Home Sweet Home

After a eight hour drive I arrived back in Rochester to my home and family who have missed me very much. We had a late dinner and I was able to sleep in my bed for the first time in ten days. The best part of being home is being able to read the local paper and mail that had been stacking up while I was gone. It is funny what we appreciate after being away “at school”.

What is hard to explain is how difficult it is to describe the excitement of residency with those that we left at behind home. We are able to explain what we did, but they will never understand how intense these days are without going through them. In addition, I am tired of using the words dissertation, comps, committee, chair, and requirements (I will refrain from using them this week).

Now on to some R&R today…. I will try to switch gears back to reality and start a really tough semester. I am already thinking ahead to the July Residency.

Here is to a great semester….

-j-

Final Day of Residency

Today is the last day…..of our time together in Cincinnati

I am elated that I can leave this residency with more questions than answers. As a doctorial learner in the second half of the second year, this is a great place to be.

So in just a few hours I will be hitting the road. In my eight-hour drive home, I am sure that I will come up with more questions and possibly think about some solutions. I am feeling relaxed moving forward, heading toward comps and dissertation proposals. A week ago I had a very different feeling.

Residency… A time to learn, a time to reflect, a time to grow.

Now on to the rest of the semester….

-j-

We Are Almost Done

Today we visited a great modern art museum downtown. Spending time with the cohort was very relaxing. I think this was a great week of growth for this group that has traveled a long road over the past year and a half. There was a lot of giggling and, from what I could see, everyone seemed to enjoy the change of environment.

Today I met with two professors and Dean Preston to discuss my dissertation topic. What continues to fascinate me is the opportunity in the residency to meet with professors and talk about future research ideas. These conversations can be very stimulating and tend to give you direction

At noon on Saturday we are officially “done” and will be free to go home to our respective cities. Plans have been set for a meeting of the leadership cohort to meet in Rochester (my hometown) in April to work on a group project of a social nature. More details on this to come…

So off to sleep… I will have a long journey back to Rochester on Saturday. It will be great to sleep in my own bed again.

-j-

Guest Blogger: Merry Vaughan

Today I turn the blog over to another colleague, fellow learner and friend Merry Vaughan.
Although I asked Merry to blog about her feelings on Conference Day, I should have her discuss her dissertation topic (Based on Ethics of Dr.Seuss). I think that I will ask her to discuss this in a future blog post.

Hello. As the schedule shows, today is the Academic Conference Day at our residency. It is a day where we all get a chance to share our specialized areas of interest. We also get to interweave those ideas with the interdisciplinary nature of the program. The schedule highlights those opportunities; there are presenters from all but the newest cohort, presentations from all three concentrations, and on an incredible number of diverse topics.

Today is a day I really look forward to because we get the opportunity to see how brilliant the learners at Union truly are. It is a chance to see the passions of each individual come to the forefront of the discussion. We sit as interested audience members to see how the discourse unfolds. I am not presenting this term, but many of the members of my cohort are. Throughout the past three terms, we have heard a lot from each other in our cohort about our areas of interest and dissertation topics, but the academic conference gives learners in other cohorts a chance to share the passion. We also have the opportunity to experience the universality of interdisciplinary learning.

One of the presentations today is on the novel Fledgling by Judith Butler. Cohort 1 read this novel in our first term. I am interested in how Cohort 3 interpreted and interacted with this text; unfortunately it was at the same time as another topic I found slightly more impelling to engage with. But, just the fact that this was a topic in a presentation came up at breakfast, and we were once again engaged with material that had been a part of our curriculum almost 18 months ago. That is one of the wonderful things about Union, the opportunity to revisit and re-digest information that we encountered in past courses and put them into discourse with thoughts and ideas we have experienced since.

We will leave each other in three short days, but the scholarship shared on this day will stick with us. Perhaps only in a glimpse of insight or maybe in mind-altering ways, but the passion and the scholarship of the learners at Union are unparalleled in my mind, and I enjoy absorbing the brilliance at this point in the residency.

Guest Blogger: Cohort IV

Here is a great piece from a new learner from cohort 4. I was excited to read this and remember what it was like to experience residency for the first time.

So much time has passed since the first residency for me, but I remember thinking a lot of the same things….and feeling the same way…..

Submitted by:
Edveeje Fairchild, Cohort 4

As a new student at Union Institute & University, I sat spellbound and silent, surrounded by a room full of powerful, articulate and passionate thinkers. I am not often spellbound or silent. I am a double extrovert with a lot of thoughts and opinions and I usually jump at the chance to share what I think and believe. Yet this was a singular experience in which I wanted to absorb all of the wisdom, talent, and passion that others were bringing to the table. So, I simply remained silent and listened.

But a Union education doesn’t allow for simply sitting and listening for very long. The days that followed swept me along in a rushing and lively current of conversation, debate, discussion, and dialogue in which many of our intellectual and personal assumptions were questioned. During those first four days we literally lived our way into the reality of one of our classes– “Engaging Differences.” This experiential learning is one of the most compelling things about the residencies because it forces one to come out of one’s intellectual ivory tower and step into the human experience, which is often intense, messy and open- ended.

The most profound things I’ve learned during this residency have been in those classrooms without walls where I’ve literally felt myself deepening and widening as I’ve listened to and engaged my cohort in conversation. When I leave this residency, I will be a different woman and scholar for having been here. And I will leave it with the legacy embedded in the following quote that continued to resurface throughout our classes at Union:

“I am because we are.”

A Virtual Classroom

I’m still really not sure what day of the week it is (that is, my mind keeps playing tricks on it and telling me that it is Sunday…), but I know that we are moving quickly toward the final stretch of our time at this residency. In addition, today the sun came out. I am not complaining about the lack of sun (It has been warm enough to jog in a t-shirt and shorts) but it was nice to see it and bask in the warmth. Looking for meaning in this, I also saw the light this morning in our Research Methods class when I think I identified the methodology that I hope to use in my dissertation. Although I will soon find out if I was right or wrong, it was the first time I felt really good about methodology, and something seemed to click for me personally. Even if I am wrong, I feel I am on the right path. Thanks, Dr. Williams, for helping me flip the switch!

So on to the Virtual Classroom. Tonight I will be teaching a class of master’s students in Rochester, NY, from the hotel here at residency. The topic is leadership in the E-world. How fitting. This technology that I will be using is great, and I thank the folks at Adobe for being so patient with me and my requests. Using a web-cam, chat features, and a PowerPoint slide, we are going to try to simulate what my normal classroom looks, feels, and “learns” like. With customized delivery, we hope to have a great experience. I am looking forward to hearing the reactions from folks at both ends. I am hoping that this classroom and the application of the delivery will be the start of some great dialogue on what we can do to improve learning at a distance.

I will report back with the results….more to come…

-j-

Academic Conference Day Schedule

COHORT PH.D.
ACADEMIC CONFERENCE DAY SCHEDULE (draft 5)
January 10, 2008

9:00a-10:25p

PANEL 1: Transformational Leadership Models for Service, Education and Advocacy
Kentucky Room

Chair: Dick Couto, Ph.D. Core Faculty, Antioch University

“Home Visitors: Transformational Leaders?”
Sandra Smith, Cohort 1
“Teachers Leaders: An Instructional Support Team Case Study”
Divonna Stebick, Cohort 1
“Leadership Through the Soul: Saying No to Fear and Yes to Values”
Dana Millen, Cohort 1

Discussant: Ed O’Neil, M.D. Founder/President of OmniMed

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Butler’s Fledgling
Kroger Room

Chair & Discussant: Gloria Custodio, Cohort 3

Participants: Jeannie Carlyle, Cohort 3
Daniel Hindes, Cohort 3
Roxanne Forquer, Cohort 3

PANEL 2: Excluded Voices
Buckeye Room

Chair & Discussant: Ginger Rodriguez, Cohort 2

“Midwestern Latino Voices”
John Fraire, Cohort 2
“Cross-cultural Voices”
Pravina Gondaila, Cohort 2
“Transgender Voices”
Dawn Langley, Cohort 2
“The Voices of Minority and Immigrant Children”
Kezia Carpentar, Cohort 2
Glenn Kendall, Cohort 2

10:30a-11:55a

PANEL 1: Perspectives on Leadership: Interpretations from the Dramatic Arts
Kentucky Room

Chair & Discussant: Jim Caraway, Professor, Lynn University

“Leading By Example”
Elden Golden, Faculty, UI&U
“The Courage to Lead”
Bernice Ledbetter, Faculty, UI&U
“Power and Values: A Comparative Study of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Sarah Cole, Cohort 1

PANEL 2: Storytelling, Myth, and Morality
Kroger Room

Chair & Discussant: Chris Voparil, Faculty, UI&U

“Telling Stories as a Way of Knowing: Hannah Arendt and the Value of Storytelling in Political Theory”
Gloria Custodio, Cohort 3
“Moral Development and the Biblical Myth in Kant, Mill, and Alcott”
Robert Dunaway, Cohort 3
“Freedom and Morality in the Philosophy of Rudolph Steiner”
Daniel Hindes, Cohort 3

PANEL 3: Importance of Conflict for Effective Public Policy Development
Buckeye Room

Chair: John McGarrah, Cohort 1
“Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)”

Panelist: Marcel Kitissou, Faculty, UI&U

Discussant: Dana Millen, Cohort 1
“An Advocacy Prospective”

12:00p-1:30p

Lunch and Featured Speaker (Narrative, Community Building, and Policy Change): David Hunt
The Pheonix, Grand Ballroom

1:35p-3:30p

PANEL 1: Modernity, Postmodernity, and Possibilities of Choice
Kentucky Room

Chair & Discussant: Michael Templeton, Faculty, UI&U

“’You Come from the Future’: Postmodern Coutnernarratives in Don DeLillo’s Mao II”
Karsten Piep, Faculty, UI&U
“Political Leadership: Hard Choices, Ethics, and Poetry’s ‘Other Voice’”
Larry Preston, Associate Dean, UI&U

PANEL 2: Policy, Theory, and the Politics of Identity
Kroger Room

Chair: Sandra Smith, Cohort 1

“Globalization, Transnational Spaces, and the Politics of Home”
Kezia Carpenter, Cohort 2
“Communitarianism and Neo-Confucianism in the Grass Root Delivery of Youth Services”
Glenn Kendall, Cohort 2
“Race, Recognition, and Identity Crisis: Colorism in Maud Martha”
Sha-Shonda Porter, Cohort 3

Discussant: Chris Voparil, Faculty, UI&U

PANEL 3: Integrating Theology and Leadership
Buckeye Room

Chair: Charles Montgomery, Cohort 1

“A Feminist Theological Understanding of Shared Leadership”
Bernice Ledbetter, Faculty, UI&U
“Bi-Polar Ecclesiology: Theological Insights on Organizational Dynamics”
Rupert Loyd, Cohort 1
Discussant: Jim Caraway, Professor, Lynn University

Today Is...?

I am not sure I know what day of the week it is. Or the date. I know it is day five of the residency, and for most readers (on the outside of residency) that means very little. This is how we gauge our time away from our familiar environment we call home.

We have been going full speed ahead for six days, and I am ready to catch my breath and find out what is going on in the world around me. Being so consumed in your work/research for days is exciting, but you sometimes have to know when to step away and reflect.

Here it is 3:28 in the afternoon (I am in my 1-5PM Free Afternoon/Study Time/Reflection Time) when Donovan Myrie calls me to see if I want to venture out for a “Skyline” Chili Dog. I can’t say no….

What a great use of my reflection time…

-j-

Guest Blogger: Jonathan Eskridge

The second of the guest bloggers is someone who really has his act together. I have learned a lot from Johnathan and had the opportunity to travel with him to Vancouver in the fall. Dedication and patience are the two words that come to mind when describing Jonathan. I think that this is something many of my colleagues would agree with. I look forward to many more residencies put together with his attention to detail and architecture.

Here are Jonathan’s thoughts on what a residency is:

As the Cohort Ph.D. Program Director, I spend a great deal of my time and effort during the academic terms building and shaping each residency experience. I work five months and 22 days preparing, scheduling, re-scheduling, and creating activities and workshops for learners to experience while with us. I have no personal experience here, but it’s as close as I can imagine to the experience of having a child (if you are a parent, please disregard my obvious simple notion of “having a child”). After much work, effort, sweat, and tears, the residency is born.

Once the residency begins, my favorite part happens, though. I get to watch. I get to watch faculty offer advice to learners. I get to watch learners offer advice to faculty. I get to watch learners share in ups and downs. I watch people call home to check on their husbands, their wives, their children. I watch people articulating their viewpoints at an intellectual level that no other can compare to. Most importantly though, I get to watch people grow. They grow emotionally, academically, and intellectually. But most importantly, they grow as human beings. Wherever they’ve come from, whatever background they possess, good or bad, they’re here to make their world a better place. The best part in that whole process, though, is that the world they’re trying to make a better place is my world, too.

I count it a blessing be a small part in helping to guide learners down this path of growth.

Jonathan Eskridge

Cohort Ph.D. Program Director

The Blogger

I had a really interesting experience last night at the Faculty Open House that I have to share.

Several people approached me and asked if I was “The Blogger”?

I really didn’t know what to say at first. This blog was never designed to be about me or create this image but more about “life” as a PhD student/learner and my experiences at Union. As time has gone on, I have never felt that people were reading it and thinking about my posts.

The two comments that I got were interesting to me. First both individuals stated that it was good to hear that “it can be done” even though life would change a bit (they felt this encouraging). The second comment was that learners hoped to comment on my posts in a forum. In the next day, that feature will be open and will enrich the experience for me by getting feedback or questions that might perhaps stimulate more dialogue.

So today I look back at the first year and a half of my PhD program and wonder what I would have wrote if I had blogged the entire time. What would it say about my journey? What would it say about the transition of the person that I have become?

Today we move forward to a new place, the journey continues…

-j-

Some Time to Think

The leadership cohort had the opportunity to have a great conversation led by Peter Block. It was a great time to think. Think about where we are, and where we need to go. Peter is leading our class on leadership, and I am choosing to use this opportunity with Peter to talk about community development and how I might be able to take his ideas and meld them into my dissertation project. It is all starting to make sense to me.

On a side note, the weather is great in Cincinnati. Being able to walk outside without a winter coat is something that I enjoy doing in the month of January. Being stuck in classrooms all day, I am looking forward to taking a jog this afternoon and getting some fresh air.

In the days to come, I will have some guest bloggers. I am looking forward to reading others’ feelings about this week, and the experiences that we are having.

-j-

"The Real McCoy"--Guest Blogger

I am happy to say that I have the ability to pass the blog along to someone I admire. When I first came to Union in June of 2006, next to me sat Peyton McCoy (Peyton similar to Walter Payton, or Peyton Manning, McCoy like “The Real One”).

Listening to Peyton’s ability to tell a story and speak in public is amazing. She is a one of a kind, a real natural, and I admire her dearly.

-j-

Here is what she has to share:

My colleague Jeffrey Shepard approached me about penning this blog submission. I beamed with pride. You see, Jeffrey Shepard is an innovator par excellent. Not only that; one cannot help but beam at the distance traveled as a cohort in this parade of progress, which is evidenced in our inventions. What a marvelous family, the Union family. I kept thinking about my friend Roland, a new band director at an urban high school. I went to their football game a few weeks ago.

Round silver tubs started tapping a rhythm that converted even the non rhythmic. It could not be denied–the drum line was tight. The half-time show evangelized the audience. The drum major led 200 novice marching musicians into a frenzied exciting energy surpassed only by executed precision. It seemed that some invisible compass was navigating chaos into constructive tension. Effortless exactitude. First we sat on the edge of our seats wondering what was about to come. Then we were on our feet infused with exhilaration, invigoration. Next we were cheering and applauding with fierce urgency. But things are not always as they seem. That which appeared effortless was the result of extraordinary effort. Those novices—moving 200 strong–transformed the field, the fans, and themselves. From the player’s bench to the sky booth it became evident—there was a transformation coming on.

Simultaneously, five hundred miles west in Cincinnati, Ohio, there was another half-time going on. Admission tickets were high and expectations higher—there’s another transformation coming on:

It can be downloaded or uploaded
It’s for the information generation

It’s for the rough road and the heavy load
It’s a soulful rejuvenation

It recycles sorrow’s dump truck load, oppression’s dirty load,
And the weary blues overload

It’s a great migration towards an overdue celebration prior to a consummate transformation

It’s for the lost, the found, and the almost found
The bound, level to the ground, and the underground

There’s a transformation that’s yours (and mine) for the asking

So we’ll work longer—and care stronger—towards our transformation Union Institute style

If there’s a high road to take, take it
If there’s forgiveness to give give it
If there’s a thank you to say, say it

Then we can have a transformation, real inter disciplinary transformation–Union Institute style.

Peyton McCoy
Union Institute & University
Cohort 1