Motivation and commitment guide this World Campus grad’s journey | Penn State University

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Army veteran Eddie Brown never thought he’d earn a college degree. He joined the Army in 2003, shortly after Operation Iraqi Freedom began, serving for eight years and deploying to the Middle East three times. The circumstances never worked for him to go back to school to get his bachelor’s degree.

Years later, though, after he left the Army, he achieved his goal. Brown and his family came from Kentucky to Pennsylvania to celebrate his graduation. He had gone back to school, as an online learner with Penn State World Campus, earning a bachelor of arts in labor and human resources. Today, he works at Fort Campbell in the Blanchfield Army Community Hospital.

“Going through my career, I had a lot of officers who I talked to that made me feel more comfortable with opening that door to further my education,” he said.

Brown is one of the many veterans, active-duty service members, reservists, and National Guard members who have earned their degrees online through Penn State World Campus.

Following the path

When Brown left the military in 2012, he began job searching to start the next step in his life.

“I found that a lot of the jobs I wanted to go for required some type of secondary education,” he said. “That pushed me further into looking into schools.”

Brown’s interest in human resources began when he helped his employer’s HR office with a job fair. Brown talked with people about their career aspirations and the company.

“It made me feel like I was in my element,” he said.

When he began to explore going back to school, Brown saw Penn State on a list of top-ranked online higher education institutions.

He said he questioned if Penn State World Campus was the real Penn State, and his research confirmed it was. He liked that a degree through Penn State World Campus is the same degree a student can earn at a residential campus.

“That influenced my decision a whole lot,” Brown said.

He enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts in Labor and Human Resources program in 2014. The degree program is offered online in partnership with the Penn State School of Labor and Employment Relations in the Penn State College of the Liberal Arts.

Over the next decade, Brown worked toward earning his degree while navigating the balance of his academic journey with managing family, work, and life’s hardships.

Brown credits his family, his academic adviser Richard Akers, and his support network for helping him stay focused on achieving his academic goal. His advice to other students pursuing a degree is to stay motivated.

“Even though you feel like stopping, even though it’s easy to stop, just keep going,” he said.