These soldiers go from the battlefield to the classroom – and carry an 85-pound kettlebell
The Army Green to Gold program allows active-duty enlisted soldiers to earn their degree and become a commissioned officer.
As some Northeastern University students were just crawling out of bed at 6:55 a.m. one brisk November morning, graduate student Christian Figueroa was already decked out in his U.S. Army fatigues and running around Carter Field — an 85-pound kettlebell hoisted over his head.
“Go on, we can beat these fools!” Figueroa shouted, eyeing another group of Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets coming up on his team from behind.
The workout — which also included running, lunges with 10-pound kettlebells, weighted squats, 135-pound sled drags — was training for the Ranger Challenge, an annual, two-day Army ROTC competition that tests physical fitness, leadership skills and teamwork through military-style exercises.
It was also part of the commitment Figueroa has made as a participant in the Army Green to Gold — a program that allows active-duty enlisted soldiers to earn their degree and become commissioned officers.
“I feel like the Green to Gold program is one of the Army’s best-kept secrets,” Figueroa said. “I’m still on active duty, I report to physical training every morning, and my place of duty is school.”
The Army has two paths to leadership. Soldiers can enlist and work their way up through non-commissioned ranks, or soldiers can enroll in a program like Officer Candidate School or ROTC to earn commissioned ranks.
Green to Gold enables enlisted soldiers with a minimum of two years of active duty to earn their bachelor’s or master’s degree at any school that has an ROTC program, as well as to transition from the non-commissioned to the commissioned officer path.
And soldiers in the popular Green to Gold Active-Duty Option can retain the benefits of active-duty service while enrolled in school.
“You have all the benefits of serving in the U.S. Army while, at the same time, you kind of get a break from the demands of the Army,” said Ken McDougal, a sergeant who is earning his master’s in security and intelligence studies at Northeastern through Green to Gold Active-Duty.
McDougal explained that as a participant in the program, he still gets paid by the Army and receives health insurance, among other benefits. But he can also spend time at home with his family, have vacation time and make long-term plans without the fear of suddenly being assigned a two-year deployment.
“You have the utmost control of your future,” McDougal said. “And it’s also going to give you a leg up when it comes time — I’m able to walk out of Northeastern debt-free with a master’s degree.”
McDougal will also walk out with a commission as a second lieutenant and a minimum four-year commitment to the Army.
Each year, Liberty Battalion – the Army ROTC program hosted by Northeastern’s Boston campus, which trains and commissions officers from more than 10 local universities — has around five participants in Green to Gold among its 120 cadets, according to Lt. Col. Stephen Fennessy, professor of military science at Northeastern and head of the battalion.
“They add an incredible richness to our program,” Fennessy said. “Where the average cadet is 19 to 20 years old, Green to Gold participants are older, they’re more mature, they’ve served in the Army not only as soldiers, but generally, they’ve all served as leaders in the Army.”
“When they come here, they not only improve their own career prospects by graduating from Northeastern,” Fennessy added, “they are also great leaders for our other cadets that come out of high school — they’re a great sounding board for their peers about what the Army will be like.”
Fennessy said Green to Gold generally attracts two types of soldiers: those who want to advance their career path and prospects in the Army with an advanced degree, and those who want to make a transition in their careers in the Army.
McDougal is an example of the first type of soldier, Fennessy said.
McDougal served on active duty from 2021-2024 as an all-source analyst with the Third Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, Georgia, and attained the rank of sergeant. He was deployed for nine months to Eastern Europe, primarily in Latvia, as part of an operation to strengthen the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, in its defense of the Baltics.
“I was sitting in national intelligence briefings with the Latvian government and their version of the Pentagon and working with them and seeing the real-world threats that were continually being posed by their lovely neighbor to the east,” McDougal said, referring to Russia.
He hopes to take that experience and advance to intelligence support for Special Operations teams that “have a direct impact and are a direct tool of national security,” McDougal said.
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Figueroa previously served as a Ranger-qualified paratrooper and squad leader in the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, attaining the rank of staff sergeant. He completed a tour on an immediate response force in Poland helping evacuate American citizens and partner forces from Ukraine prior to Russia’s invasion of its smaller neighbor. He hopes transition from paratrooper to “cybertrooper” by earning his master’s in cybersecurity at Northeastern, he said.
“Cyber is the fifth domain in warfare,” Figueroa said. “We’re not necessarily just going to be fighting the next war with boots on the ground, planes overhead, or ships in the water — it’s all going to be cyber.”
But wherever it takes them in the Army, Northeastern prepares them well.
McDougal praised the caliber of professors at Northeastern as “unmatched.” He also described the Dolce Center for the Advancement of Veterans and Servicemembers (CAVS) as “phenomenal,” helping him with everything from arranging off-campus engagements with local schools to talk about the Army and service to obtaining a campus parking pass.
“We’re in an unclassified environment, and I’m still learning way more about intelligence, often, than compared to when I was in a classified environment,” McDougal said. “Classes have also opened my eyes to how other organizations — other entities — than the Army see these similar problem sets but have different ways to attack that.”
Figueroa agreed, calling Northeastern professors “super approachable” and commending the teaching assistants.
“I think I made a great transition from the active duty world and coming back into an academic setting,” he said.
But the most immediate “great” transition for Figueroa was carrying the 85-pound kettlebell across the finish line. After running HOW FAR?, he pitched himself across and drops the kettlebell in relief.
“Coming out here and doing the small things right will set you apart from the other teams,” said Sgt. Tanner Brown, ROTC instructor, as Figueroa and the other cadets tried to catch their breath in the chill air.
Brown grinned.
“And the kettlebell is no (expletive) joke,” he said.
