Can you tell me if I will suffer the 10% early withdrawal penalty if I take out money from my roth IRA to help pay back a graduate student loan?

I can't give you the technical answer, but I sure wonder why you would consider this move. The Roth is a tax shelter, the long term benefits are huge, especially when you have many years to retirement. The average citizen doesn't have many tax shelter options. A few years from now you might want to kick yourself for using a Roth to pay off a college loan. I would look to ALL of your options before ever considering this move. Most college loans have reasonable interest rates. If you provide more details, you may get more comments on point.