UND Student Earns Ph.D. While Serving The Nation

(Contributed photo via UND Today)

(By Joe Banish. UND Today) – A UND student will travel to Grand Forks for the first time to complete his academic journey – one that has taken him around the world due to his military service.

Staff Sgt. Walter Carroll, who has served in the U.S. Army since 2014, will graduate with his doctorate in Communication. As a student enrolled in UND’s distance learning program, while also balancing full-time active-duty service, Carroll’s journey to graduation has been anything but conventional.

A native of California, Carroll initially majored in English but changed his major for professional reasons.

“I had a really great professor, and they encouraged me to become a professor myself,” he said. “I knew I needed a PhD to pursue the academic career I wanted. During my time in the military, I switched to Communication because I got a new job as a public affairs and mass communications special