Patricia Dahm

Dissertation topic: Understanding the behaviors that result in creating a diverse network of professional relationships.

Completion date: May/June 2015

Pollen: When you’re facing an overwhelming task like completing a dissertation, how do you stay motivated?

Patricia Dahm: Long-term tasks such as a dissertation can be daunting, so it’s critical to break it up into smaller tasks and celebrate milestones along the way. For example, some days I focus on generating leads for data collection, while on others I focus on writing certain sections of the dissertation, such as the methods or the introduction. This way I feel like I’m making progress and get a sense of completion before the whole thing is finished. It’s also fun to imagine how I will feel when I finally cross the stage at graduation. The emotions are real and very motivating.

P: How do you get your arms around the data and research you discover?

PD: This is a step-by-step process that starts with creating a survey. Once I’ve got the data in hand, I take it one step at a time: first creating variables, then running simple statistics, and finally testing hypotheses. I also give myself permission to have fun with the data – such as running tests to answer all sorts of interesting questions, even if not hypothesized. For difficult or unfamiliar analyses, sometimes I have to “put myself in jail” until I figure out how to do it, ask others questions, and be patient with myself.

Margaret Lovejoy

Dissertation topic: “Beyond the Fairytale: The Real Story of Homelessness” focuses on stories and outcomes of five African-American women who have experienced homelessness.

Completion date: March 2014

Pollen: How did you get inspired to pick your topic, and how do you hope your dissertation continues to inform your work?

Margaret Lovejoy: I was inspired by the hundreds of women I have met who faced homelessness and succeeded in getting into a new home. These women displayed courage, futuristic thinking, self-care, and care for their families. “Beyond the Fairytale: The Real Story of Homelessness” is a qualitative and phenomenological research project that looked at the stories of five African-American women’s childhood, middle life, and current life. The shared information is vital to the health of the family and community. During the interviews the women disclosed childhood memories as they retold their stories. This shared information was instrumental in creating recommendations for a new social service training program. The data was used to construct a way to generate new community solutions to the underlying issues of poverty that lead to homelessness.

P: What feelings did you experience post-dissertation, and how did you cope with those?

ML: Completing seven years of study and work was both exhilarating and a tremendous letdown. The day I picked up the bound copies of my dissertation, I wondered how much it had cost — not in dollars, but in time, relationships, and extreme effort. I was elated the day I walked onto the University of St. Thomas campus to pick up my cap. There are no words for that feeling of accomplishment.

Cara Rieckenberg

Dissertation topic: Environmental education within elementary schools. Completion date: I hope to have the dissertation finished and defended by the end of 2014.

Pollen: At what point in the dissertation process did you hit a wall, and how did you overcome that?

Cara Rieckenberg: I’ve hit a few walls during the dissertation process. The first wall came at the end of the prescribed course time with my cohort. I had gotten so used to seeing them every month and doing a check in on whatever particular course we currently a part of, that I hadn’t realized I needed them to continue on with the dissertation. When our cohort courses no longer convened on a monthly basis, I missed that accountability piece. Even though I had mini-deadlines in place, they kept getting pushed back because I could now (very easily) find other things to fill my time. My next wall hit when I changed jobs. I left a great job for an even better job. The crazy part of the new gig was we were starting a brand new school. It was way too much to work such crazy hours trying to get the new school started, and then come home to work on my dissertation. I ended up taking a break for a year and a half from the whole thing. I had to be okay with putting it aside. It was after this wall that I wasn’t sure I wanted to finish the dissertation. I was so far removed from the coursework and definitely on an island of getting this thing done. I decided to get my cohort people back together and get inspiration from them. It worked. Back on the wagon I went. I hit my final wall last year when I had rotator cuff surgery. I was laid out. I had an immobilizer for eight weeks, and then it took me another few months to even lift my arm again. I’d go to work, come home, and go to bed. It was all I could do. But I already made up my mind (see conclusion after second wall above) that I was going to get this sucker done, so I persisted and worked my tail off trying to wrap this up.

P: What is your relationship like with your dissertation chair? How do you manage that relationship through the process of creating, editing, and changing drafts of your dissertation?

CK: My dissertation chair is great! He has been very supportive, a definite cheerleader, and a ‘pusher’ to make sure I continue to move forward with this project — even when I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue. He responds quickly via email, is open to scheduling face-to-face discussions, and has been a great sounding board for me in regards to many aspects of the process.