By RENEÉ BUSBY

Mobile Press-Register Staff Reporter

Courtesy of the Mobile Register 2010 © All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

Matthew Watkins, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, is shown March 8 on the University of Mobile campus, where he attends under the Yellow Ribbon benefit that helps subsidize private college for veterans, active-duty military and their dependents.

Editor’s Note: For more information about the GI Bill and enrolling at the University of Mobile, contact Charity Wittner in the UMobile Office of Enrollment Services at 251-442-2273 or 800-WIN-RAMS.

The yellow ribbon symbol has new meaning for U.S. Air Force veteran Matthew Watkins.

"It allowed me to get the education I wanted," Watkins said of the Yellow Ribbon provision in the Post 9/11 GI Bill. It pairs school dollars and federal money to cover tuition and fees above what students would pay to go to a public college.

Aid under the older GI Bill had been capped at cost for the most expensive public college in a veteran's home state.

The 27-year-old husband and father of two is a junior in communications at the University of Mobile who served as a senior airman in the Air Force.

Spring Hill College and the University of Mobile are among the 1,200 four-year private schools nationwide in the Yellow Ribbon program.

Participants have doubled since the benefits program began in August, according to Jo Schuda, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Schools agree to cover up to 50 percent of costs above the public university cap, and the federal government matches that aid dollar-for-dollar.

Charity Wittner, assistant director of financial aid at the University of Mobile, said the program has brought it 18 new students - half of them veterans and the others dependents of veterans.

Wittner said she does a little more "hand holding" for veterans filling out voluminous paperwork.

"My dad and grandad are military veterans," said Wittner, whose brother-in-law is stationed in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division.

George Sims, provost, said Spring Hill College has 13 students attending under the Yellow Ribbon benefit.

"For us, it's a happy spin-off in the process of trying to reach and recruit military veterans," Sims said.

Spring Hill sent staff to the education officers at various area military facilities, Sims said, for advice on how to get more military personnel enrolled.

To be eligible, a veteran must have served at least 36 months of active duty after Sept. 10, 2001, or have been "honorably discharged from active duty for a service-connected disability" after serving 30 continuous days after the terrorist attacks, according to the Veterans Administration.

Photo by Mike Kittrell, Mobile Press-Register Staff Photographer