Holloman students excel

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Chase Cannon
  • 49th Wing Public Affairs
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M., --  Growing up as a military child comes with many ups and downs- from experiencing the thrills of going to work with your parents, seeing them work towards protecting the country, to being uprooted and forced to move where your mother or father is needed.

For all these ups and downs a group called the Military Child Education Coalition was formed, with a mission to ensure fair and equal treatment is given to military dependents, as well as create programs that ease the social transition of moving to a new school.

Recently the partnership between Holloman Air Force Base and Alamogordo Public Schools was recognized as having one of the best programs benefiting the students as they make these transitions from one school to another.

The Student 2 Student program at Alamogordo public schools was given the "Pete" Taylor Partnership of Excellence Award by Lieutenant General David L. Goldfein, Director, Joint Staff, at the Pentagon.

The award recognizes successful partnerships and projects benefiting military children and is given in two areas: Kindergarten-12th grade and in higher education, which is a new category in 2014.

"The Alamogordo High School Student 2 Student program was one of seven out of 325 world-wide to send a delegation of students to the Military Child Education Coalition National Training Seminar last month in Washington, D.C," said Kathy Fuller. "Being chosen to send some of our students shows Holloman and Alamogordo that the work we're doing here is indeed making an impact in the lives of our military-connected students."

The Student 2 Student program for Holloman supports more than 50 military children on a regular basis through moves, deployments and other common struggles that military children go through.

"It's a great program, you get to meet new people who are going through the same thing you are," said Kelsi Moscrop-Blake, a military dependent. "It really helps to not feel alone. When I first joined, my dad was deployed, it was probably one of the hardest deployments I have gone through. Then I met another kid whose parents were also deployed and being able to talk about what we were going through and how it affected us and our families really helped me deal with it until my dad came home."

The Student 2 Student program is now being implemented at the three Alamogordo Middle Schools and will create an even larger environment for the healthy social and educational growth of the military child.

"Every school in the Alamogordo Public Schools District has military-connected children enrolled," said Fuller. "Our partnership guarantees that teachers and staff are aware of the unique needs and special circumstances of our children with a parent who is serving, and know how to be supportive of those children."