Student soldier works on degree while deployed

Editor's note: One in a series of ongoing reports from Gazette staff occasionally embedded with about 3,000 Iowa Guard members training for deployment to Afghanistan. Most recently, Gazette staffers Mark Geary, Jim Slosiarek and Dane Firkus spent a week with the troops in California.

Deployed soldiers learn life and death lessons daily, but Spc. Emily Keating of Iowa City is studying more traditional subjects, too.

Keating, 20, with C Company of the 334th Brigade Support Battalion, is taking University of Iowa classes online throughout her tour of duty in Afghanistan. She is majoring in exercise science and dreams of becoming a personal trainer.

Whenever she has a free moment, she studies.

“While we're rolling down the street and nothing's blowing up, I'll be doing my homework,” Keating said. “Sometimes, at night in the bay, if I know I don't have to get up at 4 a.m., I'll stay up and do homework then, too.”

At least 22 UI students are currently in Afghanistan. The university also has about 400 veterans or active-duty military students on campus right now.

Isn't it tough to study for a degree while deployed?

“It's a nice distraction, and I definitely work better under pressure,” Keating said. “I get a lot more done when I know I don't have time.”

Plus, she said, UI professors are understanding.

“If I tell them I was up for 24 hours straight and didn't get it done, they usually say, ‘OK, that's fine,' ” Keating said.

The UI also helps soldiers before they ship out. Sgt. 1st Class Jesse Boland, 32, of Iowa City, with the 322nd Engineer Company, will deploy to Afghanistan in the spring. Before he leaves, he's working to complete his degree.

“Each class has been slightly different for what they require and what they expect, but all of them have been helpful. I haven't run into any roadblocks,” said Boland, who also served in Iraq in 2003-04.

The UI already has a program to help students like Boland. Administrators are adapting that program to accommodate National Guard members while they're deployed and when they return.

“We'll go out of our way to make sure everything is done for the benefit of the student,” said Larry Lockwood, assistant provost for enrollment services. “The highest level of this university is interested in what happens to our veterans.”

Meanwhile, Keating keeps hitting the books.

“It's not, apart from the weapons, all that different from a college setting,” Keating said. “The camaraderie is pretty much the same.”

Deployed soldiers learn life and death lessons daily, but Spc. Emily Keating of Iowa City is studying more traditional subjects, too.

Keating, 20, with C Company of the 334th Brigade Support Battalion, is taking University of Iowa classes online throughout her tour of duty in Afghanistan. She is majoring in exercise science and dreams of becoming a personal trainer.

Whenever she has a free moment, she studies.

“While we're rolling down the street and nothing's blowing up, I'll be doing my homework,” Keating said.     “Sometimes, at night in the bay, if I know I don't have to get up at 4 a.m., I'll stay up and do homework then, too.”

At least 22 UI students are currently in Afghanistan. The university also has about 400 veterans or active-duty military students on campus right now.

Isn't it tough to study for a degree while deployed?

“It's a nice distraction, and I definitely work better under pressure,” Keating said. “I get a lot more done when I know I don't have time.”

Plus, she said, UI professors are understanding.

“If I tell them I was up for 24 hours straight and didn't get it done, they usually say, ‘OK, that's fine,' ” Keating said.

The UI also helps soldiers before they ship out. Sgt. 1st Class Jesse Boland, 32, of Iowa City, with the 322nd Engineer Company, will deploy to Afghanistan in the spring. Before he leaves, he's working to complete his degree.

“Each class has been slightly different for what they require and what they expect, but all of them have been helpful. I haven't run into any roadblocks,” said Boland, who also served in Iraq in 2003-04.

The UI already has a program to help students like Boland. Administrators are adapting that program to accommodate National Guard members while they're deployed and when they return.

“We'll go out of our way to make sure everything is done for the benefit of the student,” said Larry Lockwood, assistant provost for enrollment services. “The highest level of this university is interested in what happens to our veterans.”

Meanwhile, Keating keeps hitting the books.

“It's not, apart from the weapons, all that different from a college setting,” Keating said. “The camaraderie is pretty much the same.”