If you've been following my blog, you'll notice that I have been adding more and more articles about poets and authors, as well as other articles. These articles and essays were not written out of thin air. I had to write them for my PhD classes and am sharing them with you.
In early 2019, I was accepted into the PhD Leadership Program with specialty content in English at the University of the Cumberlands, KY. This totally online program worked well for me as I did not want to have to move to Kentucky to take classes. Also, I was thrilled because I had wanted to get a PhD ever since I was a teenager.
It didn't come to fruition until now because Life took over and demanded my time. I had to be a career woman, a wife, a homeschooling mother, and a widow first. Yet the dream did not disappear.
I had to get my MFA in Creative Writing at the National University, California first (in order to get accepted, I had to have a portfolio of writing). And the dream was still there.
I had to direct the Hellenic Writers' Group first (in order to be accepted into this program, I needed to have had at least 5 years in a leadership role). The dream kept pushing me to do something about the PhD. Up until now, I had not really known what I wanted to study because I had so many interests. A PhD is a 3 year commitment (at least), and it takes time, commitment, and money. I needed to know for sure that the field of study was the one I was interested in. Leadership was something that appealed to me, and so was writing.
So I applied to the University of the Cumberlands in 2018 to their online Leadership Program. For the application, I had to write an essay on what my dissertation topic would be. In the Spring of 2019, I received the acceptance letter. I was overjoyed yet cautious. I had recently passed my 60th year of life. Could I do it at this late stage? Yet I wanted to do it. It had been a dream of mine ever since I was thirteen.
I attended my online graduate classes faithfully and did very well in them. I learned so much about leadership, adult learning, higher education leadership, the organizational change process and even the teaching of content. I learned about qualitative and quantitative research. I learned about Irish Poetry, African-American novels, Immigration Narrative, Creative Writing, and much more. During these classes I met students that were CEO's of companies, principals of schools, and other students that were going for their second or third PhD. I met students with two Masters' degrees, and in our discussions, I read classmates' posts with interest because of the high caliber writing. I was impressed. I wasn't sure if online classes were as good as brick-and-mortar classes, and I found out that value of my education during 2020 when the Covid19 pandemic hit and everyone had to go online. We were ahead of everyone!
It's been two glorious years, and now in the Spring of 2021, I entered my dissertation phase. I am happy to announce that my topic has been approved, and I have been diligently working on my literature search/review for my qualitative dissertation. We've been told that this is a marathon and not a sprint. For each day that I am alive and breathing, and able to do this, I thank God.
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