Where Have You Been, Jeffrey?

This is the question that I have been getting in recent weeks from readers to my blog (Where have you been, Jeffrey?). I thought I should write a quick update as to where I am and where things stand on the blog.

I have been a Ph.D. student… that is the answer. It has been a really busy start to the semester. I am working with my dissertation chair, Dr. Williams, on this piece of work that is starting to define who I am as a person in a community at this point in my life. What is interesting is that I wake up every morning thinking about this question… and how… or if I will ever answer it.

They tell me this is all really natural. I am sure this is something that we will all have “big laughs” about when we are confirmed Ph.D.’s and learn the secret handshake?

As for comps., I am patiently awaiting the reading list in preparation for taking this 72-hour test in August. It is really too early to get concerned about it, although I know that I will feel better when they are over.

In addition, my business is in a great growth state. We are pushing the limits on building what is the best organization that I have ever worked with and for. I am so proud of my team and our recent accomplishments. We have a long way to go, but we have come so far.

So that is about it for now. It has been the best semester for me to date. I have worked harder than any other time and feel really strong mentally. “Getting it done” is the mantra now… Although I am having a lot of fun on the journey.

Peace to all!

-j-

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.