others have been because the considerations are somewhat unique. For example, I've been talking via email with some of the ICT'ers in Jordan to get a read on what accommodations I can expect. That information is going to determine what, if any, of my furniture is going to need to be shipped. Then I have to figure out what to do with vehicles and the like. As of now, I think one of the faculty at school is interested in buying my truck. Then there's also getting the diplomatic passport and visas, updating my official photo, rummaging through my stuff to prepare to pack up, figuring out my travel plans, etc. And of course, there's always the ever-present need to prepare for the DLPT and OPI coming in just a few short weeks. To that end, I've been spending more time working after school with the department chairperson to improve my weakest areas, and I'm about to add Saturdays as well. AND... I've had to do some physical therapy after classes to work on my shoulder (injured earlier this year). So bottom line here is, things have been quite busy!

But, it hasn't been all work and no play. I've done two very interesting things lately. First, Tom and I (and another Army buddy) decided to use a couple of weekends to get our PADI Open Water scuba certifications. We have our open water dives this coming weekend and we're all looking forward to that. We don't really have the time, but we wanted to get it done before we go to the Middle East because there will be some great diving opportunities there. Additionally, I used the Columbus Day weekend to travel to MEXICO to meet up with some of my old friends from my first duty station in Kansas. It was a great chance to pull back from the daily routine here and truly feel "away from it all" and recharge my batteries for the last big push at school.

My progress with school seems to be going okay. My biggest problem right now is getting enough sleep and exercise. Still haven't managed to find a balance between those things and schoolwork. Fortunately for my ego, it isn't just me. Almost everyone I know is in the same boat.
 

Me having breakfast in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico this past weekend. And for the record, that's iced tea in the foreground. Ha!

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I couldn't be happier to have the end somewhere in sight. Seems like this last 14 months has all been one big blur. I think perhaps the thing I am looking forward to most is getting my personality back.

Maybe it has been my own doing but it seems like I've really lost touch with the "old" me during this last year. My overall level of activity has diminished significantly and my normally active self has taken a back seat to the got-things-to-do side of me. Aside from that, I'm also looking forward to all the challenges and excitement of the year ahead. Whatever the future holds, it is going to feel good to have DLI behind me. I've learned some valuable things this last year... but I'll save the victory speech for later. I still have to get through 8 more weeks of school and it's crunch time, as they say. I've committed to expending every bit of energy I have left from now until the end.

That commitment didn't come without motivation. We recently took the 301 exam (first mid-term, third semester) and lets just say the results were not that good. Half the class failed at least one of the Reading and Listening exams, and the rest barely passed. I really think the school needs to re-look the format of these tests, and we've all stated as much. But, as with most big institutions, someone somewhere put a lot of work into making things as they are and they aren't in the mood generally to make changes, especially when the recommendations are coming from students with bad grades. My gripe isn't so much about the authentic materials being sampled during the test, its the fact that the questions are worded so strongly and the answers (multiple choice) are so close in meaning that even a native speaker would have difficulty getting them all correct. Additionally, you aren't permitted to take notes on any of the listening passages, which makes keeping track of two-minute long news clips challenging to begin with. Basically, you have to be near-native in your abilities to have even a chance at an A. But, enough griping. Don't want to make this place seem ridiculous, I just think it could be a little more reasonable when it comes to testing format.

On a lighter side of things, we had a great immersion program this past week. 3 days of nothing but Arabic seemed a lot smoother than the previous two immersion sessions. All of us were more confident and I have to say it was really fun this time. Also, Tom and I are joining another buddy to get our scuba certifications this coming weekend. I'm really looking forward to FINALLY getting in the water after being here for so long without even putting my feet in it.

This is what the inside of our classrooms look like.

Here's a shot of our Military Training Day, held this weekend. We have to maintain our skills as best we can while we are in school. In this case we are using a firing range simulator to "qualify" on the M9 pistol.

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Well, I'm back at it again. Thank God for one-week academic breaks! I really needed it. My mind was worn out and I needed to step away for a while. The trip back to see my family in NC was perfect. I made few plans for the week and took each day as it came. I loved NOT planning and being on a schedule for once. I did take an impromptu trip to the mountains for two days, but other than that... just hung out with the family and some good friends. I even did some liesure reading! Whoa!

But... now it's back to work, and crunch time. Just over four months to go and my game just flat-out sucks right now. Just being honest. The break gave me time to reflect on what I needed to do and I've re-dedicated myself to getting it done. Better time management and a study plan are the jumping off points. Beyond that, better use of available resources and less distractors (some Call of Duty 4 players out there may find their scores going up now...).

It's good to be back

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Well... taking a peak around the other blogs I've noticed that my updates aren't coming quite as frequently as others. I suppose the main reasons for that are that I haven't found anything lately to be that blog-worthy, and I've had to focus quite a bit on studying. There have been a few developments lately, though, so I figure its time for an update. Primarily, the victory I reported in Listening on the last unit exam was short lived, as immediately after my last post I learned that I received a C in Reading as well as in Speaking. It felt a lot like getting kicked in the ribs. Historically, I've always done very well in Reading... better than average at least. Speaking is something that hasn't received much focus since we've started the course, but despite that I've always been in the "B" range. So, it was tough to receive my new GPA and learn that it had fallen below a 3.0, again. I suppose the thing that bothers me is the thought that it would be nice, at some point, to REALLY do well on an exam and have something to show for the hard work that goes into preparing to take them.

Well... as I was telling some of my colleagues at lunch yesterday, DLI has the reputation for producing some of the best linguists in the world, and NOT because its an easy school.

We finished the next unit exam this week... which is another reason I've been busy. This one was tough. We heard ahead of time that it was one of the hardest. As I write this, we are waiting to receive our grades. I'm not too enthusiastic. Really... I need a break. We all do.

Fortunately we have reached the point in our training where we get to take one week off for academic break, and it coincides with the 4th of July holiday so hopefully everyone will be heading home and getting their minds off of Arabic for a while. I know I will be. Can't wait to get my mind off of studying 24/7. Though when I get back, we will be on the home stretch and I really need to buckle down.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

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Great news!  The Department of Defense just announced rules governing the transferability of the new Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits.  As I'm sure you've heard, the Post-9/11 GI Bill offers significant education benefits for virtually all service members who have completed minimum terms of service since the terrorist attacks of 2001.  Many of these benefits are, for the first time, available to officers (including West Point graduates like me) and can be transferred to spouses and children for their use.

"Service members may be eligible for the “Post 9/11 GI Bill” if they served at least 90 aggregate days on active duty on or after Sept. 11, 2001, and were honorably discharged. Based on the length of active duty service, members are entitled to a percentage of the cost of tuition and fees, not to exceed the most expensive in-state undergraduate tuition at a public institution of higher learning. Members not on active duty may also receive a monthly living stipend equal to the basic allowance for housing payable to a military E-5 with dependents, and to an annual $1,000 stipend for books and supplies."

In conjunction with the new financial incentives for Judge Advocates I mentioned last time and the many education opportunities built into a JAG career, it's beginning to get really tough for the private sector to match the total package the JAG Corps offers

.....

While we're on the subject of good deals, I've got to mention health care.  I've never really been clued in to the military healthcare benefit.  I've only been married a few years, and during that time my wife has used her own health insurance to take care of her and Caleb.  I found out today that might not have been the best choice.  As part of our preparation for our move to the Judge Advocate General's School, we sat down with a TriCare advisor at our local medical clinic to get schooled on how our 'new' health care will work.  In a nutshell, it looks easy and relatively cheap.  I'm still sorting out the details (and comparing it to what we might have to pay under my wife's existing coverage), but it likes right now like we're likely to save a good piece of change.  That's always good news.

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Hi again, I just wanted to let you all know what life is like working in the Adjutant General School at Ft. Jackson, SC. Prior to being assigned to the AG Proponent/Leader Development Division at the AG School I was assigned to MTOE or Operating Force units, coming from the 1st Cavalry Division at Ft. Hood. At first it was hard to get used to working with all of the civilians here at the school, but as time has went on it has become easier. I was not used to having civilians in charge of mostly everything. They run the awards ceremonies and so forth. There are more civilians that work here than Soldiers and 99% of the Soldiers are NCOs. We have no lower ranking Soldiers to pull details so we have to do them. There are only 4 people who work in my section and I am the only enlisted person. So, if there is a detail, I have to pull it most of the time. This is also hard to get used to. Working on the TDA or Generating Force side of the Army is very different. Although we are important part of the Army it is very different. Yes it is very nice to be stable, not have to worry about deploying; getting to go home at regular hours, but it is a different beast. I am very glad that I have the chance to work here because it has allowed me to spend more time with my wife and kids and that has been wonderful. Here in the section that I work in we deal with all of the 42A Human Resources structure or slots. If something has to be changed, deleted, or added we do it and that goes for the Reserves and National Guard as well. We also do leader development for all of our 42As, we write the Proponent Information Packets for the Senior Enlisted Boards (Active Duty), I run the AG Proponent/Leader Development S1 Net page, and we brief the 42A BNCOC and ANCOC classes and much more. This job is very rewarding and I am blessed to have the opportunity to work here. So, that is what life is like here in the School House. Take care
 

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I've had a major victory this week. I've FINALLY scored higher than a C in Listening. Last week we had several exams, to include a mid-term-like exam. On both the Unit 8 and the mid-term I scored a solid "B" in Listening. I think a major contributing factor to this was that I pushed through several all-nighters listening to every single audio clip I could find from the last few weeks before the test. Or... maybe I'm just finally starting to "get it". Whatever the case, it was a HUGE relief to find out how well I did. It was really getting tiring to put in so much effort only to come back with C's.

Some other good news: we've moved classrooms to another building! Okay so that really doesn't make for exciting reading but when you've been staring at the same four walls for months on end and doing the same repetitive routine every single day you come to appreciate a little change. Not to mention, the new classrooms are in a newer one-story building, open to the outdoors, and are directly beside the Java Cafe. No more climbing stairs and having to rush to go grab coffee during breaks. Sweet. I'll post a photo soon.

Speaking of photos, here are a couple from the annual Language Day festival that DLI hosts every year. This event brings high-school students from the surrounding area onto DLI to watch cultural performances performed by students, eat foreign foods, and explore life at DLI through talking with students from all the various language programs. I spent a little time in the Arabic Speaking Club room and had the opportunity to meet some of these high school students throughout the day. It was interesting to play the role of an interpreter as they asked the native Arabic speaker who leads the speaking club, Mr. John Kaninya, lots of questions about the Middle East and Arabic.

A bird's eye view of Language Day festivities from the Speaking Club's room. Note the pieces of the Berlin Wall in the center and food vending tents on the right. Stage in the background.

A few Arabic students in traditional clothing. From left to right, Morocco/Tunisia, Syria/Lebanon, Arabian Peninsula.

Students from the Russian school performing a traditional dance.

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It always seems to me that no matter how much I study or how much extra effort I seem to give, I consistently feel as if I've done nothing at all. As usual, exam week is upon us and I'm planning a late night to squeeze in as much Arabic as possible. The schedule for the week runs like this:

Monday P.M.            Unit 8 Speaking Test

Tuesday P.M.           Unit 8 Test Feedback

Thursday A.M.          2 to 5-digit Numbers Test and Culture Test

Thursday P.M.          Semester 2 Mid-Term Speaking Test

Friday A.M.              Semester 2 Mid-Term Reading and Listening Tests

Needless to say, my fun meter is pegged during exam weeks like these. 

I'll admit that this time is especially difficult because we did not have any exams for Unit 7, which means we haven't taken tests in two months. Like most people in the class, I let myself take a little break... took my foot off the gas a little for the sake of sanity. 

I've really had to get my head back in the game for this round. Not expecting to set the curve by any means... more like just hoping to stay above the 3.0 line if at all possible. Listening continues to kick my butt regularly. We'll see what happens.

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