My Doctoral Journey Starts
September 24, 2015. I signed the papers to change/switch programs from Masters Health Administration (MHA) to Doctor of Health Administration (DHA). At that point I enrolled in the doctoral program and first course, DHA711A-Leadership Theory and Practice. The doctorate program feels different from the Masters program, in texture and at granular level.
The School of Advanced Studies (SAS) is a unique place containing resources for students in the doctoral program. I was introduced to the SAS by my Academic Counselor. She also walked me through the library for special resources there. I saw many new things on the SAS site including the Analysis, Evaluation, and Synthesis (AES) model in PowerPoint.
The doctoral journey started in earnest on September 29, 2015 when I opened the door to the classroom and joined a group of 11 other doctoral learners. I soon realized that only one other student in the group was in the Health Care concentration. I thoroughly enjoyed my first course and received a good evaluation for it at the end of the course.
My second doctoral course, DHA714, Health Care Marketing, is where I am today. I am in week 4 and am prompted to keep a journal so that I can record and track what transpires along the way.
This Marketing course has exploded with content. We are required to read a large number of chapters of textbooks and a whole lot of articles from the library. To claim that I am reading a lot is an understatement. I think I am reading too much. Anyway, what is amazing to me is that I am actually internalizing all this stuff. Last week alone, I probably read the equivalent of half the Bible, in order to complete a 3 page written assignment. The other thing is that I am actually reading entire articles with the boring tables and statistical analyses, the stuff I love to keep on the sides until I really must do it.
The problem is that after all the effort I made last week I ended the week with one of the worst assessment I have ever received since joining this college nearly six years ago. It was a wake up call for me. I sat down to ask myself why! Actually, I think I know what did not work well. So, I am sitting up and getting ready to face this battle head on when the holidays are over. To do so I believe I have two challenges that I have to resolve in the coming two to three weeks time.
The first is that I have to find my own voice in the doctoral journey. It seems I have always spoken using other peoples' voices and ideas if that makes sense at all. The other is that I have to come up with a Dissertation for my doctoral work. I thought there was plenty of months until I have to choose a study topic. Suddenly in the last few days it has come to me to identify the topic and focus on my Dissertation. I am going to need guts to achieve both because these are the ultimate of a doctoral course. In my doctoral class we are five, that includes four ladies.
If I was doing my bachelor's course I would ask for ideas as to what I might do for a research project, kind of like picking the low hanging fruit; at doctoral level I cant even think like that. I want something fresh; something to challenge my intellect; something I will relish to study and write about. The problem is that I am not sure that I am passionate about any particular niche in Health Care. So, I am going to spend time observing, listening, talking to people, and internalizing some more studies to see how to respond to the two challenges I face today.
More later.
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