Fort Bliss, TX –
Every year a group of students attending the Sergeant Major Academy (SGM-A) make an especially long trip from their home countries scattered across the globe to attend the SGM-A located at Fort Bliss, Texas. This group of International Military Students (IMS) come from many nations and for some it is their first time traveling to the United States. This situation can lead to unforeseen issues that the students have to resolve.
Servicemembers enrolled as IMS have a once in a lifetime opportunity, but also face challenges. With the arrival of a new group assigned to upcoming Sergeant Major Course Class 75, a new exercise has been implemented to assist students in making the transition by giving them a project to improve their own experience in their Army to take home with them. The goal is that upon graduation the Sergeants Major Course they will return to their country, present their solutions for improvement and put what they learned to immediate use.
Sgt. Maj. Daisy Sprukkelhorst from the Netherlands had some issues with her transfer paper work as she was a late replacement for another Soldier who could not attend the academy. Due to this she decided her project would be to create a manual to guide students through the administrative process and hopefully make the process easier for future students from the Netherlands.
Sprukkelhorst realized that some students need more information and clarity before starting the in-processing paperwork. “I was assigned on a very short notice before the in-processing, that made me need to run through the process very quickly. I experienced that not all the information is centered in one location.” Due to this she decided to develop a roadmap for international students as her project, which she hopes will be of use to future classes of international students.
She described that in her experience as an international student there is a lot of paperwork that needs to be completed before arriving in the United States. The current set of instructions can be unclear, especially to those Servicemembers not familiar to the workings of the U.S. Army. The new instruction book Sprukkelhors is creating will add clarity and explanations behind the purpose of the instructions that may not be apparent.
Sprukkelhorst said that she thinks this roadmap will help other students from the Netherlands and hopes to include it as part of the preparations for attending the SGM-A. “I think students will be helped by a roadmap or an information/instruction book as preparation for arriving at the SGM-A. I will inform the following students of the Netherlands with a more detailed roadmap and think that students will be helped,” said Sprukkelhorst about her efforts.1
Another student attending Class 75 is Sgt. Maj. Laur Pirger from Estonia, who had unique issue of his own. He is a single father of two teenagers, and he brought his children with him to Fort Bliss leaving most of their friends and family in Estonia. This led to the U.S. Army requirement for a family care plan for his children if Pirger has training he must attend. The Estonia military generally leaves the responsibility of planning family care arrangements up to the individual Soldier. Due to the requirements of the SGM-A Pirger had to create a family care plan, something the Estonian military rarely has to deal with. This was a challenge as he had never done this before and had little guidance from his own military.
“I was familiar with the idea for a family care plan, but had never had to make one,” said Pirger. Who said having to leave home was difficult, especially since he had to leave his parents who previously acted as guardians for his children when he had deployments. Pirger was the first International student attending the program as a single parent, and thus had the first family care plan in the IMS program.
He said that “It was not easy to find someone who was willing and able to offer emergency care for family members in the US where we don’t know many people.” After making some calls he was able to get assistance from his American battle buddy who resides in the Fort Bliss area. The two met while deployed to Iraq in previous years. “Having someone who can help makes things much easier.”
While these are just two examples of Class 75’s international student issues all Servicemembers enrolled as IMS are working on comparable projects to improve programs at the SGM-A and their own militaries upon their return to their home country.