Up until the last four years, Korey Koukides lived life with a do-the-best-you-can and whatever happens, happens mentality. For most of the time it worked, until it didn't.

Born and raised in Syracuse, New York, Koukides was living his entrepreneurial dream as owner and operator of a bar in New York when the COVID-19 Pandemic hit.

"New York was one of the stricter areas when it came to code regulation during COVID, and I reached a point where I decided it was time to get out," he said, "so I decided to sell the bar business and join the military with the idea of finishing a degree and eliminating debt while I served."

Now having served four years of active duty in the U.S. Army and earning commendations for successful implementation and execution of a program and creating an operating procedure for a battalion-size organization, as well as receiving the Army Achievement Medal for graduating as the number one overall honor graduate in his training company, Koukides is well on his way to accomplishing what he set out to do after serving last call in his bar. However, Texas Tech and becoming a Texas resident was never in the New Yorker's original plan.

A Program that Checked All the ☑ Non-Traditional Student ☑ Military ☑ Transfer Boxes

With less than a year before his transition into the reserves, Koukides began looking into options to continue his education, but would need accessibility and flexibility while he finished active duty. Central Texas College, where he received his associates degree in logistics and supply chain management, provided a list of Texas universities that offer online degree programs and Texas Tech rounded out the list among University of Texas at El Paso, University of Texas at Arlington, and Texas State University.

"I looked at who transfers the most military credits and who transfers the most college credits, and that ended up being Texas Tech," he said. "Then, I looked at who provided the most accessibility when it came to communications, because I knew I would be overseas for part of my program, and Texas Tech was the most helpful with just about everything."

Koukides says Rawls College's Online BBA program's accessibility, convenience, and flexibility has kept him well connected while deployed. From corners of the world as far as Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, France, Latvia, and Estonia, he says he's had support in reaching his goals every mile and step of the way.

Rawls College's Online BBA program, new as of fall 2024, stands in the top 10 of the recent U.S. News & World Report rankings for the 2025 best online higher education programs, sitting at No. 8 for Best Online Bachelor's in Business Program. In addition, Rawls College received recognition for its work in providing online educational opportunities for veterans, earning:

• No. 34 Best Online Bachelor's Programs for Veterans - A New Ranking Listed this Year
• No. 19 Best Online Master's in Business Programs for Veterans
• No. 23 Best Online MBA for Veterans

The Day-to-Day of a Student Soldier

Schoolwork while deployed is different. Koukides said as a soldier, you must be good at time management, preparation, and planning because when you're not doing some sort of field exercise or training with an ally, you have to take advantage of time for your studies.

"If I knew I had a test coming up in two weeks, I'd plan to study at the beginning and end of that two-week period," he said. "In the middle is when I'd knock out all the soldier tasks - pulling 24-hour staff duty or going to the field for a couple days - and then after, I'd really crank down on studying."

He also said staying on top of time differences and adjusting his sleep patterns a little bit helped him in planning for communication.

"If I know my professors are nine to five stateside, that means I need to be able to communicate, let's say, from 1 p.m. to 3 a.m.," he said. "Being mindful of that helped me know the window I had to ask questions - and if I needed to have an extra cup of coffee or an energy drink to stay awake during that window - but with patience and perseverance you generally do okay."

Being stateside, however, lends more control and the convenience of not having to calculate time differences.

"I try to knock out my soldier tasks early and, most of the time, if you tell senior leadership you have studies to do, they'll let you go home early," he added. "As long as you're transparent with people - letting them know what you're doing and what you want to accomplish - they will generally try to help you do that, which is refreshing."

Networking. Built on Rawls.

After receiving an e-mail from Central Texas College that included information about the Rawls College Career Fair, Koukides reached out to his advisor asking who he should talk to about next steps for career and resident options. His advisor connected him with Rawls College Online BBA Director and Associate Professor of Practice for Marketing & Supply Chain Management Mary Frances Weatherly. The rest, can be said, is textbook for "who you know" and how your network can help you succeed.

Koukides says Weatherly sent him the link to the Rawls College website, where he found more details about the Career Fair, and also connected him with the Senior Director of Career Services Barry Broughton. After working with the Rawls Career Management Center (CMC) on his resume and getting his LinkedIn account set up, Koukides decided it was go time.

"I knew I had eight months left on active duty and even though I was deployed, I knew that if I could make it happen - if I could be there for the Career Fair - I could take advantage of talking with people face-to-face," he said, "and, yes, while AI can do your resume for you, talking with people face-to-face needs to happen."

48 Hours Later - Rawls Career Fair Via Germany & 11 Interviews

Stationed in Germany at the time, his plan was to fly from there to Austin and then drive eight hours to Lubbock, arriving in time for a pre-Career Fair meeting at the Rawls CMC.

"I linked with the career center staff via FaceTime the day prior to make sure my resume was good to go and before I left, I had my suit dry cleaned so I could book when I got there," he says. "When I got to Rawls, I went straight to the career center where I picked up my resume and then staff helped me with a sort of rehearsal - for everything from how I was going to walk up to a company recruiter and shake their hand, to how I spoke and presented myself."

In a 48-hour round trip, he left Germany with the goal of going to the Rawls CMC for copies of his resume, attending the Rawls Career Fair, and meeting with the companies he'd networked with on LinkedIn prior to the fair. In less than 24 hours in Lubbock, he'd met with 14 companies, landed 11 interviews, and conducted three interviews in person.

"It only took 20 minutes to talk to the career center staff who said, 'I know these three people - talk to this person, this person, and this person at the fair,'" he said. "And that's exactly what I did."

Within a couple weeks after the fair, Koukides received multiple offers and accepted a position with Pratt Industries in Dallas. He says knowing people in Rawls College and being able to utilize both the college's and the Rawls CMC's strong network is a large part of his trip's success.

"Broughton connected me with his contact, Robert Pearson, on LinkedIn who was part of Veteran Recruitment in Austin and he's who helped me get the job with Pratt Industries," he explained. "Staying in Texas was not one of my original plans, but receiving an offer from them was cool, so now I'm staying in Texas."

Being a Texas resident, he says, has its perks - there are veteran friendly people everywhere you go, there's an entire program dedicated to vets not paying for tolls, there are grants for relocation to move or to start a business, there are grants for your spouse to pursue a degree, and more.

"None of that exists in New York, so that's the first star," he said. "The second star is there are military discounts everywhere. I mean, that kind of sounds cheesy, but hey, it adds up."

Anyone Can Do It - His Advice to Others

Koukides says if he can do it - earn a bachelor's degree while deployed on active duty, pull off a career fair in 48 hours and successfully speak with 14 companies, and land 11 interviews - anyone can do it. All it takes is communication, transparency, a little planning, and forethought.

"Being transparent is important because people respect you for it," he explains "and, generally, people are more accommodating if you communicate your goals and your timeline versus trying to back door and figure something out last minute."

This once no-set-plan, see-what-happens thinker is set to graduate spring 2026, and now that he's accomplished his goals of eliminating debt, finding a job conducive to his reserve duty, and will soon be checking the box for finishing his degree, Koukides is already thinking about his next long-term plan. In the next five to 10 years, he wants to explore the manufacturing field and eventually try to get into international relations and international business where he can work with diplomatic planning and regulations. How does he get there from here? He's not sure, but like he says, "It'll happen, it'll buff."