The joy of obtaining a doctorate...

I remember it well. It was the spring of 2004 and the speaker was saying there is a shortage of quality administrators in California. She said that a new doctoral program would help to train current educators and create models for other aspiring educators to follow. I had looked at Point Loma, La Verne, Nova, and was waiting for National to start an educational doctorate program, so the news was interesting. The program could be completed in three years, far from the 4-8 years that doctoral students normally take to complete the degree.

She went on to say that it would be a joint doctoral program with the UCSD, CalState San Marcos, and San Diego State as partners. It sounded interesting, so I went to the first meeting. The speaker, Dr. Jennifer Jeffries of CSUSM, was already a good friend and convinced me to give it a go. I was especially intrigued by the “action research” part of the program. All of the research and study we performed would be applicable to the position we currently served in a district office or school.

So my smiling face was photographed at the hosted introduction dinner held at UCSD for the other participants and the press. Meeting each other for the first time, we wondered what we were getting ourselves into. We were correct in our hesitation.

Two long years later, I have finished the full time courses, have a signed-off proposal for research, and begin the real work of studying something of interest to me, and hopefully, to others in education.

Many of us in this cohort of 17 have found higher paying jobs in education simply by being in this course. All of us have suffered personally because of the huge amount of time this rigor has taken from us. None of us will regret it when we put on that cap and gown and finally receive that piece of paper in May of 2008. Would I do it again? Don't ask me that question today...