My biggest hurdle was balancing a full-time course load and a military career. While finishing my degree, I averaged nine months a year deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq -- first as a forward air controller with the Air Force and then as a civilian defense contractor. The flexibility of my instructors and the staff at the World Campus is the only reason that I was able to finish my degree. Everyone went above and beyond to make sure I had options for turning my work in or taking a test, no matter what the circumstances were. I can remember taking my textbooks on patrol, then turning in several weeks’ worth of assignments all at once when I got back to the base for my poor professor to grade.