"I work a 12 hour shift, six days a week,” says Kevin Vender of the 1158th Transport Unit out of Black River Falls. “Everyday when I get home from my shift, I sit in my hut and I do homework for 3 to 4 hours a day."

Vender may be a cook for the Army by day, but by night, he's a student soldier, cramming in 15 credits online towards his degree of hospitality management at UW-Stout.

"The Army right now is really into giving people time to better themselves, but I think the best way I can better myself is doing classes online."

Advisors at Stout say Vender is one of nearly a dozen students enrolling online while they're serving their country and not on campus.

"The goal was to make ease of access to these students who have a much higher level of commitment in comparison to our other students," says Advising Director Scott Correll.

The students say it's cut back on their leisure time, but the work will pay off in the end.

"It's kind of a nice break from what we do over here,” says Nick Essick, deployed with the 128th Infantry out of Menomonie. “I can come home three more credits towards my degree that'd be really beneficial to me, no matter how hard I have to work for it."

And once they've finished their tour of duty, the soldiers say they can't wait to get back to the lives of college students, and finally get their diplomas.

Correll says UW-Stout has offered online classes for any student for several years now, but this is the first semester deployed soldiers signed up.

UW-Eau Claire also says some of their deployed students have been taking a few classes online, but never a full course load.