 The Dissertation House has grown into a program that many students have used to finish their proposals and dissertations.
The Dissertation House is sponsored by PROMISE, The UMBC Graduate School, The UMCP Division of Graduate Studies, and the Council of Graduate Schools' Ph.D. Completion Project. HISTORY: The Dissertation House project is based on the successful Scholar's Retreat by Dr. Sonia K. Foss at the University of Colorado at Denver (Feature article in: Scott Smallwood (2004) "A Week at Camp Dissertation," The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 16, 2004.) PROMISE: Maryland's Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, one of the nation's 21 AGEP programs of the National Science Foundation, adapted some of Dr. Foss' methods and incorporated them into strategies that UMBC's Dissertation Coach, Dr. Wendy Carter, uses in her "TADA: Thesis and Dissertation Accomplished - Finally Finished" books and software. Dr. Carter's materials are used throughout the U.S. (Website: http://www.tadafinallyfinished.com/.) The founders of the Dissertation House in Maryland are Dr. Renetta Tull, Dr. Wendy Carter, and Dr. Janet Rutledge.
The first successful pilot of the PROMISE Dissertation House was held at the PROMISE Community Building Retreat at the Coolfont Conference Center in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, during the winter of 2006. The second successful Dissertation House was held in March 2007 at the Rocky Gap Conference Center in Cumberland, Maryland. The Dissertation House staff at Rocky Gap included Dr. Wendy Carter, Dr. Chris Carlton of the UMBC Counseling Center, and Dr. Tracey Wayne, a PROMISE Alum from the University of Maryland College Park. Based on the success of these PROMISE Dissertation House experiences, the successes experienced by students who have worked with Dr. Carter, and drawing upon the experience of Dr. Foss and the staff at the University of Colorado at Denver, the Dissertation House expanded to include "Dissertation House - On Campus" week-long, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. programs in July 2007. Successful Dissertation Houses have now taken place at the following locations:
March 2006: Coolfont, Berkeley Springs, West Virginia
March 2007: Rocky Gap Conference Center, Cumberland, MD
July 2007: UMBC Campus
July 2007: UMCP Campus
January 2008: UMBC Campus
July 2008: UMBC Campus
July 2008: UMCP Campus
January 2009: UMBC Campus
Feb/March 2009: Rocky Gap Conference Center July 2009: UMBC Campus July 2009: UMCP Campus September 2009: UMBC Campus (For campus employees, working full-time AND going to grad school.) January 2010: UMBC Campus Feb. 2010: Rocky Gap Conference Center The Dissertation House is sponsored by the following programs:
Dissertation House committee:
Dr. Wendy Carter (Dissertation Coach, UMBC Ph.D. Completion Project) Dr. Renetta Tull (Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Development (UMBC), Co--PI and Director of PROMISE: Maryland's AGEP (UMBC, UMCP, UMB)) Dr. Janet Rutledge ( Vice Provost and Dean of The Graduate School, UMBC) Dr. Carol Parham (Associate Dean of Graduate Student Experience, UMCP) Dr. Jordan Warnick (Assistant Dean of the Office of Student Research, University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) Medical School) PROMISE Coordinators UMBC: Tawny McManus, MA UMCP: Tamara Wilds Lawson, Ph.D. UMB: Judith Kadarusman Pollack, Ph.D. PROMISE PI: Dr. Elliot Hirshman, Provost, UMBC Former committee members:
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