August 19, 2010 
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Megan Eckstein, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
Elvia Kachenchai, 45, is two final exams away from earning her bachelor's degree in business administration.
It wasn't an easy undertaking, but she is proud of her accomplishment and hopes other moms will follow in her footsteps.
Kachenchai's quest to earn this degree started more than two decades ago. After earning an associate degree in physical therapy, she joined the Navy in 1989 as a corpsman and continued to take classes at night to earn the bachelor's degree she coveted. She even took over her co-workers' duties at the Long Beach Naval Hospital in exchange for her commander granting permission to take classes during her lunch hour.
"I was motivated, I was really striving to finish my degree," Kachenchai said.
She wanted to take day classes but couldn't because her hours in the physical therapy clinic were 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Her only chance at taking day classes would be to abandon her physical therapy specialty and work night shifts in the ward. In the summer of 1993, she decided to take classes full-time instead of re-enlisting.
During her time in Long Beach, she started dating a sailor she met in corpsman school, Daniel Kachenchai, who was also assigned to Long Beach. The two married in 1992.
His tour also ended in the summer of 1993, and his next station was in San Diego. Elvia Kachenchai said she wanted her degree so badly she spent the next year and a half away from her husband to study at the University of Texas at San Antonio, near where she grew up.
While Kachenchai was at UTSA, the university switched its physical therapy program to a master's-level program, further complicating Kachenchai's plans. She took the graduate record examination and continued to take classes that would count toward the master's degree, but ultimately the school did not accept her into the program.
"I said to myself, 'It's time to put my stuff on hold and start having a family,'" Kachenchai said. "By then I was close to 30, so I was going to go back to my husband to maintain our relationship and start a family, because that was important to me."
She did just that in December 1994. The couple has three children: Daniel, 13; Olivia, 10; and Christine, 7. She and the children followed her husband around the world on his assignments ----including Monterey, Calif., Norfolk, Va., and Sicily. He now works at the Naval Medical Logistics Command at Fort Detrick.
Elvia Kachenchai found work where they went as a physical therapy technician, ands she joined local Naval Reserve units. But education had always been important and she still wanted her degree.
When the family moved to Sicily in the summer of 2004, Kachenchai was introduced to the concept of the online university.
"I had never heard of online college at all -- I didn't know that was something that was available, something that existed," she said.
When she realized she was still eligible for GI Bill education benefits and that her old community college credits would transfer, she immediately signed up for online classes through University of Maryland University College.
Now, after years of balancing school work with raising her children with moving every few years, she is almost done.
"Next weekend is when I take my finals ----my last two finals before I complete my degree," Kachenchai said. "It brings a smile to my face."
She's not only pleased with herself, she's proud of the example she set for her children.
"They've seen me class after class after class," she said. "I never complained about the load of work or if it's hard É so they could see the dedication that it takes."
Kachenchai said she would encourage other military moms, and anyone of any age, to go back to school and get their degrees. It's not as hard as one might think, she said.
"You just learn to prioritize," she said, even if it means getting take-out one night instead of cooking, or asking her husband to keep the children busy so she could finish writing a paper.
Her advice to other military spouses looking to enroll in college courses is to take advantage of resources at the local military post. Many universities bring classes and even occasional academic advising to the post. The on-post computer labs are also a quiet escape and helpful resource, she said.
Kachenchai hopes to find a government job, preferably on-post, so that when her family moves again next summer she'll keep her tenure and benefits.