Maj. Audie T. Cooper, a student with Camp Lejeune’s inaugural Command and Staff College Blended Seminar Program, stands with classmates and guests during the course’s graduation ceremony held at the Officers’ Club aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Sept. 4. The Command and Staff College Blended Seminar Program is a distance professional military education course for Chief Warrant Officer 4, Marine field grade and other service field grade officers. The course offers instruction in the small wars, joint warfighting, amphibious operations and operational planning, among a slew of courses designed to prepare field grade officers for higher level billets. Cooper, and the nine other students, were the first graduates of the blended seminar on the East Coast, a similar course was offered in the West Coast which concluded around the same time. Blended seminars are a new approach to distance education, where students participate in periods of focused education with daily classes and periods of online lessons.