March 18, 2022 - San Diego Mesa College has been accepted into the 2022 cohort of
52 California Community Colleges to utilize the Military Articulation Platform (MAP),
which allows student veterans to maximize academic credits for prior learning acquired through
their military service. MAP is an online system that matches college courses to American
Council on Education (ACE) Military Guide recommendations. Articulation decisions
for Mesa College courses will ultimately be made with input from faculty, evaluators,
and articulation officers. Once Mesa College is fully integrated into the cloud-based
system, students with military experience will be able to upload their joint services
transcripts into MAP and find out which credits they can receive for courses they
took and occupations they held while in the military. In effect, MAP will streamline
the process of earning college credits for prior military training.
“Being part of the Mil Map [Military Articulation Platform] project is very exciting,”
stated Dr. Shelly Hess, Dean of Curriculum and Instruction at the San Diego Community
College District. “CPL [credit for prior learning] has proven to be successful for
military students, it helps save them time and money because it enables them to use
the skills and knowledge they already have and put them towards degrees and certificates.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to be part of the new cohort and help faculty
use the tool to create more CPL opportunities for our deserving veterans and active
duty service members.”
Colleges were selected to participate in MAP based on their demonstrated support for
veteran students. Designated as a Military Friendly School, San Diego Mesa College
has 4,095 students with military experience enrolled in the 2021-2022 academic year.
Moving forward, MAP will have a significant impact on Mesa College military students’
ability to earn the credits they deserve for their military training.
“As someone who came from a very technical job in the Army (Satellite Communications
Operator/Maintainer) I was honestly shocked when
I enrolled [at Mesa] and found out that the only thing I would get credit for was
Exercise Science,” stated Jordan Agricula, former president of the San Diego Mesa College Student Veteran Organization and Mesa alum, who currently works
in the Mesa College Veterans and Records Office.
“It made me feel that the almost year-long training and several years of putting that
into practice was for nothing. Now, as a staff member, I often hear these same questions
and frustration coming from our enrolling student veterans. I believe having the MAP
in place will not only show our veterans that we recognize their experiences, but
it will also help jump start them in the right direction to graduate and transfer.”
The MAP project was developed by Norco College and the Riverside Community College
District in 2017 to ensure that student veterans receive
college credit for their military training and to improve equitable access of student
veterans to higher education, transfer, and completion. There are currently 64 California
Community Colleges participating in MAP, with plans to expand the system to all of
the state’s 116 community colleges.
For questions or more information on the Military Articulation Platform, contact Dr.
Toni Parsons at mparsons@sdccd.edu.
Student veterans may direct their questions to the San Diego Mesa College Veterans Success Center at SDMesaVets@sdccd.edu.
Find San Diego Mesa College on Social Media:
Facebook.com: sandiegomesacollege
Twitter.com: sdmesacollege
Instagram.com: sdmesacollege and sdmesaeops
Youtube: youtube.com: sdmesacollege
Snapchat: sdmesacollege
LinkedIn: San Diego Mesa College
Prez Pam Luster: twitter.com: sdmesaprez
Tags: Veterans, Press Release, Veterans Success Center, Military Friendly
Tags: Press Release, Credit for Prior Learning, Veterans, Military Articulation Platform
