While his peers walk across campus for class, Matthew Zarracina crosses the Green Zone in Baghdad.

Bringing new meaning to the phrase "nontraditional student," the U.S. Navy lieutenant is continuing his Cornell engineering studies while deployed in Iraq.

When he's not briefing American and British commanders on the state of oil refineries, he is busy participating in a distance-learning course in systems engineering. His goal is to earn a master's degree through the College of Engineering's new online systems engineering degree program, just launched.

"It demonstrates to a lot of people what is possible," he said in a telephone interview from the Green Zone. "It's definitely been challenging. For me, though, honestly, it's been a nice distraction."

Better known as a Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) teacher back in Ithaca, Zarracina travels in and around Baghdad as the country rebuilds. He serves as an adviser and provides information to military commanders, reports that are ultimately relayed to the staff of General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq. He also conducts cost-benefit analysis on projects and tracks oil development, production and refinery capacity and issues.

He usually works 14 to 16 hours a day, devoting precious spare time to reading or studying materials mailed to him by Cornell professors. The class is taped, which he watches via Web streaming.

Zarracina, 28, graduated with an engineering degree from the Naval Academy in 2001. He attended flight school from 2001 to 2003. Then, while stationed in San Diego, he served two deployments in the Pacific region, including flying medical evacuation missions as part of a multinational force to help victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Zarracina said he chose Cornell in part for the caliber of the Systems Engineering Program.

"It was important for me to find a quality graduate school program," he said. "The distance learning appealed to me because I knew there was an opportunity I'd be forward-deployed."

He left for Iraq last year and is scheduled to return in May or June. He plans to return to ROTC instruction -- as well as to enjoying weekends again.

Dan Tuohy is a freelance writer who lives in Rye Beach, N.H. A longer version of this story first appeared in Cornell Engineering Magazine.