Episode Three: What successes did you achieve during the OTD program?
Shirley O’Brien:
I’m Shirley O’Brien and I am the coordinator of our post-professional online doctoral program, and I am so excited to have quite a breadth of really qualified post-professional students here. We’ve each had a lot of successes, I think, in the time you’ve been in the program, could you talk to us a little bit about that and what supported you in that?
Dr. Christina Bretz:
I think for me, success wise, I think it’s just being able to juggle everything, you know. Having a full-time job and then doing this and having three daughters who travel for their sports every weekend, and just juggling all of that is to me was a success. But I also think that it was a lot of the faculty support, like having to be able to send an email and get a response almost immediately was just amazing to me, and that’s something that I’ve told others about how the faculty has just been overwhelmingly supportive.
Dr. Stedmon Hopkins:
I think for me it’s the OTD class structures and how diverse the classes are. So, every semester every half semester really, you’re learning about something almost completely different but that kind of helps open your eyes into what else our profession really does offer, which kind of goes back to part of the reason I wanted to get into this program was to further my knowledge for the profession and I think that was really helpful.
Dr. Jenn Veenendall:
For me, I think the program just generally increased my confidence and that opened a lot of doors for me within my setting where I’m working. And, you know, throughout the program my leadership opportunities just grew so much, so I think it’s very much due to confidence and just being exposed to a lot of things again. Because I’ve been out of school for a while, so it really reignited I think a passion in in me, and one of the reasons I was looking for this program was because I was feeling a little bit stagnant, I think, in my role, and so yeah, this program really turned that around for me.
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