Penn State accepted the 2009 Ray Ehrensberger Award for Institutional Excellence in Military Education last week for its efforts in providing members of the military with higher education.
Presented to one institution each year by the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, the award lauded Penn State's flexible classes and specialized scholarships for members of the military, among other strategies.
Clinton Anderson, Service-members Opportunity Colleges project director, nominated Penn State for the award and said he has noticed the school's military accessibility for a long time.
"I thought this was the year for Penn State," Anderson said. "Penn State has got a tremendous reputation for a college degree."
Ginny Newman, assistant director of military education at Penn State, accepted the award on the school's behalf at the ceremony held in Cleveland and said acceptance of transfer credits and other distance-learning policies have proven Penn State keeps active military members and veterans in mind.
She also noted the attractiveness of the online World Campus as an option for those in the military.
"I think it serves military and veteran students in a unique way," Newman said. "We see a lot of veteran students who may not be comfortable coming back to a campus environment. They're in a very different place, and it may provide them with a way to transition back to campus life."
World Campus is a popular option for service personell, with 10 percent of the program's total enrollment from the military. Wayne Smutz, executive director of Penn State World Campus, spoke of the efforts the school has made in the last few years to ensure military personnel have every opportunity to receive a high-quality education.
"We have a whole team of people who are working on serving the military," Smutz said. "The work we can do to help people that are trying to help the country is something we can be really proud of both now and in the future."
Matthew Watton, a Navy hospital corpsman, is taking classes via the World Campus and said he has recommended it to other military service members. He named deadline extension and flexibility in acceptance of transfer credits as advantages.
"It has been a lot easier than I thought it was going to be," Watton, 30, said. "It is very hard to find a college that takes everything, so it's pretty relieving for me. Everything was outlined -- this is where you're at and this is where you need to be."
Anderson said those who may not have been able to attend a "brick-and-mortar" institution appreciate the opportunity afforded to them by the World Campus.
"Most of the military people that I know either didn't want to do that, or came into the military and found themselves, and in many ways lifted themselves by their own bootstraps," Anderson said. "They've done it through non-traditional means. It gives them an opportunity to gain an education through an untraditional mode."
