The pursuit of an EdD

It's been a minute (almost 2 years, actually) since I've blogged.  This time, it's a little forced (see the course requirement below).  Although I am a lifelong learner who has dedicated her career to helping lifelong learners access education, I last accessed a formal, higher education program in June 2001. 

Back then, I ran fast toward higher education right out of high school  (3 degrees, 6 years) and my debt coping mechanism was to go fast (I wanted to have those degrees before life happened as no one can take them away). That path required me to take on over $100k in debt. I'm sad that I didn't know the rules about nonprofit loan forgiveness (I spent 15 years at the American Bar Association),  as I think much of it may have been forgiven, but I was fine with repaying them on the basis of fairness (I made the choice to invest in myself by getting those degrees and I knew it came with a cost). The blessing in the sadness of my mom passing away 15 years later was that her inheritance from my grandpa went to her kids and I was able to use my portion to pay back those loans in 2016 instead of  2031. 

Anyway, since the days when I was last in a higher education setting, my world changed.  I married someone who has no degrees. He has the same work ethic, but he is more hands on so the college degree wouldn't have benefitted him the way a trades apprentice program did. And now, we are together helping five kids decide whether and how to pursue college and trying our best to help them finance it. We have varying views on both the pursuit and the financing.

As part of the EdD program, I hope to learn more about the whys and hows of higher education.  For myself, I hope to become more useful at work by gaining a deeper appreciation of the faculty/staff divide and increasing collaboration inside and beyond the university.  

Finally, I am most excited about pursing the EdD because it will give me a place to "geek out." I want to explore my education philosophies and ask the questions that have been nagging me as a parent escorting five children on their education journey. Given my interest in lifelong learning, I'm most concerned that the traditional university structure may not be the ideal format to support lifelong learning. If that's true, I'm going to want to appreciate the vision for what that structure needs to be and how I can help universities evolve.

Weekly Blog: “Life as a doctoral student” – Due: Every Sunday @ 11:59 (20 points)

The first semester of your doctoral journey might be formative and impactful. I would like you to keep an active blog (through Sakai) that details your journey, including your thoughts, reactions, and observations about your experience as a doctoral student. I hope this will be an open and honest space where you can deliberate on your collective experience as a doctoral student both inside and outside of the classroom. While I will be reading your blogs each week, I will leave it up to each of you to decide whether you want to keep this private or open to others in the classroom (which I would encourage you to consider). Blogs can be of any length and do not have to be written in a formal way (I won’t check for APA or organization – this really is a space for you to process, grading is for completion). They will be due every Monday by 11:59 PM. The first blog can focus on what you hope to learn about the program and yourself, as well as what you are most excited and concerned about. You can also connect the blog to that week’s readings and discussions.