Ten paths to a Penn State degree: Celebrating National Online Learning Day

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — There is no single path to earning a Penn State degree: For the students and alumni of Penn State World Campus, an online education has provided a way to pursue a degree while working, raising families, serving in the military, living abroad, and navigating all types of responsibilities.

National Online Learning Day on Sept. 15 recognizes online learners and the opportunities online education can unlock. At Penn State, the academic colleges and campuses offer more than 200 degree and certificate programs online through World Campus.

Here are 10 Penn Staters whose journeys show the different paths that can lead to a Penn State degree.

Training for Team USA, and for a Penn State degree

Raffaella Koncius, an ice dancer for Team USA, has spent 20 years as a competitive figure skater, training five days a week, nine hours a day, with no off-season. After earning an associate degree in psychology at a community college near her home in California, she said, she went looking for a bachelor's program that wouldn't force her to choose between her sport and her education. Most either required in-person attendance or didn't offer the rigor she wanted.

She transferred to Penn State World Campus, enrolling in the bachelor’s degree in psychology offered online by the College of the Liberal Arts. She finished in three years, taking two or three classes a semester while training full-time, first in Florida and later in Michigan. She graduated in spring 2026 at age 25, with her whole family joining her on campus to celebrate. She said being a Penn State student opened a door she hadn't expected: She and her skating partner qualified for the World University Games — a competition open only to university students — which she called "the coolest experience of her life." She's since recommended the program to a fellow skater, who's now enrolled.

Read more about how Koncius trained for Team USA and finished her degree at the same time.

From combat medic to military educator

Robert Nelson spent nearly two decades as a combat medic and military health care leader, serving in Korea, Hawaii and Texas and running surgical missions in Honduras, Bangladesh and Malaysia. Selected for the Sergeants Major Academy Fellowship, he earned a master of education in lifelong learning and adult education, offered through Penn State's College of Education and delivered by Penn State World Campus, in 2017, along with a graduate certificate in distance education.

Two ideas from the program — andragogy and Transactional Distance Theory — became the foundation of how he now designs curriculum, he said. He went on to earn a doctor of education from Vanderbilt University and became the first faculty member in the history of the Sergeants Major Academy to reach the rank of associate professor. Today, he chairs the academy's Department of Army Operations, teaches as an adjunct instructor for Penn State, and is publishing a book this year about a soldier he mentored 25 years ago.

Read more about the two ideas that reshaped how Nelson designs curriculum.

A promise to her father, kept

Cassie Williams said she started college at the University of Oregon but went home to Florida to focus on her mental health. She had been accepted to transfer to Penn State's University Park campus when, in spring 2022, her father was diagnosed with what doctors said was a terminal illness. She enrolled in the online psychology program through World Campus instead, she said, so she could stay close to home and continue her education.

At 20, Williams, while her father underwent a double lung and liver transplant four hours away, managed the household and helped her younger brother finish high school. She finished that year with a 4.0. She graduated as a first-generation college student and an Evan Pugh Scholar — Penn State's highest academic honor — and won best overall presentation at the 2026 Psi Chi Research Conference for research on health and transplant psychology, a field she came to through lived experience. At commencement this spring, her father was in the stands when she crossed the stage. This fall, she starts a graduate program in counseling psychology at Northwestern University.

Read more about the promise Williams made to her dad — and kept.

The first online doctor of education graduate

Amanda Peterson began her career in the pulpit — she worked as a pastor before moving into community advocacy and mental health program management in California. Returning to Minnesota, an incident of racism directed at her child, she said, changed her path. Motivated to become a stronger advocate for her family and community, she went back to school, pursuing clinical psychology and counseling with a focus on racialized trauma and serving marginalized and neurodiverse populations.

Multiple brick-and-mortar doctoral programs offered her a spot, she said, but none without relocating her family. The Penn State World Campus Doctor of Education program — the College of Education's first doctoral program offered entirely online, launched in fall 2023 — let her stay put. She credited her adviser, Lydia Ocasio-Stoutenburg, and faculty including Karen Paulson and Gerry LeTendre for a program she said connected her to some of the field's sharpest minds. This spring, Peterson became the program's first graduate. Based in Chanhassen, Minnesota, she now works as a licensed professional clinical counselor and higher education executive administrator, and she plans to apply her doctorate in both roles as she moves toward higher education leadership.

Read more about Peterson's path to becoming the first graduate of the fully online doctorate in education.

Finding more than a degree

Katie Chookagian earned her associate degree at a community college near her Pennsylvania hometown, then spent years figuring out her next step through AmeriCorps and the Disney College Program. She applied to Penn State World Campus in October 2024 and started that January — switching her major from recreation, park and tourism management to integrated social sciences before her first semester even began, she said, once she realized the psychology and communication course work fit the community-facing career she wanted.

She carried 15 credits most semesters, 18 in one spring, and graduated in spring 2026. Along the way, she became a founding member of the World Campus Student Programming Board and received the Heart of the Lion Community Impact Award. The week after submitting her final assignments, she started a new job as a program specialist with Doylestown Township Parks and Recreation.

Read more about the online community Chookagian didn't expect to find.

Helping to reshape higher education policy in Pennsylvania

Lynette Kuhn built her first career in cosmetology, teaching the trade until compliance and regulatory work reignited an old interest in law. After earning an associate degree at Luzerne County Community College while working full time, she enrolled at Penn State World Campus, where, she said, the flexibility let her keep working and traveling for her job. She earned two degrees, a bachelor of arts in law and society in 2016 and a master of education in higher education in 2018.

She joined the Pennsylvania Department of Education the same year she finished her bachelor's, spent five years as division chief of Higher Education, Access, and Equity, and was named deputy secretary and commissioner for Postsecondary Education and Higher Education in December 2024; she now leads statewide policy and regulatory oversight for postsecondary education across Pennsylvania.

Read more about Kuhn's path from cosmetology to shaping Pennsylvania's education policy.

A Penn State degree, earned entirely from Paraguay

Carmen Paredes earned a Penn State degree without leaving Paraguay, completing a bachelor of arts in economics with a minor in political science in 2018. She's now CEO of two companies: Ruruka, which converts industrial waste into sustainable materials, and Marajá, an artisanal chocolate brand built on responsible production.

Her recognition has stacked up fast: She received the 2023 Inter-American Development Bank–FEMSA Award for water, sanitation and waste innovation across Latin America and the Caribbean; a spot on the 2024 Entrepreneurship World Cup Top 100; the 2024 Penn State World Campus Outstanding Alumni Award; a 2025 spot on MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 LATAM list, where she was named "Pioneer of the Year"; the 2025 Exponeur Fellowship at Expo Osaka; and Entrepreneur of the Year — Innovative Venture in Paraguay. She continues to hire Penn State students as interns.

Read more about how Paredes built two companies from a degree earned entirely in Paraguay.

Rebuilding a path after a tragedy

Leah Carraway-Justice started college in Virginia, but, she said, a family tragedy and the financial strain of out-of-state tuition forced her to withdraw. She built a career in cosmetology instead, eventually teaching it and rising to regional director. When she decided she needed stronger credentials to grow further, she enrolled part-time at Penn State World Campus — then switched to full-time when she learned her cosmetology campus was closing, she said.

She earned a bachelor of arts in labor and employment relations in 2017, with a minor in organizational leadership, and a master of professional studies in organization development and change in 2020. She now leads organizational change and transformation projects at Penn State.

Read more about how Carraway-Justice rebuilt her path after a family tragedy derailed it.

A GIS degree that shaped two decades in Delaware agriculture

Jimmy Kroon joined the Delaware Department of Agriculture in 2003 as a summer employee doing fieldwork — running crop surveys for pests and plant disease and picking up GIS skills along the way. He enrolled in the Master of Geographic Information Systems program, offered by the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences through World Campus, while working full-time and graduated in 2011.

From there, he moved from GIS coordinator to farmland preservation program director to his current role as deputy secretary, in which he helps shape agricultural policy for the state. He's stayed connected to Penn State, teaching GEOG 863 and advising capstone students.

Read more about how a GIS degree shaped two decades in Delaware agriculture.

From engineering practitioner to doctoral adviser

Terry Speicher didn't plan on pursuing a doctorate, he said. Early in his career, an adviser at Hughes Aircraft Co. told him a doctoral degree wasn't necessary unless Speicher wanted to go into academia. He had earned a master's in mechanical engineering as a company-sponsored fellow.

When he joined Penn State in 2000 as coordinator of the electro-mechanical engineering technology program, he said he realized the limitation of not having a doctorate — but traditional doctoral programs felt too theoretical for someone who wanted to keep applying his knowledge, not just study it.

He said Penn State's online doctor of engineering program, which formally launched in 2023 with a model built on European precedents, was different: rigorous, but built for people still working in industry. Speicher became one of the program's earliest graduates, advised by Joanna DeFranco. He now advises a current doctoral student himself — an engineer at Northrop Grumman researching machine learning for dynamic systems — meeting every two weeks to talk through research and progress.

Read more about why Speicher says advising "is a reason to stick around."

World Campus: Different paths, one Penn State

Penn State World Campus has been offering a Penn State education online for more than 25 years. Online learning gives people at different stages of their lives and locations around the world the chance to earn their college degree.

On National Online Learning Day, their stories show what's possible when education meets learners where they are.