What can an Ed.D. do for you? Guest speaker Dr. Susan Adelizzi-Schmidt

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Hello, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll give everybody just a moment to get logged in.

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While we're waiting for everybody to get signed in, I'm gonna drop some things in the chat for everyone.

All right. So out of respective time, we're going to go ahead and get started with today's event. Thank you so much for joining us. Anyone joining live or for anyone who is watching our pre recorded session, This is one session in a three-part series and my name is Jen Radwanski. I'm the Associate Director for Graduate Admissions here at Stockton and I'm joined by some amazing folks who I'm going to turn things over to in just a moment. Just wanted to share with you all that in the chat. I have dropped the information for our organizational leadership, leadership program, our EDD program. This session is.

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Titled What can an EDD do for you? And again, this is the first in a three-part series that we are excited to share with you all. If you're looking for some more information on how to apply this for this program after you listen to our session, again that link is in the chat. If you're interested in signing up for future sessions, I'll put that in the chat in just a moment too. And so without further ado, I want to turn things over to our our host for the day. So thank you so much Saquita, take it away.

Thank you, Jen. Welcome to our guests who are here to learn more about the EDD and organizational leadership program and to our guest Susan, Doctor, Susan Atalezi Smith, who is a member of cohort the The Mighty Cohort 5.

And who they defended in 2022-2023 and so we thought it was great to bring back.

Alumni of the program to be able to help those who are interested and may be interested in pursuing their doctorate. To give you a clear understanding of you know what this degree can do for you. In addition to receiving your doctorate, I just wanted to acknowledge my colleague Doctor John Gray who teaches several classes in in the program including quite frankly one of the students favorite classes on creativity and innovation. So.

Thanks for coming to join us, Doctor Gray. I'm Doctor Saquita Sweet. I'm the chair of the program and soon to be Associate Professor. I will be entering my 7th year here in the program and enjoyed a 25 year career in IT and 12 years operating my own learning and development firm. And now I'm here at Stockton and having the time of my life and so just excited to be able to be a leadership educator. The purpose of this session is to highlight the outcomes of the program other than the receipt of a doctoral degree.

It's beautiful to be able to put a Dr. Period Doctor in front of your name. But the program, this program is designed as a leadership development program that helps individuals develop their leadership identity and hone their leadership practice in the workplace. And so there is much more that you get in pursuing this doctorate. We want to be able to demonstrate how you were impacted and how or how you will be impacted and how your journey.

Through the program, experientially, socially, and in your career and in practice effects you and will affect you. Members of a diverse cohort come together in this program to reflect, share knowledge and experiences, and solve leadership problems across disciplines. So Doctor Adeligi Lisi Schmidt is with us to help us understand these concepts a little bit more. As far as you know, what can an EDD.

And organizational leadership do for you, Susan, take a moment to introduce yourself.

You're muted. We don't hear you, Susan.

Still don't hear you?

Oh no.

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You hit the button up at the top.

So you've got the the second button there. Is it green?

It is green.

Oh no.

We could hear you.

I know we heard you before.

Months ago.

You can't hear me now.

Did you did you do something different?

Umm.

And when you first joined.

I'm hitting the green button.

We could have you if you turn the hit the live button, turn it on and off.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

All right.

OK. There you go. Hi, everyone. I'm Doctor Susan at Alesi Schmidt and I'm thrilled to be here today. Thank you, Doctor Sweet for the introduction. And we're, you know, we're really excited and thrilled to tell you more about Stockton University's EDD program. It's a fabulous program about myself. I am an entrepreneur by trade. I've owned an advertising and marketing PR agency for the last 17 years.

Play.

It's called Suasion Communications Group. I'm also an adjunct professor in the School of Business at Stockton University, and I do a lot of corporate training too. So I'm, you know, just very busy, as I'm sure all of you are as well. But I wanted to get my doctorate. I, you know, I learned a lot about the organizational leadership program through Stockton and and hearing about it and talking to some of the graduates.

When I was in your shoes, just checking out the program and kind of kicking the tires and seeing if I wanted to participate and I I was so excited to learn about the program and eventually be a part of it and now of course be a graduate. So it's been a fantastic journey for me and I'm really excited to share my story with you.

So Susan, we lost your video. Is the is the video icon green at the top for you?

Can you hear me? Yes, it is.

We can hear you, but we can't see you any longer.

I'm able to hear her and see her.

I'm I'm not able to see her and I haven't touched anything so I I don't know what has happened.

I haven't touched anything either.

Oh my God.

Susie, you can see all of us, correct?

I can see you all, yeah.

Alright, well let's let's go for it then.

I'm not sure what's going on at any rate. So the first, the first question, so now, so briefly describe your expectations or your goals when you decided to pursue a doctorate at Stockton.

So I feel like I'm very unconventional in my pursuit of this degree. I was the only entrepreneur at the time, at least in my cohort. And you know, my my thought process and applying and taking part in this is of course that I love to learn and I'm a lifelong learner, as I'm sure you all are as well. I, you know, I felt like this was maybe one of the missing pieces.

That of the puzzle, I guess in terms of, you know, just really concentrating on organizational leadership and all of its aspects. I, you know I had my undergrad degree in communications in English and of course I received my MBA as well, but I didn't have. So I had, I had a lot of management practice and training, but I didn't have a lot of leadership and that was kind of the missing piece that I felt that this program.

Could fulfill for me and and it did. I mean I can tell you sincerely and wholeheartedly the program all the the all the different curriculum that we went through all the different sessions really build your leadership skills. Obviously your knowledge about organizational culture and you know just some of the different aspects of organizational leadership. But you know we it, it gives you the tools.

And you know that that's something that I wanted to get in my toolbox as a leader and as an owner of a of a business because I knew that it would help me tremendously not just now, but into the future as well.

Very good, very good. Now the program has, there are several components, if you will, of the program. There's the, there are the 8 leadership related courses there. Within those courses there's classroom discussions and interactions. A lot of the classroom meets and teams. The the program is styled as I said earlier, as a cohort model with interactions with the cohort outside of the team where the where the.

Outside of the classroom where the cohort builds a culture even amongst themselves, they're a reflective practices and assignments both individually and group wise. There are the competency artifacts and we won't get into details, but a portion of the the program there is the dissertation development and research learning. It is an online part, synchronous, part asynchronous, and with one residency in person, residency course, and then the interactions with faculty.

I know I've made this whole list, but now that you've completed the program, Susan and in thinking of some of these components of the the program, speak to some of the components and how they impacted you, impacted your learning, your practice, your growth as a leader, your growth as a business owner and an entrepreneur.

So I I feel honestly Doctor sweet that all of those aspects really kind of built into the whole experience and you know if I had to you know pick a few to to really hone in on, I would say the discussions and interactions for sure learning about you know what was going on with my colleagues and my cohort the experiences that you shared and.

And certainly the other, the other instructors in the program shared, I mean there was a lot of I want to see personal detail that we get into and and this and the classes are structured as such. So you know there are a lot of you know there are theories and and different aspects that are that are presented. But then we really kind of like you know we get into these really deep discussions and everybody gets into it. So like no one can hide.

You know you're you're you're going to play ball with everyone and it's, you know, I think that component really opens things up. So you're taken and kind of pushed into a whole new place when you're surrounded by a lot of, you know, very bright people that you know have ambitious goals for themselves and and want to be great leaders as well. So you know that that level of discussion, you know really gets interesting and we talked a lot about a lot of different.

Somewhat prickly topics and you know you you get, you really do get enlightened by listening to all of those discussions and it helps you. I can tell you first hand solve problems in your daily life, personal and professional. You the takeaways that you get from this program are going to elevate you in many ways and it's, you know, it's hard for me to list them all, but I mean I could see it in action.

I.

Many times in my own life I graduated just a year ago and I pull on this program. I mean I want to say probably every day in some way, shape or form, it gives you strength and just a depth in your thinking that you that wouldn't otherwise have. You know, I I can't believe I'm going to say that the competency artifacts were, you know, it's not always something that people want to, you know, talk about too much in a positive way. We had to.

But I do want, I want everyone to know what they are. And it's an important exercise. You know, at first you're like, oh, those artifacts, you know, it's but you what you have to do is you have to submit, you know, what kind of like your, what you learned. The, the artifact itself could be like volunteerism, It could be a plaque, it could be, you know, a memo even. I mean it's whatever you want to share that represents these different competencies that you have.

But you take it all for granted, you know, like I already did all that and you know, but when you have to break it down and do the deep dive into what made you earn that competency or what made you write that memo or get that award, then all of a sudden your framework of thinking changes and you you have to just understand why. I didn't just get, I didn't just apply for that award to get the award. Like there's a there's a lot that went into that.

And that's what I feel that that whole exercise really makes you do. It makes you reflect on your, you know, on your achievements and and some of the things that you feel like you've mastered. But it it it makes you look at them in a different way and and believe it or not, you get a lot out of just going through that, that whole process.

Excellent. Now this is we talked you and I have talked offline and one of the things that struck me is that you talked about your interaction with some of your cohort members both during your time in the program and even after your time in the program. Express a little bit about that.

Of course my, my cohort members, you know, really elevated me, as I mentioned. And you know there there's a level of respect, you know, among your cohort members and you you're going to gain so much information from them in my cohort again, as the only entrepreneur.

There were a lot of folks from the military, law enforcement, higher Ed. So you know what? What you get in in being involved and and being around all of these, these other folks from different spheres and industries is they're telling you all their stories and how they're handling these situations. And then you say, oh, wow, that's how you're doing it in, you know, in the military. Well, I'm in my small business, so I can take some of that, right? Not necessarily. Exactly.

But take those situations and those resolutions that they're sharing and be able to kind of morph that into my world as a small business owner and as an entrepreneur. So those, those takeaways are huge in terms of the the learning process and you know, you'll be tapping on that information not only while you're in the program, but you know, far into the future.

And then I also just, you know, you make a ton of connections I, you know, I was very, very fortunate to meet.

A gentleman in the in the program who now is my my client and I never in a million years would have thought you know go into an EDD program and and and get clients out of it and that certainly was not my mission at all. But you know with relationships people hire people that they like that they have good relationships with and.

That are going to get the job done and that you know that's really the magic of it. And so we talked a little bit you know very early in the program He, his name is Vince He you know he approached me about the fact that he you know wanted to open up his own business and that you know he might he might need to tap on my my services for my business And and lo and behold after you know after graduation he called me and said you know what I'm doing this I'm I'm opening up my own business.

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And I need you know, branding, marketing websites, I need it all. So we've been working together very closely over the last six months and we're actually just about to launch his new, his brand new website. So it's, you know, it's been really exciting, but it's not just about getting business and and that that was really the icing on the cake. And I, you know it was just like a a wonderful kind of ancillary benefit of all of this, but the the lifelong relationships.

You know, I still text my cohort members. I, you know, still keep in touch with them. I know that if I had a question about, you know, something in their world, I could text and get an answer back in a minute. So it's like this resource network that you also have. And it's not just about your cohort members, it's also about the professors. I couldn't say enough good things about the folks that I had the pleasure to to work with in the program.

Of course, Dr. Sweet was was one of those Pillar instructors, you know, that that really, you know, I think elevates her students. But Doctor Gray, I worked with Doctor John Quinn as my dissertation chair, and there were others as well. But you know, those relationships, again, all these people are on my phone and I could text them and they get right back to me if I have a question. It doesn't have anything to do with the EDD program.

You know, they they're very responsive people. And you know that level of connection, that connectivity that is in this program, I really feel is is one of its defining characteristics. And I also just want to mention too about the multidisciplinary aspect of the program. You know, again as a small business person, as an entrepreneur, I am in higher Ed too. But you know, it's not my full time job, but being surrounded by all of these other people.

That are in these different industries and different organizations, you know it just enlightens you and gives you breath in terms of your organizational style or your leadership style that you it really does make an impact and you know, I feel like that component of the program is is just really exemplary.

Very nice, very nice. So one of some of the challenges in organizations.

Our organizational culture and how that affects your performance or the organization's performance and even employees performance in the workplace. How do you think an advanced knowledge of organizational leadership, theory and practice impact How we come to the workplace to affect culture and performance as leaders?

So it's a great question, Doctor. Sweet. I I feel like really you do a deep dive, an archaeological dig in into yourself. In this program, you have to know who you are before I, I feel before you can be a strong leader. And you may think I already know who I am. You know, I already have my master's degree. I'm already doing my job. You're going to know yourself that much better after going through this program.

There are so many different exercises.

And just different assignments that you have, the reflective journaling that we do, the projects really help you to understand your leadership skills and your leadership style. I, you know, quite frankly didn't even know the differences between the leadership styles. Walking into this program. I left knowing them and I can I know my own style and as a, you know, as a servant leader.

But I also feel that I can now identify other people's styles in leadership and you know you that this program helps you to address that. So what the differences are and how you know the way I look at things and the way maybe someone else with a different leadership style looks at things, you know the the program helps you to bridge that gap so you can connect better and problem solve better as well.

Very nice.

So what about providing an example or two of where where you believe your insights from the program that you gained made a specific difference in your decision making process as a leader, as a business owner and in as an entrepreneur in your own business? What are some some examples or one or two examples that you can give to us?

Well I I feel that again we spent a lot of time talking about organizational culture. You know we we actually at my agency you know as I was going through this program started to re-evaluate our mission vision and values. And I can remember specifically you know having to do presentations about not only our, our, our you know ourselves basically like what what our goals and and you know kind of like.

Our our leadership progression is and will be, but we had to do this also and looking at it through the lenses of our own organization, we had to take on challenges that we were looking at specifically within our organizations. A lot of times we were assigned with other people on these projects to and so like they had all this valuable input to look at a problem and say hey you know, what do you think of this, you know you're coming from.

A military background, you're coming from a law enforcement background. Here's my problem. You know, like let's let's take a look at it and you know, how can we, how can we solve that. So, you know, I feel like we really strengthened a lot at my agency. You know, going through these different projects and and different classes, you know, really heightening our awareness of, you know, of leadership of organizational culture, but specifically about the mission, vision and values of the company and moving forward.

Very nice.

We spend these eight.

Courses 2-2 years and eight courses, maybe a little bit more than two years because the phase one and phase two, the coursework and the dissertation work, kind of overlap with each other. But you spend two years in the course work and really honing your skill set in leadership. And then you spend that last year and a half developing, if you will, your research project, which is your dissertation. Talk a little bit about your.

Dissertation topic in particular, and what you know what how it affected you as a leader, but also how it affected you from the standpoint of the outcomes of of your study.

So you know, I think my my study really came from this is a really interesting situation. One of the courses is a week long intensive in the summer. It talks about innovation and creativity and entrepreneurship. So this was my favorite class, actually, they were all my favorites. But this one, you know, really was one that was very, very interested in. So when?

When Doctor Gray you know, kind of announced it and you know we're going to have this this week long intensive. He actually asked me to be a speaker which was such an honor to, to talk about my experience to my colleagues in the cohort. And as I was telling them my story and you know, telling them how I got into business and and so forth. You know, one of the questions that came from one of my colleagues was you know, how did you, how did you do this? Like how did you get into business on your own and.

Project.

You know, what brought you to that point to become an entrepreneur? And I said, you know what, it's mentorship. It was all about mentorship. And then I, you know, I I threw this out while I was speaking. It's just kind of like this answer to the question, you know, we, we should have a mentorship program here in the EDD program. And I said I, you know, I thought this would really help. So you know that that, you know, kind of stuck in my head and then when it came time later to pick a dissertation.

You know, I can remember vetting this with some of the instructors and saying you know, what do you, what do you think of this? What do you think of this idea of, you know, maybe looking at a mentorship program for this particular program at Stockton And you know, could this potentially be my research, my research topic. So what ended up happening is I my topic actually is retention and attrition of EDD students, but it was also coupled with support for a mentoring program.

So it's kind of a long title, but I looked at retention. I looked at attrition of doctoral students with more of an emphasis on EDD than PhD. And I, you know, I found some really interesting theories about about drop out, about, you know, what keeps students engaged, what keeps people in a program. It was fascinating research. I loved my dissertation, and I mean, I still do like I still read it.

From time to time. And I and I think that I like, I don't think I could ever get enough of this topic. So you know, a recommendation of course to all of you would be when it comes time, you know, pick something you're in love with, if you can. I mean pick a topic that you just absolutely are passionate about and that you, you know that you really, really love and and like it. It becomes part of or maybe it's already a part of your DNA, but it will become part of your DNA because you'll be living it, breathing it, sleeping it.

You know, 24/7 when you get into the thick of it, but that was you know, that was my topic and you know, I I ended up doing a a qualitative study. I got a lot of great direction for my chair and the other instructors in the program too. I I just can't say enough about the the the world class quality of the instructors in this program. They're not paying me to do this today. They're not paying me to say this. I've said this all along.

And their accessibility, I mean, you know, if I think about going to a large university or a larger university and saying like, oh, am I going to text somebody at 10:00 at night with a question and expect an answer? Probably not. I'm not saying that, you know, I would be texting all the time, but, you know, just knowing that I'm going to get a response that's timely, you know, when I have a question is, is huge. Am I getting back to the research? You know, I I was never really intimidated by the, the dissertation part of this. I couldn't wait to get started.

And the step by step process and the classes that you take within the program before you even start prepare you so well to to really excel in your research. So there were a few classes where we got into the, you know, we looked at the topic we we had to present on it as well. So it's not like you just start cold. You've already been primed, right. And there are are classes that teach you about research if you know, I wasn't a researcher before this.

I had never really done any, you know, higher level types of research before. So they teach you step by step in the coursework portion, right? And that that 2 1/2 years. So you're not, it's not like you're you're out in dissertation in that dissertation phase without any prep. You're very well prepped. In fact, chapters one, I believe chapters 1-2 and three of my dissertation were pretty well baked by the time. I mean, of course I had to refine them a lot.

But I had a great jumping off point by the time that I really started in the dissertation piece of it. And you get together with your chair, they're there for you. I can't, I can't think of one time that my chair, you know, wasn't available when I had a question, you know, and we'd hop on, zoom, go through the questions, make sure that I'm on the right track. The accessibility again was huge. And then, you know, you I ended up doing 10 interviews. It was just fabulous. I loved it. I loved every minute.

Of it. And then you have to you know it's a lot of work to put it all down and transcribe it and try to code it all. But even that part was really fun. And then it's just writing, writing writing and rewriting to get the to get the dissertation in a really you know, high level place where it's, you know, it's it's really succinctly, you know incredibly telling your story about your research and and what you not only what the problem of practice is.

Yeah.

But you know the all the supporting research, the conceptual theories, the you know all the theories that are involved with it, but then also the results. And then what you know. What do you recommend you know? What are the recommendations that you have as the researcher after doing all that. So again, you know, be in love with your topic and and this comes a lot easier. I'll tell you it's a lot of work. I'm not going to sugarcoat that part of it, but you this is another part of leadership that you learn about yourself.

You thought you were working 9:00 to 5:00 or whatever. Maybe you're working 8:00 to 9:00 at night. I know I do. Some days, right. All of a sudden, you'll say, like, how do I have time to do this? You will find the time. You will all of a sudden realize that from 5:00 AM to 8:00 AM, you have an open window. No kids, no work, no interruptions. All of a sudden, you start realizing that, you know, you can wake up early and get that stuff done. So, you know, I I think I grew in ways that I never imagined.

Going through that that dissertation process and realizing like you know when the going gets tough, the tough get going like you just you, you, you just level up throughout the whole process and you know it it it demands that of you. And I think the program demands that of you too, you know, in a nice way. I mean it's no one's, no one's breathing down your neck, but you got to get the job done and get it done right.

Absolutely. This is great stuff, Susan. So a little curveball here.

You've you've talked so nicely about the program and gave all of its great points. What was one of the challenges that you experienced? You kind of alluded to it during that dissertation process, but if you were to choose one, you know challenge we like to call them opportunities.

You know what? What challenges did you experience and how did you mitigate that challenge? How did you set yourself up for success even through that challenge?

So I would say one of the challenges, I mean certainly for my cohort was COVID.

We we started out you know, meeting in person and then all of a sudden we were meeting online. This actually ended up being kind of a great thing. I was talking to Doctor Sweet offline a little while ago about this, you know, because the online doing this online actually, I mean it's saved us a ton of traveling and.

Time and it actually gave us more time with our families. I I want to say Doctor Sweet, there wasn't anything within the program that was a challenge for me so much. Obviously, time management is what everybody is going to be challenged with. Like I just said, I mean you're going to have to understand that whatever you thought your life was, you're going to have to reconfigure it and you will figure it out to make it happen. I I want to say though, my, my biggest personal challenge during the program was my father.

Who I was very, very close to was suffering from from ALS and dementia. And as much as I was dealing with his situation, you know, that obviously was paramount to me to spend as much time as I could because I ended up losing him last year. But I I wanted to, you know, kind of make it all work. And, you know, he knew I was going through this program.

And he was always my cheerleader. He was the one that pushed me to go to College in the 1st place. You know, I can remember his pep talks, you know, back in the day when I was a kid, like you're the you're going to college. You know, there weren't a lot of women in my family. I may have been the first woman that went to College in my family, but he always said to me, get an education, invest in yourself. And that stuck with me. He went to Penn on a full, full scholarship. He got his MBA and you know, that kind of pushed me to get my MBA.

And then I was like, you know what? I think I'm going to take it one step further and, you know, and get my doctorate. So when I got accepted the program, you know, he still was very with it. And he knew I was. I was accepted and he knew I was going for it. So, you know, toward the end there, it was like a like I was pushing, pushing, pushing to be with him and also to complete it because I knew that, you know, that would be something that would, you know, be cherished by him and certainly by me as well.

Thank you.

Yes.

I'm so sorry to hear about your dad, but but excited that you were able to land on your feet and this is, you know, that resilience that we talk about in that first class, right? We talk openly about resilience and the ability to develop that resilient quality, that persistent quality. So I'm so glad that you were able to to do that.

So.

What? What? Just?

Think about now and discuss now overall.

What? What are your long term goals? Now that you've done this, you've gotten what we call a terminal degree. I know of a couple people who have multiple doctorates, but that's not my area at all. But you have this terminal degree. You've reached the highest level of education. What are some long term goals, or even for your personal and professional life?

And how do you see this doctorate degree in organizational leadership contributing to those aspects of your life?

Doctor Sweet, I I would just, I would go back for a minute and just say this, You know anytime that you are putting yourself into a cohort situation you're you're going to grow and it's there's just no two ways about it. You're you're going to absorb all the energy and all the knowledge that you're being surrounded by. And you know I think that that piece of it just it's residual because as I mentioned before you just keep going back to some of the things that you learn and that you.

Experienced in the program. Either you know a colleague giving you a piece of information or advice, or you know just some of the just the leadership.

Courses and so forth that you learn as well. I mean you're you're just learning so many different aspects of of leadership. For me personally, I I knew that once I completed this. And just like with any degree, I mean it elevates your brand. You know I'm a marketer and by trade and you know when you have those initials.

You know after your name it does give you a tremendous amount of credibility. It's it gives you a competitive edge. And you know, I, I, I think I'd mentioned this to Doctor Sweet. You know, when I, when I first got my MBA, I had never had any inkling that it was ever going to help me really like in business in terms of getting business right. But it did and now I, you know, I feel that it's it's just even.

You know, kind of gone to a whole different level with having the doctorate and the master's degree. You know, there are very few entrepreneurs that have those those degrees. And it's so it gives me a tremendous competitive edge. And it's, I don't go around flaunting it either, you know, they'll see it in my signature or, you know, somebody will, you know, address me as doctor or whatever. And you know, those, it's like, you know, people do a double take. Oh, you know, she has her doctorate. Oh, she has. You know, so, you know, those types of things will help you.

In terms of your career, in terms of applying for positions, of course in my world you know it it it's not so much about applying for positions as it is, you know, getting more business and you know, giving people a comfort level of your expertise. I think that's really what the the competitive edge is. You've done the hard work. You don't get those those letters unless you have done the hard work and it shows that you are extremely disciplined.

And that you are a master at your craft and you know I think that's very, very important. As far As for me personally too or professionally I should say I, I have exciting news I've been working on. I just actually my company sues and just bought another business. So you know this was the first time that we've done this. I've been in business for 17 years. So we just acquired another business and you know it, this has been a process.

But again my organizational leadership, you know skills and you know all of my, all of that coursework and and all of those interactions and everything, all of that helped me to navigate this process and acquiring this other business. So you know in the future I could be also acquiring you know, other businesses or opening up in new locations, you know, I certainly for myself wouldn't rule out you know.

Working more in higher Ed two. I love teaching. I obviously love talking. Doctor has to tell me like, all right, you can cut it now. We just did a radio show together. She feels like a dog. But you know, I, I, I, I enjoy sharing my experiences and helping other people to grow from them as well.

Wow. Susan. Doctor Susan. Ataleezi. Smith. Schmidt. I never say it right. You know how I am with the names, but certainly in my heart, I I say it right. What? What a fantastic testimony to the strength of the program, but also the strength within you. I always say that students come to us with a whole bunch of great stuff inside.

And they've been being a leader and showing leadership before they came to the program. And here they get this space, this wonderful space to be able to hone those skills and to really think about those skills and who they want to be, who they want to identify of as a leader. And it looks like you've done that nicely. And what a great announcement about this merger and this acquisition, if you will, of another company. That's exciting.

News Any final words you want to give to the people listening to this video?

Apply.

I, you know I couldn't say enough good. I could talk for three more hours about how great the program is. I think you you've gotten that by now. I will make myself available if anybody has any questions for me even offline. You know I'm sure you can get in touch with someone to to talk to me if you want to you know kind of if you have specific questions that you wanted to to ask or just you know get a comfort level. You know I feel so much of this is about comfort level and you know you have you have plenty of opportunity to get comfortable.

Before you know taking the big step, I know they have you know different opportunities for you to engage at Stockton within the EDD program. You know with with I think there are classes that you can you know actually go to and different.

Different events and so forth. So take advantage of all of that. But you know, I talked to other people that were in the program that there was actually one person that that said to me because I wasn't sure if I was going to do it and.

He just looked at me and said like you've got this Susan you can do it. And I ended up I saw him he was studying and and you know his name is Beau and he you know he ended up graduating before me. But you know after I saw him and he gave me that like little nudge I I went ahead and and called the next day and and applied and I'm. I'm so glad I did the last thing I'm going to say though and and you know this I use this phrase a lot Doctor Sweet used to use it a lot in in class.

She used to say this like when we would walk in and we'd, you know, we'd be dealt with a challenge or whatever. She'd always say the genius is in the room, right? Doctor Gray used to say it as well. The genius is in the room. So if you, you know, if you are admitted to this program, they vetted you. They've already, you know, they realize your spectacular skills and and your assets already. So once you get into that room.

You know that you're surrounded by like-minded people that that want to grow and want to learn and excel, and it's it's great to know that the genius is in the room and you're going to figure it out.

Very nice. Jen, you want to come back to us?

Are you there?

I am here. Sorry, it takes just a second. Alright. Thank you all so, so much. Umm, Saquita and Susan, thank you for sharing your words of wisdom. Thank you for talking more about the program. Thank you for making yourself accessible to to talk further too. I appreciate that as well. Umm, and just as far as graduate admissions is concerned, we're here to help answer those questions to to help anyone with the application process. If you're interested in joining this amazing group of people and being one of those students in that classroom, we would love to to be able to assist, assist you too.

Very nice.

The links for the program and upcoming events are in the chat. Please feel free to check those out. And I want to wish everyone a wonderful day and again thank our our presenters and I wish you all well today. Thank you all so much. Take care.

Take care everybody.

Bye, bye.

Bye, bye.