Far From a Typical Classroom

Landor (second from left) and colleagues are shown with Deborah R. Malac, the U.S. ambassador to Liberia (center).

On the ground in Liberia’s fight against Ebola, Zandrea Landor is completing her CHES degree.

Zandrea Landor is earning her financial planning degree from the other side of the world.

Serving in the U.S. Army, she was deployed to Africa last October to assist with the Ebola challenge. She and her unit provide support for the humanitarian mission. They repair airport runways so that critical supplies can be delivered and provide building materials and construction services for Ebola Treatment Units.

If that sounds like a full-time effort, consider that Landor is also taking three CHES online courses for the spring semester. Before her deployment, she planned to complete her online education in December 2015, and she decided to keep pushing toward that goal.

CHES offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs online, including the consumer sciences concentration in family financial planning and counseling.

Landor believes everything happens for a reason. “All of the local people here are very grateful to us for coming to help their country,” she says. “It is very poor and makes me realize that we have no reason to complain about anything.”

She is also a loyal Crimson Tide fan. She wrote to online professor Eve Pentecost that she and her “Roll Tide buddies” stayed up until 5 a.m. watching the Iron Bowl and caught the Sugar Bowl when it aired at 2:30 a.m.