A veteran's journey through online education at U of M Crookston

Anybody who thinks they can't fit classes in because their life is too busy, if you have the drive to accomplish something, there's no excuses.

Tim Robison 2024, ag business online student alumnus

University of Minnesota Crookston alumnus Tim Robison 2024 only stepped foot on campus once as a student - the day he graduated. Robison was an online student who majored in agricultural business and took classes from home in Newborn, Georgia while also serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. His "real job" was in civil service as an ag technician, and his military retirement plan was to apply what he learned pursuing his bachelor's degree and seek a job with the USDA. He'll also continue work on his family's cattle farm.

Robison has been with the Air Force since 2001 and served six years on active duty before joining the reserves. Thanks to the military's GI Bill, Robison graduated with little to no student debt.

"The Air Force really pushes education for everybody," Robison explained. "To make certain ranks, you need a degree to be eligible to be promoted so I used the GI Bill to attend UMC."

Robison found U of M Crookston in a Google search and discovered they were one of the only schools to offer an agricultural business degree online. Crookston'sag business program highlights the ever-evolving industry by diving into topics in sales, marketing, management, finance, information technology, and production, all through the lens of agriculture.

"My love for agriculture started in high school when I got a job on a cattle farm," he explained. "I got a lot of knowledge working there and that's where my drive started."

After high school, Robison left for the military, got married, and later moved back to Georgia to build a house on his wife's family farm. A typical day for Robison starts at 4 a.m. with feeding the animals then off to work by 6 a.m., back home at 2:30 p.m., out in the farm field until 9 p.m., inside to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and chips, spend time with his wife and two kids where he could, and then, when he was in school, homework to finish. The next day, the routine starts over again.

"School was important to me, but my kids are more important so I sacrificed a little sleep to spend time with them," Robison added. "My days are pretty packed, so my weekends and evenings were mostly tied up doing schoolwork."

Robison says the classes he took at U of M Crookston, especially under instructor Charles Lariviere, added value not only to his education but to his work on the farm.

"Those classes were actually showing me there are better ways of doing things and different ways to make money on the farm," he continued. "Even the record keeping class made me realize there's better ways than shoving pieces of paper in a glove box then digging them out at the end of the year. My accountant likes me better these days."

His last two semesters at U of M Crookston, Robison took four classes one semester and three classes the next plus worked full time. Before that, he traveled to Ecuador and Peru numerous times while taking classes. Advice he'd give a future student pursuing their degree online, or even a younger version of himself, would be to "prioritize their time."

"Anybody who thinks they can't fit classes in because their life is too busy, if I can do it with my schedule and being deployed overseas, anyone can," Robison offered. "If you have the drive to accomplish something there's no excuses."

Future plans for Robison, he says, depend on what his kids want to do in life. Right now, the oldest wants to be a veterinarian and the youngest wants to be a cowboy. Though his wife would like to travel, Robison said he'd be happy never leaving the farm again.

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