What started as a proclamation from a mentor, has resulted in an associate degree for one Training Support Center Great Lakes Sailor.

Engineman 1st Class Chris Mills, a Navy military training instructor in the Assist, Train and Inspect Office, completed his coursework for an associate degree from Columbia College of Chicago, May 17.

Mills joined the Navy in December 2000, earned his General Equivalency Diploma while in boot camp, and, in his mind, thought college would never be in the cards.

"Some people do school very easily," said Mills. "Some people just struggle with school. I struggled with school."

But after serving aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CVN 63) and USS Comstock (LSD 45), Mills was stationed at the U.S. Naval Academy. It was there he was told by a fellow engineman he would have to take at least one college course as a way to commemorate that engineman earning his degree.

Mills jumped into the challenge and signed up for two classes he expected to be easy -- biology and the history of rock 'n' roll.

"I thought it was going to be total cake walk," he said. "That was probably one of the more horrific things I've encountered."

But he made it through the seemingly endless stream of essays and written responses, then completed those classes before being reassigned to Recruit Training Command. While at RTC, Mills served as a recruit drill commander from December 2009 to May 2014. During that time, Mills put any further studies on hold. It wasn't until his assignment to TSC that he decided to restart his coursework.

"When I got my orders coming over here to TSC, one of the first things I did was I talked to Navy College," he said. "I did the [tuition assistance] class that I had to do and I went and registered and enrolled in a couple classes."

The road hasn't been easy this past two years and there have been many things Mills said he would rather do, but after seeing his mom go back to school to earn multiple advanced degrees, he knew he had to push through and do whatever it took to reach his goal.

"I own my house up here. You have so much work that always needs to be done [on a house]. I've pretty much given up my weekends and all that just doing my college work," Mills said. "If I [take a class], I don't want to just scrape by. I want to do my best."

Mills is also a hard-worker when it comes to his role as a Navy Military Training Instructor (NMTI) and his assist, train and instruct (ATI) duties that have him advising the various ships of TSC, as well as providing instruction and mentorship when needed.

"He'll go above and beyond to help you out," said Boatswain's Mate 1st Class (SW) Nolan Burgdahl, an NMTI on USS Missouri.

That extra effort that Mills shows resulted in an associate degree and now he has his eye on earning a bachelor's degree in engineering. Mills said he is looking at engineering programs that will match up with his busy schedule here. But he only has to look back at what he's already accomplished to know that he has the work ethic to achieve this next goal.

"Looking back, even five years ago, 10 years ago, I never would have imagined myself even having a college degree," Mills said. "It's taking quite a bit of effort to stick with it."

Serving in a command like TSC allows Sailors the opportunity to lead the Navy's newest shipmates, as well as work on interests outside of the Navy, such as civilian education.

"It's great to see Petty Officer Mills accomplish his goal because TSC Great Lakes is a place for Sailors to become better mentors and leaders," said TSC Command Master Chief (SW/AW) Jeffrey A. Kirby.

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