Ed.D. in Organizational Leadership Virtual Info Session and Student Roundtable

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All right. It looks like we are good to go. Well, good afternoon everyone or again if you're watching this recorded good, whatever it is where you are in your time zone. My name is Jen Redwinski and I'm the Associate Director for Graduate Admissions here at Stockton University. And I am joined with some amazing professionals as we dive into a round table discussion about our EDD organization leadership program. So we have some of our current students.

As faculty program that are to hear here, to share with you their words of wisdom, things they've learned, things they want to share with you all and things that you should consider if you're considering being a part of this program. So with that being said, I want to share with you that again, we are in webinar format, so please feel free to use the chat feature if you have questions. As we continue through this presentation, you can drop them right in. You should see them on the right hand side. Again, this is if you were watching it live, if you're watching it recorded.

We'll give you some contact information at the end of the session on how to send us any questions you may have about the program and how you can learn more. So with that I am going to turn things over to our.

Program Coordinator Dr. Sequita Sweet, who has a few words of wisdom that she would like to share with you as well. So, Doctor Sweet, thanks so much for joining us today.

Hi everyone, welcome to the Edd and Organizational leadership. Open house if you will. Information session.

I'm so delighted to see all of you here and delighted for this group of professionals and students in the program from Cohort 8 and Cohort 9.

I wanted to just mention that when you think of this program, think of it as a leadership development program that you will at the start of the program begin to understand yourself.

And who you want to be as a leader, and that is the, the principal part. And so we say it is a leadership program where you happen to receive a doctorate also, earn a doctorate also. And so that is most important. And I believe that that's what the students will tell you today. And so welcome. Should you have any questions, you're welcome to contact obviously Jen Rodlansky, but also that you can contact me as the chair of the program.

It's a delight to see all of you. Take care.

Thank you so, so much. Next, I want to introduce our moderator, Carrie Wagner, who is a student in the program. And from this point forward, I'm going to let Carrie take it away. I will be monitoring the chat and then we'll join you all at the very end to talk about additional information that you may need. So Carrie, go ahead.

Thanks, Jen and Doctor Sweet. Welcome everybody. I'm Carrie Wagner. I am a member of our illustrious Cohort 8, which is the 8th cohort of students to go through this program. There's a few of my my cohort colleagues on this panel too that will introduce themselves and we started this program a little over a year ago. So the fall of 20/22 was 20, yeah, 20/20/2022.

Think about that for a minute. 12/20/22 is when we all started. So a little bit about me. I work in banking, I've worked a couple decades, a career in banking, a couple different organizations currently with Wells Fargo. And I decided to join this program because I'm particularly interested in academia and I'm interested in taking my career into a different direction at this stage of my life. So this program offered me that opportunity.

It offered me.

An opportunity to work in a virtual environment. I actually live in North Jersey, so I'm not really commutable to the campus on a frequent basis. So the flexibility in the program was a real selling point to me. And the content of the program is also a pretty big selling point because of the leadership qualities and leadership theory, diversity, equity, inclusion. There's a lot of components to the program that were really interesting to me. So that's a little bit about me.

I'm going to turn it over, let's, you know, let's maybe start, we could start with the Cohort 8 folks that have been around a little bit longer.

Walid and Natasha. And they can give you a little bit about their background and maybe also answer the question about why they pursued this doctorate at Stockton.

Sure I can.

Go ahead. Well, if you could.

I can begin. Thank you, Carrie. My name is Walid Abdul Rabu. I am from an employment standpoint. I work at Stockton University. I am the Director of Information Systems and Business Intelligence within the university's Information Technology department. So I have a lot of responsibilities overseeing a lot of the data systems and reporting systems at the university.

When I was thinking about a doctorate being that I was raised with education being a highly important aspect of life, you know, almost, you know.

Into breathing and eating. You know, education is vital and I wanted to look at a doctorate degree to improve my education level and to progress even professionally. But I was not necessarily interested in a more academic type of PhD doctorate. I was looking for something that would be.

Applicable from a work administrative standpoint, and as I started looking around for it, I recognized quickly that I had spent a lot of years managing.

In management, but I wasn't necessarily as in tune with leading as perhaps I would like to be, and I wanted to find some program that would allow me to be able to learn how to lead and not just learn how to manage.

And fortunately, I have some colleagues who had gone through this program here at Stockton. I myself had received my Masters in Business Administration from Stockton and it just all seemed to fit naturally for me.

I wanted a doctorate. I wanted a doctorate that wasn't a PhD, but something that was a little bit more applicable to what I do on a day-to-day basis. It applied to leadership and it just made sense for me. So I am with cohort 8 along with Carrie and Natasha, who I will hand off to now.

Thanks, Walid.

My name is Natasha Peterson.

I am, as mentioned, part of cohort 8 and.

In terms of my professional work title, what I'm currently doing, I am the Assistant Director of the Career Education and Development Office at Stockton University. I've been here over six years. Overall, I have over 25 years of professional work experience and ironically, most of my experience stems from the private sector.

And HR recruiting and different aspects of human resources. So similar to Waleed, what made me choose this particular program was based on something that had some.

Flexibility and versatility where if I wanted to, you know, rejoin the private sector in some capacity, I still would be able to do that or if I decided to stay in higher Ed, I would have that ability to be able to utilize this degree in some capacity in that way.

Another thing that encouraged me.

To, I guess, take this leap of faith into this journey was having.

Graduates, current students in the program share their experiences, Give me some insight as to what was involved, their personal experiences of managing, you know, family, work, life, all of those variables and things. And obviously, for the most part, I got some really good feedback from them, Very honest and transparent answers to address some of my personal concerns of, you know, being a mother, being a parent, working full time.

And being an adjunct professor as well, how was I going to be able to manage that? But again the program speaks to the flexibility of the online classes. So that helps in terms of managing my time and balancing it. And you know overall like I said the the, the classwork, the classes on the content that is involved in the program was also something that I was very interested in. So think collectively all of these things made me choose a decision to go at stock then in terms of.

Pursuing this additional education.

Great.

Alright, thanks, Natasha and Waleed. So I'm selfishly really interested in hearing from Megan and Hamid because they're members of Cohort 9, which is the cohort that just started this fall. So I don't know him as well as I do Waleed and Natasha. So Megan, maybe you can go first if you don't mind.

No problem. So my name is Papin. I have been at Stockton nonstop since 2010. I received my undergraduate degree in Stockton. My master is in occupational therapy, and here I am again. And I also am an adjunct for Stockton, and I run the Columbia Ram with the Occupational Therapy Department. So Stockton's been a big part of my life for the past thirteen years.

And clinically, I'm an occupational therapist.

Replay.

Love being an OTI, love doing my clinical work. But it's time for me to start moving forward in my career, and this doctorate is what's going to help me do that.

With my previous education, I didn't receive a lot of leadership and business oriented education and that's what this doctor is filling that gap in order to me to move forward. And there's so much that I want to contribute based on my education and my experiences in administration. And without this, that wouldn't be possible.

And a big part of why I chose this program is part of it is because it's Stockton, but the other part of it is the schedule. So working three different jobs, I live in New York, so I'm nowhere close to Stockton anymore. And with the program being online, I it's not been an issue. I come home from work and I log on and I can do my work. And part of being a cohort has also been great because this is my second program being a cohort. So that was a big factor for me to consider as well.

And the way the schedule works, it's made for somebody that works full time because that was my biggest concern. And I did ask that even in the interview saying I can't sacrifice my work in order to complete this degree. And this program has really shown me that I don't have to sacrifice my work. If anything, it's a it's a benefit to be working full time while you're in this program.

Alright, thanks Megan and Hamid.

So welcome guys. My name is Tommy Washington. I have a background in HR HR generalist to HR director, now working as a consultant for a multiplicity of businesses. The reason why I chose this program? Because it's because of its flexibility simply.

Being a father.

Having some some outside engagements and things like that, being able to come home.

Get the work done, be able to log in and still maintain work life balance. Be there for the children to assist through homework and all that and still get mine done. It's somewhat of a a win win situation because, you know, really trying to be.

The parent that's there and not just there without having that emotional support. So this program has afforded me that opportunity what what also assisted in choosing this program?

Was that, you know, I I was familiar with online classes. So it was just something that sparked an interest to say, you know what, you got your masters, why not keep going?

Being somewhat like Waleed, being in managerial roles as well as being in other leadership roles, why not take this and and forward your career forward, the movement of just really gathering folk together and just being that inspiration, as well as disrupting norms and things like that?

So I felt that Stockton would be the right choice.

Excellent. Thank you. Thanks for sharing everyone.

So maybe jump into a couple questions. And and Hamid, since you're on the hot, hot seat, why don't why don't we go with you first? Can you tell us a little bit about your introduction to the program since you're relatively new?

So the introduction to the program from orientation to.

The support, it's it's been amazing.

The introduction was warm. It was exciting because from from the start it was, you know, you had some questions and the questions that I had in the very beginning, they were answered as the facilitators went through. So those questions kind of went away and it's like wow, how did they know that? So it was really answering the questions as I thought about them, the facilitators as well as.

The persons and admissions and they they just knew what I was thinking. So it it was very warm very warm introduction.

That's great. Anybody else want to talk about the experience coming into this program?

I can say a couple words, definitely the orientation, like Hamid said, it was very welcoming. I think everyone always gets anxious starting a doctoral program, no matter where your background is from, it can be a little intimidating. And the orientation, it really put me at ease and my cohort. Immediately after orientation, we have a group, a group chat on an application and we talk on there every single day since orientation. So it's been.

Very family oriented.

You know, we really are a very cohesive group.

Yeah. And then Cowork model and I guess the virtual component to this program, I think make it pretty unique.

You know Natasha or Wali, do you have any other insights to share since our our cohorts a little further into this?

For me, I'll say part of the orientation process that I was interested in is that they laid out the timeline as to, you know, what courses that you would take, you know, fall, spring, if there was a summer session. For me, I'm very, I'm a planner, I need to see it, feel it, touch it. So for me that was valuable in identifying the length of time, the timeline to completion, where will I be at this point?

And again the warm feeling and even the orientation, I I believe it was offered in person if you could attend, but in addition virtually. So we were able to meet our cohort members initially virtually and as I think Megan said it, they have a group, a group chat. Cohort 8 also has a group chat that we stay on constantly as well. So there is that connection despite you know being on an online learning.

Platform. You still have the ability to connect with your classmates and cohort members.

And I'll just speak from the admission standpoint only because.

That to me had a significant impact as well. Just going through the process of applying to the programming and and knowing all of the things that need to be conducted. There was a lot of hand holding for me of the process moving along where I myself work at the university. I know a lot of people, but I still didn't know every detail of the process.

And I was treated just like any other student applying, you know, here's exactly what needs to be done, here's how you do it, here's what you go through and so on. And I just thought that the process of that enrollment, part of it from these individuals getting into the program and then what's being in the program, just that initial, hey, we're going to spend a little time everybody get to know each other because we're going to be, you know, we're in essence a family going through a process together.

You know through this whole program for multiple years we better get to know each other now. So it was a lot of that type of introduction and and I it was just a really great feeling to be a part of that just from the get go.

Umm Natasha, Well he could you maybe touch on the the summer session. So most of this program for for those of you watching is is virtual but there is a week after year one where we spent spent a lot of time together in person. I'd love to hear kind of your take on the experience that we went through.

The tish Wanna go first or shall I?

You you can go first.

I can go first, I'll go first. So it's it was actually somewhat of a surreal experience and the meaning the reason for that is going through the entire first year in the fall and the spring, everything was virtual. So everyone I had known and had spoken to within our cohort were all Zoom boxes faces right and zoom, Zoom voices. And you know we get to know each other through GroupMe and through Zoom and it's a great.

You know, semi casual environment and we're able to get to know each other well. But once that summer session hit and we had our residency and we all met in person, I think there was a little bit of this like wow, I I, you know, now I get to see you in person and work with you in person. You know you're real, you're a real person. You're not just some you know, fictional character on on my computer screen. And it really created almost a more intense sense of belonging with that group.

It really hit home.

I'm now working with real people. These are people who are sitting next to me and then going through that summer residency. It was a pretty intense week, a lot. We had to cover long days.

1.

But once we were done, I think for myself and and I heard it from other cohort members, it was one of the best parts of the entire program to that point. So you know, really loved it.

I thought it was really appropriate, especially a change of pace from the virtual just to change the mindset as well, because one thing about this program is it forces you to change how you think in a lot of ways. But even just that experience forced us to change a little bit from what we were comfortable with.

Absolutely. I'll piggyback on your sentiments while I leave. It was, it was cool. It was cool to see these people in person to you know, have lunch, have dinner, hug, talk about how how you know the experience has been today. So it definitely added a different dynamics to being in person and I'm glad that the program allowed the opportunity for you, you know, despite it being online, having that summer semester of residency to be in person.

I think was an added benefit to the program and in addition we had guest speakers that week.

So the guest speakers were absolutely amazing.

Engaging.

Added a lot of content and informative information that was presented to us in addition to doing our work for that week. Like Walid said, it was intense. We had to really be creative, think outside the box, and although we've done group assignments previously.

Online and through Zoom, you know, we were in person, so we had to do these group projects throughout the week, still managing everyone's schedules. Some people from, you know, out of the area in North Jersey, they had to make adjustments.

Carrie doesn't have news about that. You know, planning to basically have Atlantic City be your your home for that week, home away from home, so to speak.

So I definitely enjoyed that aspect of the program that they implemented, the one week of residency in there, even the guest speakers being in person.

It just created a vibe. It was a, it was a positive vibe for everyone and we left fulfilled and some people said, you know, it just changed our lives, not just professionally but personally, some of the the content that was shared in the assignment as well as some of the guest speakers.

That's great. Thank you for sharing both of you. So one other core component of this program is that it brings in diverse perspectives.

People, I work in corporate. We've got Walid and Natisha in my cohort who are higher education. We've got folks that are K through 12. We've got somebody who works independently for themselves. I think other cohorts have had.

People from nonprofit.

And so all different sectors and and different different folks. So I'd be interested in if you could describe your experience learning about leadership based on those different disciplines and what you've seen and different personalities within your cohort. I'll open it up to whoever's interested in responding to that question.

So wow, the I mean, I'll tell you the first thing that pops into my head, I don't know if I would appreciate and enjoy this program as much as I do if it wasn't for the cohort I'm in. Now, this is no offense to any other cohort, right? I think you, you, you jump into a cohort and you build relationships and so on. But I can say that because of the diversity of backgrounds, disciplines, ideas, perspectives.

I.

That are in the cohort that I am in. It has really changed how I think and how I view things. I came into the program with this preconceived notion of this is how you lead, this is how you manage, this is what's right, this is what's wrong. And I'm just going to learn some, you know, principles to help solidify that or improve on that. And I could not have been more wrong. You know, I am now learning about all of the different ways that you lead.

All of the different circumstances in which you lead.

The different backgrounds or perspectives that require you to lead differently and look at things differently and I and just hearing the perspectives of my cohort members, where they come from in their own lives and what they see and how they approach it and how they've been approached. It just it's giving me this perspective that I don't think I would have been able to learn if it was just a here sitting course, read these books.

Study these, you know leadership topics, and now you're going to learn to be a better leader.

The immersive discussions that we have is truly what emphasizes all of these principles that we're learning along the way. And then to have our professors basically tie it all together right and and it's amazing how they do that. We'll have a random one off topic that sort of goes off the rails and all of a sudden it's brought back in tying in with what we're studying and the topics and how it was almost like it was you know planned so.

A lot of kudos to our professors for being able to do that, but it's really that diversity that I think, is what makes this program exceptional.

Yeah, just to jump off that, I completely agree. It's and I think something that I've really learned, just, you know, the first couple months of being in this program, all my prior education, it was all exams. There was a right and a wrong answer, especially being in healthcare. We take boards, the answer is either right or it's wrong. There's not a lot of Gray area and there are no exams here, which really surprised me. I've never been in an education environment where there was no exams.

Because it's showing that there is no right and wrong way. It's this is what this is the leadership style and theories and philosophies that work best for me.

And you know, very different from my other cohorts in different fields. And I think that's what I appreciate so much and I've learned so much about, you know what I get out of something to be very different when somebody else gets.

All are able to teach each other and expand our minds a lot.

How?

There's a lot of.

No.

Right.

Oh.

No exam, but there's a lot of writing of papers for. There's a lot of work. You know, this isn't, this isn't a program where you show up and listen and then get to walk away and just do whatever you want. There's definitely a commitment and time and effort and work that has to be done. So maybe not exams, but there's definitely assessment of some kind.

Right.

Yeah.

I just I just wanted to add.

Part of the diversity, different personalities and styles. For me, the aha moment or or you know life changing moment was the assignment by Doctor Sweet. The I am from poems that we had to do. I think that set the foundation of being introduced to our cohort members in terms of our diversity, our experiences, our backgrounds, etcetera.

And this is something that I feel our cohort was very.

Vulnerable and sharing things of their past experiences and I think that really set a tone or foundation and making us closer and sharing this information to strangers pretty much. I mean it was first course, we're just getting to know each other's.

And I think that just kind of helped us be able to build off of those of that situation are different relationships and then we became more comfortable and sharing about.

Our professional experiences or even personal experiences that we've had with one another and I also think that you know, Walid and I happen to both work in higher education. However, we're in two different areas of higher education. So it's still that level of diversity even within the different career fields. We have K through 12 educators from different districts.

Or different positions. So hearing people's perspectives, I feel is always a good thing until Ali's point, our class, we have some really engaging conversations, to say the least.

Well, Natasha, to your point to Megan's point to Walid's point starting, you know the from from the on start, I will say doctor Sweet told us that we're going to disrupt norms. We said, you know, the cohort rules and we just went in, we jumped in with both feet, you know, whether you could swim or not. You know, it was, you know the team jumped in to kind of help you swim talking about Johari window going in you know, really dealing with myself for.

Not, not the open spot but the unknown spot and you know having the cohort come together and say listen you know we got you. You know we're going to go through this and then hearing some fears from other cohorts when Doctor Sweet mentioned hey you know we're going to do this where I'm from and it's like you know deer in headlights but that that moment that it happened it was it was life changing. So we can talk anything from virtual leadership, we can talk VUKA, you know we can go into.

Effective followership just kind of change my whole dynamic of.

You know, you got it. In order to lead, you have to be a great follower. What does that look like? And really looking at the alienated follower to relational leadership and how that kind of derived. And then looking at Doctor Sweet from, you know, I think she did her thesis or you know, her dissertation on transformational leadership. So you kind of seen her really spread her wings in that just a little bit and kind of give us.

You know the nod and say, hey, this is this is my thing and this is what you know what I what I've come to learn. So when when you think about.

Just the the challenge.

It it to to our leads point. You know you may have went in with one conceptual theory of what leadership is about but it's somewhat to me like a revival and in a in a in a in a new way like I'm I'm getting a whole new look at life. You know throw that, throw that away and let's pick this up and really open it up and really dive in. There were some fears in the beginning but you know with the cohort being who they are and really being able to share.

A lot of their related experiences and you know, I think there was a piece on the geese, right? You guys remember the geese and flying together. So in the in the chat you might have heard one person say, hey geese down, I need some help. So we went down, we swooped in to go pick them up. I mean it was just it's a family environment and it's a.

It's a great thing that we're learning together as well as challenging one another to say listen, if there's a challenge we're here. You know we had those one offs, those two offs, those 3 offs, but we were able to come back and and really you know be be the family that we are. So it's it's great, it's a great feeling.

That's great. Alright, so thinking about your professional experience and kind of doing this program at the same time, how has the learning in your courses so far provided context to your professional practice? How have you put some of this to use?

Yeah.

Hopefully I didn't stump you on that one.

No, I mean, I'll start. Honestly. It's changed drastically how I approach work. I always approached it, as I said earlier, from a management perspective. I approached it from a what is my experience teaching me to do? And so I'm going to do it based on my experience approach. And now I'm finding myself every time I see there's a new leadership book out published that I don't know about. I'm out there buying it because I want to read about it because I'm excited about.

Hey, what is the different ways of leadership that someone else can, you know, profess and be able to to maybe for me to pick up a few Nuggets on and I'm trying as much as possible to apply that to what I do now at work.

Because I'm finding that although I didn't do things wrong in the past, there may have been better ways to do it, and this is really part of the process. It's a learning process and it's really trying to learn a lot, but the only real way to learn is to apply. And what I'm trying to do is take a lot of these concepts that we learn in our program and apply it to work. And so far I've actually had some pretty positive results, so I intend to keep doing it.

Great. So I'll, I'll, I'll jump in right after I leave because you know I'm, I'm hot over here. So no, The thing is we had a lot our last class was on stakeholders. So if you guys remember the stakeholder and really talking from the Edgar Shine that just kind of really opened a whole lot up for me. The underlining assumptions in consulting, I would often ask persons to come up with a mission vision and value statement really not knowing.

What the bottom line look like just thinking that you know it just it it had to come from somewhere. So really listening to that piece on Edgar Shine, their beliefs and what they're really not saying is going to kind of shine or kind of come out in their mission statement and in their and in their values. So there was a mention of, if I remember the video correctly, it was a mention of the Amazon.

Piece. And really, if you really sat down and listened.

To what the owner of Amazon said and you allowed to drill down his thought processes on what he thought about people and employees kind of shows forth and now how the business runs. So that was just very eye opening and I made note to that to now say OK, let's let's really go in and let's really think about this mission, vision and values. Before I ask you to do it, I need you to consider these things. Where are you, what's going on in your environment? What are you feeling about these things so it's causing?

You know that changed to to happen immediately, if that makes sense, yeah.

That's pretty immediate. It must have been like a week ago, Two weeks ago, right. Yeah, that's, that's, that's pretty immediate for sure.

Natasha or Megan, you guys wanna add anything to this?

Yeah, definitely. For me, I'm, I'm obviously young, so this has really helped pave the pathway for what direction I want my career to go in. You know, I've never been somebody to stand still. And again, I love my clinical work, but I felt like I was just stagnant and I wanted to contribute more, but I really didn't have the confidence or the skills to be able to do that. And so far, even just for talking about emotional intelligence and leadership styles, I already feel like I have tools that I can easily grow now and go into the direction that I want.

Beforehand I knew I wanted to go somewhere. I just didn't have the tools and the education to back it up.

I think for me, when I actually transitioned or returned back to higher education, like I said, I came from the private sector. I left as AHR manager.

So title wise, I think for me personally, I didn't feel that I was in a leadership role because I didn't have that title of manager anymore. However, being in this program and learning, it's not about the title, it's about you as the individual and you know your skills and abilities and what you.

Apply just as as being that individual person in terms of being a leader without having a title to, you know, confirm that you're a leader.

And also maybe look at a lot of things personally and professionally in terms of leadership and how people.

Navigate as leaders, you know, learning something to say. I don't think that's.

The right thing or they could be doing things better, as Walid alluded to earlier, You know, they might not be wrong, but there are some other things that they can be doing better.

And also being knowledgeable now of different types of leadership and being able to identify a person's style of leadership and how to navigate that style of their leadership while working with them that has been.

Very helpful. Now as I navigate these walls of what what is going to be my next step after earning this degree. So good stuff.

That's great. Thanks everyone.

Alright so looking back how prepared were you for starting this program? What were your strengths and what were your development needs? Although we've touched on a lot of this but you know do you think you were well prepared for this and and maybe to to to add to that like if you can go back and tell yourself in time you know here's what to expect what what would what would you tell yourself what advice would you give yourself.

I can start it off. I definitely felt prepared and I definitely was anxious and nervous as I think anyone would be starting an advanced degree and getting a doctorate.

But I think after having an intense full time program, it's Stockton with the MSOT program which was very intense. A lot of work went into that And having a program, I'm not saying that there isn't a lot of work like we have papers every week.

Manageable. And the fact that we have one class at a time, I'm able to focus on one thing at a time, whereas in other programs I'm balancing 5 full classes at a time.

While taking exams, while doing projects, and this is, I can focus on one subject matter at a time. So I think from a workload standpoint, I definitely prepared in terms of my education, my prior education. That's where I was nervous that I didn't know if I had, you know, the administrative background and the business background, but.

I am doing just fine, so I definitely felt prepared, but if I could go back and tell my younger self something, I'm glad I waited. And I'm glad I didn't go right after my masters because I definitely think it's beneficial to have work experience before going into this program.

Or else I don't think it really benefits you. So I am glad I've had five years of clinical experience under my belt working full time, but I would have liked to take at least one business course, I think as an undergrad, you know, maybe as an atom distance was. All I took were science and psychology courses and physics and things that I needed for healthcare. So that's one thing I wish I would have taken, but I didn't take it and I'm doing just fine, so.

All that's all I've done is Business School before this program, Megan. So if you want to call me, I'm happy to, happy to help.

Anybody else wanna wanna share?

Yeah, I mean, I'll, I guess I'll jump in.

I was academically prepared. I think pretty much all of us having gone through and and gotten some level of higher education and advanced degree, sort of prepares you for the work that's needed. Although the amount of work in the doctor program I may not have been prepared for, but from an academic standpoint, I I think my mindset was set and it's not really deviated much. I think what I was not prepared for, in all honesty, is how humbling this program has made me.

It was something where I went into it.

Feeling really good, powerful about myself. I'm a director of IT at this university. I've had 20 years of management experience. I know what I'm doing. I know how to lead. I've also had my challenges that, you know, I could always rest on those challenges as something that was character building and and progress me through. And then I'm I'm in these classes and it's like I I don't know anywhere near as much as I thought I did.

I'm not as advanced and I'm not as learned as I thought I was. I don't have as much experience as even many of my cohort members. I'm listening to experiences they have and I'm thinking, my goodness, you know, they're, they're coming from a different place. And a lot of that is very humbling. But I I think there's a huge value in that because AI think when you lead, you need some level of humility, you need some level of empathy for other circumstances.

Especially not just the people that are under you, but all the stakeholders that Hamid had referenced. You know, everyone was involved.

And this program has given me a little bit more of that. And I don't know if I was necessarily prepared to experience that in a doctoral program. So that's something that I think I take away from that and if I'm going to give myself advice.

Start this sooner, right? I I I feel like if if I'd done this program two years, three years earlier, you know, I I feel like I'd even be in a better place now than than I was before. And I don't mean that just professionally. I mean that personally.

So I'll I'll, I'll jump in after Walid. I would say that I I I tend to think nothing just happens. Everything is orchestrated and everything is divinely comes by divine appointment. I just end ended a contract with a company and I'm saying I need a job. I need something I need to be able to to move because in my mind you know I need it to work and jumping into this class, the first class.

Umm, she gave the syllabus, she went over and she talked about time for this, time for this, time for this. And I'm saying wow time. I've been given time back to be able to really now get get these projects done.

And here here I am. Here I am. I will say that I started with some anxiety. I had butterflies coming in because again, I didn't know what to expect.

But I will tell you, since the first class, it's been everything that I needed, life changing. And I'm one that if somebody points out something in me and something in me that I don't like, I need to make Carrie. I need to make that that change immediately because it's something that I don't like. And somebody saw it. I thought I was going to hide it. But no, let me let me make that immediate change. So this class has been.

Life changing. It's been life changing.

Or the the program, I'll say has been life changing.

Yes.

And you're just getting started. That's fantastic.

Wow. I think Natasha, you're the only one we didn't hear from. You want to share?

Yes.

Definitely life changing as well. I think for me, just being transparent, I had applied for this program, I think maybe about three years before starting for fall 2022. I had thought about it. I never was one that aspired to have my doctorate degree. I know I speak to some people. They said that was something that was a goal of theirs. It wasn't for me, you know, Masters was a goal. I achieved that and I had finished my Masters in 2008. So it's been a long time since I've been in a learning classroom, structured setting, and I was.

I was a little nervous about starting that because now, you know, as I mentioned earlier, I'm a wife, I have a teenager, a preteen who are involved in sports and all other activities year round. So I think that's why I was hesitant in making the commitment. Like Walid said, academically I felt I can handle it. I just felt like, you know, am I being selfish? To put that, you know, put my education in front of my family. So that was my big challenge and block.

And once I.

Somewhat got the stamp of approval from my kids and obviously my husband. That was everything to me. I had the green light. I'm going to go ahead and do this.

And it's still a challenge in terms of time management, even having the flexibility. I've missed, you know, sporting events, I've missed certain baby showers because my education right now is the priority. But I'm confident that, you know, this is in, in the long run it's going to be a value. I'm doing the right thing. And like Walid said, knowing what I know now, I should have applied the three years ago when I started the application. I should have went ahead and did it and I would give myself in terms of the advice.

Embrace the journey. Give yourself grace.

And you got this, you can do it.

Love it.

That is great. Alright. That I think wraps up. I don't know. I'm not seeing any questions in the chat. Jen, can you confirm that for me?

Yep. I don't see any questions in the chat either, but will give folks just a minute. I wanted to thank you all so much. Thank you for for your authenticity. Thank you for your words of advice. I hope that this lands on the ears that need to hear it. I really enjoyed every, every ounce of what you all shared today, you know from the graduate admission standpoint as a colleague of some of yours and and former employer of some of yours, etcetera, etcetera.

Just there's so many wonderful things that you all had to share with that, while we give folks just a moment, I am going to put in the chat really quickly the contact information for graduate admissions. So whether you're watching this as a recording, whether you're watching this live, you can, you know, jot that down. We are happy to answer any questions that you have here in the graduate admissions office, myself and our team and you can call us, e-mail us and if you're close by, you're welcome to stop in as well. We are located in Lower Enwang here at the Galloway campus.

But can also get you connected. If you'd like to hear more either from current students or from the faculty of this program, we're all willing to share thoughts and ideas on how we can help you to be successful in participating in this awesome program. So I just want to once again thank all of you and again, I'm not seeing anything else in the chat, but I want to make sure everybody has the contact info. And with that being said, we will, we will sign off and and we hope that you all have a wonderful day. Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Thank.

Thank you.

Thank you.