Deployed to Fallujah in 2006, John Sofronas patrolled the turbulent Iraqi city with a platoon of U.S. Marines, ready for combat at any given moment.

“Ever seen ‘Braveheart,’” Mr. Sofronas asks, “when the warriors line up and run toward each other, no surprises? In Iraq, everything is a surprise. There’s no more line up and go fight. It’s guerilla warfare.”

As a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy, Mr. Sofronas is charged with providing first-line medical care to Marines in combat. That means treating extreme traumas—massive hemorrhages, blocked airways, burns, shrapnel and blast injuries, concussions—often while still under fire.

“We’ll get an injured Marine back to the second echelon of care within 15 minutes,” Mr. Sofronas says. “Sometimes we have to MEDEVAC a patient under fire.”

For Mr. Sofronas, a 2007 School of Continuing Studies graduate, the environment he encountered in Fallujah was something he’d trained for since joining the Navy. After enlisting in 1999, he enrolled in the Navy’s intensive 14-week “A School” program in medicine. In subsequent months, he attended a laundry list of training programs: field medical school, combat medicine class, emergency medicine intro and cold weather training, among others.

Mr. Sofronas held posts around the world, including deployments to Afghanistan and North Africa, before he landed at the Newport Naval Station in 2003. That’s when he enrolled in the Continuing Studies program in social and health services, entering with applied credits for the extensive training he’d received in the Navy.

“The idea that I had all this existing experience but wouldn’t be credentialed to practice when I got out made me want to go back to school,” he says. “Others at the base said that Continuing Studies at Roger Williams was a military-friendly program, and Dean Stout and my adviser guided me into shaping the program that I needed.”

Two deployments interrupted his coursework, but they didn’t dissuade him from jumping back in upon return. What most impresses others, however, is Mr. Sofronas’ commitment to education, both for himself and those around him.

“He was wonderful about talking to other people in the Navy about how to advance their own educations,” says Estelle Hutchinson, his academic adviser at Roger Williams. “Explaining what it can do personally and how it would help their Navy or civilian careers.”

In Fallujah in 2006, Mr. Sofronas treated Iraqi civilians who didn’t have access to traditional medical care, an experience that cemented his commitment to medicine. Now, he plans to pursue a career as a physician’s assistant.

At the 2007 Commencement ceremony, Mr. Sofronas earned a President’s Core Values Medallion in honor of his perseverance and even more, his commitment to service. The award came as a surprise:

“I just try to do what’s expected of me and do that the best I can,” he said. “I’m a big advocate of working hard and in communicating that to new corpsman to get them going in the right direction, and I’m fortunate to have been involved with Roger Williams.”