Final Reflection

When I completed my master’s degree in education, I knew that I wanted to use it as a springboard into academic administration. I had the foresight to know and understand that I enjoy working with “education-minded” colleagues on the development of programs, improving instruction, collaboration, and the evaluation of intended outcomes. With a vision set for a career in K-12 public school administration, I did not however, have the foresight to see that my work would eventually lead to the administrative level of a major university or that the educational programs I would be providing would be for world-renown physicians and scientists. Despite this peculiar path through the field of education, I have found there to be much in common between the education that happens at a medical school and the traditional K-12 setting. For this reason, I decided to pursue a doctorate in educational leadership at the University of Michigan-Dearborn rather than an MBA or terminal degree in a different field.

I had a general sense of what I wanted to learn and the areas in which I wanted to grow when I started the doctoral program. But in retrospect, although I was aware of the formal topic areas (e.g., leadership, policy, curriculum, etc.) and content I would be exposed to, I had little understanding on the impact that the breadth and depth of learning within in each topic area would have on my personal and professional growth. The ability to explore each topic area so thoroughly is a result of life-long skills that the program instills, including the desire to read the literature, formulate questions, seek answers, and to openly discuss current thoughts and differing viewpoints. For this, I know that I have grown personally and professionally; I continue to use the skills every day.