Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The more I researched the institution, the more I liked it. So, I hooked up with Trident,
and it has just been absolutely fantastic for me. Just what I needed as a working adult.
As someone who's already a dean at a community collage, it provided the educational pathway
for me to achieve the academic goals that I was looking for.
The accreditation was critical. The course work had to be accredited, but the degree
had to be accredited in order for my institution to recognize it. But more importantly, I wanted
to make sure that the support was there from the faculty. Each individual faculty member
providing me as a adult the support that I need and understanding the flexibility of
scheduling was critical for me.
Realizing that as a working adult my needs for my own students that I was teaching were
paramount to me, so just that synergy between the faculty member, the support system from
Trident, the financial aid support system. Everything happens there was just honed in
to make sure that I as the student was successful.
My dissertation the topic was the impact of cooperative learning on critical thinking
test Of course and what we looked at, was the pedagogy of cooperative learning and how
it positively impacted students pre and post test scores and the difference it made in
critical thinking. That work is actually being looked at by the State of Virginia now to
see if that pedagogy of cooperative learning can be infused throughout the State of Virginia.
The president of my community college was one of the members of my committee. She wants
to get some publications out of it, as do I, so we're looking together at how we can
expand that and make it even more impactful for the students of Virginia. I'm extremely
excited about the future. A Ph.D in the community college world is a golden ticket.
It allows you to go in many different avenues, many different directions. I have already,
to be honest with you, had phone calls from institutions looking to see if I was interested
in becoming vice president and moving up the career pathway. I'm interested in whatever
doors are open, but that door that was closed without the doctorate degree has been flung
wide but whether it's at the institution where I currently work, or another institution,
it just is giving me the skill set to not only advance, a promotion, but to do good
sound research where I'm currently being employed.
I never thought that I would get to the point where I could say I have a doctorates degree.
With being a pastor, a husband, a father, a college dean I just didn't think it would
be possible. So what's going through my mind right now is how fortunate I was that a colleague
of mine told me about Trident University because Trident allowed me to stay where I was get
an accredited doctorate degree, and have the world open up to me in terms of the educational
opportunities.