NORFOLK, Va. — As military members reach the end of their post, the question for many of them might be, 'what's next?'
For one military mom, she has a plan, a lesson plan you could say.
Yvelisse Garcia is working as a meteorologist for the Navy, stationed in Virginia Beach, but she's also on her way to receiving a diploma and a classroom desk to call her own. She's hoping by 2025, she'll be ready for a career change that she says isn't too different from what she's doing now.
"At my current command, I'm an instructor in the training department so it kind of has similarities and it's a lot of micromanaging, which I feel would also help wrangling kids," said Garcia.
Garcia said she knows the industry has faced a major challenge in the past few years, especially in Virginia. A report from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission shows before the current school year, more than 10,000 teachers left the workforce and just over 7,000 new ones took those positions.
"It's a little sad, but I'm not surprised that it happened," said Garcia.
To help fill the gap, Garcia said she wants to give teaching a try, a career she says she's longed to pursue since she was a child.
"Growing up in New York, in a more urbanized area, teachers weren't really engaged; they didn't have that interaction where it was personalized, and I knew I wanted to go into that field so that I could make an impact on children's lives," explains Garcia.
She said her goal to teach kindergarten, or first grade would be nearly impossible if not for Western Governor's University's Teacher College. Next year, she'll receive her bachelor's degree in elementary education and classroom experience.
WGU said the school recognizes GI benefits given to military members and offers special scholarships on top of them. Rebecca Watts, with the school, said the goal is to help allow service members to graduate with little or no debt at all which isn't always a possibility for military members.
"In a traditional education preparatory model, it's really difficult to do that and do active military service. You can't be in two places at one time it is simply impossible," said Watts
When her post is over, Garcia will still need to get licensed in the state. But she said the transition to teacher has been made a lot easier.
