I passed comps!

 

My PhD Journey..... 

 I successfully defended my PhD dissertation on September 6, 2024, noon Central time, via Zoom at Capella University.

I prepared my Power Point presentation and spoke for 20 minutes, Q & A 20 min, and then my committee (which included my faculty mentor and my two committee members) told me to mute/camera off and about 2 minutes later I came back to their smiling faces saying CONGRATULATIONS! I PASSED.

 An exciting time of celebration! It was hard to focus on anything else (like working) as this phase is a huge weight off my shoulders and a new beginning, as I am now a Doctor.  I'm proud of everything so far. Very nice comments from my committee. My dissertation was approved by my committee and the Doctoral writing center with minor edits, such as APA formatting and page numbers.  It now goes on to the Dean for the final approval and publication.

I wrote a poem about my experience interviewing my participants and using Zoom to auto-transcribe my interviews. My dissertation is all about sharing experiences of my participants, which are adult poetry instructors experiencing stress in their classrooms or academic life.

Anthropomorphism

-       Attributing human characteristics to inanimate sources

 

 

Zoom doesn’t hear the sound of a breath

when the researcher uses it to

auto-transcribe words

 

It misses the pause of a sigh

or a laugh,

conversations intimately captured

by poets righting/writing a palm/poem

 

right/write

palm/poem

politic/poetic

tiers/tears

 

Silences silenced, so I, as human

listen

play the recording again

and re-listen to correct

machine-made characters

wrong words

 

Don’t auto-correct me, you mansplaining

AI-splaining bot, I’m speaking, now/no

A part/process of how I right/write

A palm/psalm/poem with my hands

 

I touch the keys, the pen, the phone, the paper

I’m listening

 

I’ll get it right and show it to you for your review,

keep in the verbatim ums, add a comma and a pause

so your words – your voice

will be heard

the write/right way that you intended

 

Thank you/thank you

 

The last four years have been a disciplined  journey. President's list, gpa 4.0. First generation grad student, with a 13 year gap from my MFA to starting my PhD. Finished at age 62. It's never too late to start and persist. This is the last page of my Power Point about my personal journey where I shared my labyrinth (in my backyard) as a focal point:

As I am writing this, I had DEAN APPROVAL!

I am done! 

Thanks to my friend Dr. Mary Dezember for the mug!

Uploading my dissertation into ProQuest, the online library. Soon to be available to read.

Future ideas on teaching, presenting, conferences, classes, outreach, publishing, and sharing my experiences. More time for my own personal writing, blogging, reading for pleasure. And a few more parties to celebrate!

Commencement will be in March.

That Friday John and I attended an Albuquerque poetry reading at a brewery with some of our favorite poet friends.  It was an appropriate way to celebrate the occasion. 

Cheers!