The gathering offered students a chance to meet for collaborative sessions
For doctoral students, dissertations can be the stuff of nightmares.
The culmination of years of research, the dissertation represents a doctoral student’s unique contribution to the academic community and the dissertation defense is oftentimes the final requirement of a doctoral degree program.
Put simply, it’s high stakes—and high stress.
But Chaminade Psychology Associate Professor Abby Halston says it doesn’t necessarily have to be, with the right mixture of planning, preparation and collaboration.
That’s why Halston and her colleagues organized a “dissertation bootcamp” over the summer for Chaminade’s Doctor of Education in Educational Psychology students.
The gathering offered cohort members—busy professionals who attend their doctoral courses online—a chance to meet in person for collaborative sessions and mentorship.
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During the bootcamp, Halston said, attendees covered everything from online resources available for robust literature reviews to what’s required to meet the regulatory oversights for including human subjects in a research study.
They even took a campus tour, learning about Chaminade’s history along the way.
Halston said the central message of the gathering was simple: You’ve got this.
“Dissertations represent a huge piece of anxiety in doctoral programs,” she said, noting that her goal is to prevent students from failing to progress beyond the ABD—or “all but dissertation”—stage, when they’ve completed coursework but not the final requirement.
“This can be where doctoral students traditionally fall behind or fall through the cracks, especially without the right support,” Halston said, noting that the program works hard to weave dissertation conversations, research and milestones into every course.
She added that the dissertation bootcamp also served another purpose: To ensure that doctoral students, many of whom live on the neighbor islands, feel connected to Chaminade and its mission, their professors and their fellow cohort members.
Some 19 students are in the Ed.D. in Educational Psychology cohort, and all but five were able to attend the bootcamp. Among them was Susan Shinkawa, who serves as a behavioral health specialist for the state Department of Education’s Leeward District.
She said a “commitment to lifelong learning” inspired her to pursue a doctoral degree.
“Earning an Ed.D. represents personal fulfillment and satisfaction for both myself and my parents,” Shinkawa said, adding that she chose Chaminade because of its strong reputation, mission and values— plus the flexible program schedule.
In her dissertation, Shinkawa hopes to explore whether testing students’ perception of safety in their school environment impacts their performance on state tests.
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She said the bootcamp covered just about every question she had about the dissertation process.
Her favorite part of the day, though?
“I most enjoyed the fellowship with my classmates and collaborative sessions with faculty,” she said.
Jasmin Chang, also a behavioral health specialist with the DOE, said her dissertation will focus on interventions for traumatic grief and whether a manual for providers would enhance their perceived competencies and skills.
“I have always been passionate about learning and self-growth so I wanted to take on this exciting challenge,” Chang said, when asked what spurred her to pursue a doctoral degree at Chaminade.
“I wanted to use my education to expand my impact on the DOE in terms of systemic change, and I wanted to use my newly learned knowledge to improve my practice and better help the students and families I work with.”
She said she walked away from the dissertation bootcamp feeling more at ease and confident with the process and her next steps in her academic career.
“My favorite part of the day was simply seeing my classmates and professors in person,” she added