A Marine squeezed course work into hotel room stays across dozens of countries. An Army medic finished her degree from Romania during a deployment. A Navy officer built the credential that got her commissioned.
All three did it the same way — online, on their own time, without putting their military careers on hold.
They’re not exceptions. At Penn State World Campus, military learners like them are everywhere.
Roughly one in five Penn State World Campus graduates has a military connection — active duty, reserve, veteran, or military spouse.
Wherever you are, someone here likely has already been through it.
These are three of them.
Fifteen minutes at a time
Roberto Rodriguez enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1998, trained as a cryptologic technician. He spent the next two decades keeping America's senior military leaders connected across continents, from the USS Wasp in the Mediterranean to combat tours in Iraq to the travel team for the commander of U.S. Central Command, logging 30 to 40 countries.
Rodriguez was also urging his Marine colleagues to invest in their education and realized he needed to do the same. When he found Penn State World Campus in 2012, he was a Marine recruiter working long hours, out the door by 6:30 a.m. and home past 8:00 p.m.
He wanted to prepare himself for a career that kept him close to his wife and daughter at home. An admissions counselor encouraged him to apply.
“That acceptance meant the world,” he said about being admitted to Penn State to earn his degree online.
The degree didn't come easily or quickly. It came in increments — 15 minutes here and there, and hour or two when his schedule allowed — because the mission wasn’t just finishing assignments or the degree. Ultimately, it was what graduating could unlock for him, a boy from Puerto Rico who had never imagined he could graduate from a major U.S. university.
When a final project became logistically impossible to complete in the standard format, a professor offered an alternative — turning the assignment into a phone-based oral demonstration of mastery.
“I can't think of a time an instructor didn't extend a hand,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and works as a strategic communications specialist for a defense contractor supporting a U.S. intelligence agency, advising senior leaders and translating complex issues for public understanding.
His Penn State education, he said, changed the tone of job interviews — not just what he knew, but what employers assumed about him the moment they saw Penn State on a résumé.
During one Zoom call near the end of his Marine Corps career, someone reviewing his résumé paused.
“It says here you graduated from Penn State — did you?”
“Yes, I did,” he replied.
There was silence. Then: “Oh, wow.” The interview shifted — from Rodriguez making the case for himself to the panel making the case for why he should join them.
“Penn State opened the aperture,” he said. “I'm not the same person who enrolled in 2012.”
Finishing in Romania
Ta’Che’ Blocker enlisted in the Army Reserves as a combat medic in June 2020 with a plan: take the opportunity to learn health care, gain experience, earn a college degree, and become a physician assistant.
After learning she was going to be deployed in the middle of her studies at one of Penn State’s physical campuses, she realized she did not have to put college on hold.
Blocker transferred to Penn State World Campus, and as an online learner through two overseas deployments, to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Romania, she did not miss a beat.
In Romania, Blocker balanced the experiences that she sought to have when she enlisted and continued taking courses toward her degree. She said a typical day in Romania meant sick call in the morning, patient appointments, and driving soldiers to larger Romanian hospitals when their needs exceeded the troop clinic. After work, she did course work, went to the gym, and volunteered when she had time.
“I felt 100 percent supported while I was overseas,” she said. “All of my professors were supportive, and I got to share my military experiences in real time with my classmates.”
Blocker walked the commencement stage as a Penn State graduate in December 2024, a month after coming home from Romania.
Since graduating, Blocker has been working as an emergency department technician/associate while preparing for a physician assistant program. She also has been serving as a medic with the 378th Medical Detachment, an Army Reserve unit that provides surgical and medical care, because she wanted to gain additional experience with a medical unit.
Blocker is currently enrolled in the Army’s physician assistant program, on the path toward the goal she set when she enlisted in 2020.
“Having my degree means that I can seek further education,” she said. “I feel well-rounded and like I can look at patients holistically.”
The degree that opened the commission
Nia N. Maye enlisted in September 2003. She was commissioned as a Navy officer in July 2024 — more than two decades later — after earning a Penn State master’s degree in project management through Penn State World Campus.
The sequence matters. The master’s degree was not a credential she pursued after reaching a career milestone. It was part of how she achieved it.
Maye is an environmental health officer in the Navy’s Medical Service Corps, leading preventive medicine operations — environmental surveillance, water testing, and occupational health assessments for deployed and garrison forces. She applies project management frameworks she learned at Penn State to optimize health surveillance systems and improve processes that support mission readiness at her command.
“Penn State gave me the confidence and tools to lead with impact,” she said.
While enrolled at Penn State, Maye established a youth mentorship program focused on leadership, resilience, and positive youth development. Built using project management principles, the initiative earned a community impact award.
Maye was a full-time active-duty service member when she enrolled, and the fully online asynchronous format was essential.
“I needed a flexible, high-quality program that could accommodate my demanding schedule,” she said.
After graduating from Penn State, Maye continued applying the leadership and project management skills she developed through the program while earning her Doctor of Public Health degree. Her dissertation used SWOT analysis and Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model to develop recommendations aimed at improving a Navy health promotion program.
By the numbers
Rodriguez, Blocker, and Maye are three examples of a pattern that emerges consistently in Penn State World Campus graduation data.
In the most recent academic year, 579 military-connected graduates finished degrees through World Campus — spread across 88 programs, including MBA, supply chain management, GIS, homeland security, nursing, engineering, and psychology, and representing almost every state and territory across the country.
Nearly half earned graduate degrees. Twelve finished entirely from outside the United States. Whatever you're trying to do, there's a reasonable chance someone in uniform has already done it here.
Penn State World Campus offers more than 200 fully online degrees and certificates, available to active-duty military, veterans, reservists, and military spouses, with dedicated support for Post-9/11 GI Bill®, tuition assistance, and MyCAA funding.
Penn State World Campus has been ranked the No. 1 online school for veterans by Military Times and is recognized as a Pennsylvania National Guard-Friendly School. There are advisers who know how military education benefits and financial aid work, policies built around the reality that orders change, and a track record — 25 years — of people finishing degrees from places and circumstances that most universities would consider a reason to stop.
The degree you earn here is the same degree anyone else in your program earns. A homeland security master's is a homeland security master's, whether you finished it in State College or Wiesbaden. That's not a small thing when you're about to hand a résumé to a civilian employer who's never heard of your MOS.
Your turn
Rodriguez was studying in hotels and on aircraft at 30,000 feet. Blocker was finishing course work in Eastern Europe between medic shifts. Maye was on active duty the entire time she was enrolled, building the credential that would eventually get her commissioned.
None of them had an easy path to graduation. Their studies traveled with them.
If you're trying to figure out whether this is possible for someone in your situation, you're already in good company. One in five Penn State World Campus graduates has a military connection.
Learn more about Penn State World Campus programs and resources for military students.
GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about education benefits offered by VA is available at the official U.S. government website at https://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill.
The views expressed are those of LTJG Nia N. Maye and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
