The Essential Ph.D.

This coming August, I will begin my online coursework through Capella University to complete a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Music. Because my diversity as an artist, I know I must pursue a degree that allows me to combine and capsule all the things that I love to do in a terminal degree.

The other week, I set up an appointment with Donna Brink Fox to talk about what my "Next Steps" in my career path could be. Donna is Dean of Academic Affairs at The Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY and I have always admired and respected her opinions. Anyway, in advance of our meeting, I sent her a recent copy of my resume, so she could respond to my "Next Steps" dilemma.

When I arrived at her office, we started discussing the possibilities. She seemed to think that I would not be happy trying to fit the "bigness" of what I can do into a conservatory environment like Eastman. She said I could try, but that my interests and passions went beyond what Eastman could do. We also discussed the problems a person has when they are diverse.

She was incredibly supportive of my interest in pursuing a degree outside of music and thought the Educational Psychology degree would be a good one.

When I left her office, I couldn't help but think: Isn't it amazing that it isn't "just music"? What I know is that I want to do it all and I want to share what I know with others. In academia, a Ph.D is essential.

Yesterday, I visited the Capella website and entered my student I.D. number and found my place in the site. I am fully enrolled now. Over the next several weeks I will be applying for financial aid and scholarship money.

In some weird way, I am looking forward to the process. I want to do well ... I want to learn as much as I can. I want to do the coursework as quickly as possible and be in a position to do my dissertation when Doug returns from deployment.

Right now, I am very interested in the differences in learning sequences between boys and girls. The differences in gender and how to access the learning potential based on what we already know about brain development.

Wouldn't it be amazing if we educated our young using our knowledge of the natural processes of their learning sequences? What could we accomplish then? As a nation ... as a world?

And how differently would the Arts look if we did? Interesting question ... one I will probably ponder quite a lot over the next two years.