Congratulations to our graduates!
What an exciting time! Your perseverance and dedication to your educational journey has paid off. Now it's time for you to shine. Congratulations on achieving your dreams!
We recognize our distance students for their academic achievements —
- 3 doctorate of philosophy degree recipients
- 69 master's degree recipients from 14 degree programs
- 86 certificate programs completed
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DISTANCE GRADUATE STUDENT PROFILE
Elaine Kratz
When Elaine Kratz of Tucson, Ariz., graduates in May with her master’s degree in engineering management, she will complete a journey she began in 2009, when she took her first post-graduate course.
“When I started taking graduate courses, I was taking them out of curiosity,” says Kratz, who earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 2007. “My undergraduate program was very demanding and didn’t have much room for exploring the world outside of mechanical engineering.”
After graduation, Kratz worked as a corrosion engineer for the Naval Research Laboratory before serving as an engineer in the Naval Sea Systems Command. Her career path would eventually take her to B/E Aerospace, Honeywell, SanDanzer Refrigeration Inc. and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before she joined Raytheon in 2015 as a senior systems engineer and program manager.
Currently a captain in the Army Reserves, Kratz says she chose to complete her master’s degree online with S&T because of the university’s connection with the Army’s Engineering Captain’s Career Course.
Her favorite course?
“Advanced Personnel Management –it was like peeking behind the HR curtain, and a great change from my typical project management type classes,” she says. She encourages other prospective graduate students to experiment with their course load and work load.