Seattle U milestones

It's been a while since I've posted...mainly due to Seattle U taking over all my free time. But, in 49 days when I walk across the stage at graduation it will definitely all be worth it!  April was a big month of milestones in my program at SU...I took my comps, got inducted to an honors society, presented at a conference, and defended my dissertation!

On April 6th I took my comprehensive exams. It consisted of three questions in the morning (four hours to complete them) and then two question in the afternoon (with two hours to complete them). We could use one notecard which was definitely helpful. Of course, mine was color-coded and laminated :) A few weeks later I received word that I passed both parts of the comps!!  It was definitely a challenging process, but in the end went well and I'm glad it is done!

front of my notecard for the comps

passed!!!

April 15th I was inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu, the Jesuit honors society. It was a great honor to be one of the doctoral students selected this year. Pat and I attended a great induction ceremony, with many interesting Jesuits who spoke. One perk is that I get to wear the medal at graduation...since I never had honor cords at HNA I'm excited to wear the medal this time! :)

Fr. Steve, the president of SU, congratulating me

Stephanie, Nadeje, and I were inducted also!

April 20th we had our SU Leadership Conference planned by my cohort. The keynote speaker was Cheryl Broetje, from Broetje Orchards (http://www.firstfruits.com/). They are an orchard in Washington that is completely people first. Over the years they have met the needs of the workers on their orchard by building housing, a school, daycare, creating summer programs, and nearly all of the kids of workers go on to college. She was very inspiring and a great speaker to kick off our day!

I was able to present my dissertation research during the conference. It was fun to share about my research and to practice the presentation before I defended. Many people came to cheer me on which I was so thankful for--in addition to my cohort members, my mom, Becky, CJ, Colleen, Pat, Maria, Nick, Erica, Elaine, and Meghan were there!

presenting my dissertation study at the SU Leadership Conference

The last big milestone this April was that I successfully defended my dissertation on April 26th!!!!  There were so many days I didn't think I would get to this point, but it felt so good to finally have it all done and be excited to present to my committee. The defense consisted of a presentation (basically the same presentation as the conference) and then questions from my committee and people in attendance. It was so great to have Pat there with me, in addition to Ashlee from my cohort and Julie, Julia, and Amanda from HNA. Julia and Amanda even made me a d-fence sign! My committee had good questions and overall had many good things to say about my research. At the end of the questions, everyone was asked to leave the room and the committee deliberated. About 7 minutes later, John, my chair, opened the door and said, "Congratulations, Doctor!" It was so exciting!!!

Celebration dinner!!

Official dissertation defense announcement around Loyola