Doctoral Students Reflect on their Journey Prior to Graduation

After Tammy Halstead had a baby when she was 15 years old in the late 1980s, there weren’t a whole lot of people betting on a bright future for her.

Proving the skeptics wrong has been especially sweet for the Lancaster County woman, who recently completed her Doctor of Education in administration and leadership studies in an Indiana University of Pennsylvania program taught at East Stroudsburg University.

“There were a lot of people around me who said ‘You’re not going to really get very far,’” recalls Halstead, who is the director of alumni advising and development at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. The first in her family to go to college, Halstead was a non-traditional student with young children when she got her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English. When her youngest child was graduating from high school four and a half years ago, she enrolled in the ESU/IUP doctoral program. She defended her dissertation in October and will receive her diploma at ESU’s December commencement.

IUP was the only university in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education allowed to award doctorates until East Stroudsburg University joined with IUP in 1999 to offer a Doctor of Education in administration and leadership studies. The three years of course work takes place on ESU’s campus with ESU faculty. IUP professors help mentor students and co-chair the dissertation stage of the doctorate. The degree is conferred by IUP.

The cohort, or group, of doctoral students take all their courses together. Classes are held five weekends a semester on Friday evenings and Saturdays. While this schedule can mean sacrifices of some family time, Halstead and other recent doctoral students say what they gained personally and professionally made the time commitment more than worth it.

Kevin Murphy, a professor of social work at Keuka College in New York and a therapist specializing in trauma, said the commute from his home in Elmira, N.Y. to ESU every third weekend was no obstacle because he looked forward to the classes with professors and fellow students who challenged him.

“The three-hour drive down and back was nothing because I was always so excited to be able to spend a weekend with some of the top people I’ve ever known in my life,” said Murphy, who defended his dissertation in September.

That was true for Adam Coffman, a social studies teacher at East Stroudsburg High School South, who said since finishing the doctoral courses, he misses the illuminating discussions with his professors and cohort members.

“There was never a time when I would look at the weekend and say, “Oh no, I have to go.’ In fact, it’s something I miss even now,” Coffman said. “You end up viewing topics in a holistic way, in ways I hadn’t done before the program.

“Every course I took I was able to use in some way in the courses I was teaching, even at the high school level,” Coffman said. “It has absolutely made me a better professional educator.”

He’s echoed by Karl Scheibenhofer, an assistant principal at Palisades High School in Bucks County, who defended his doctoral dissertation in October. Scheibenhofer said the classes, which range from school finance and conflict resolution to education law and curriculum evaluation made him a better writer and communicator and helped him think differently about issues, a skill he has used with the Palisades teaching staff.

“I would challenge their thinking because mine was being challenged,” he said.

Scheibenhofer, Coffman, Murphy and Halstead said cohort members grew close to each other and to doctoral coordinator Douglas Lare, Ed.D., and Patricia S. Smeaton, Ed.D., who invested so much time in their success.

Lare, who is also a professor of Professional and secondary education, challenged, mentored and even invited the doctoral students to his house for dinner several times during their academic journey.

“I think the world of the man – I respect him tremendously,” Scheibenhofer said. “He is by far the best influential educator I’ve ever associated myself with.”

Scheibenhofer said when his children are older, he might use his doctorate to look for positions as a school superintendent.

While Halstead has no immediate plans to change jobs, the doctorate will open doors for her to do consulting work or teach at the college level. For Coffman, the doctorate enables him to look for a teaching position in higher education.

Murphy was working on three books before his doctoral work and said he’ll return to them with stronger writing skills, thanks to the program. Plus, he expects the doctorate will give him a leg up with publishers.

He said the ESU program made him a better therapist, professor, researcher and even a better father and husband.

“In the early stages of the program, Dr. Lare emphasizes that the program is going to change the way you think and open up complexities,” Murphy said. “And he couldn’t have been more right.”

When Halstead defended her dissertation in October, she was surrounded by people who believe in her — her husband, ESU faculty and fellow doctoral students. After she presented and answered questions, the dissertation committee sent everyone out of the room.

She recalls: “Then they called me back in and Dr. Lare said, ‘Congratulations, Dr. Halstead.’ It felt like such an accomplishment. It’s certainly something I’ll never forget.”

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