(NCU) Introduction with Professional and Educational Aspirations

Introduction with Professional and Educational Aspirations 
BTM 7101, Assignment 2 
DuBose, Justin Z. 
Dr. Joe Direnzo 
5 February 2017 

​Completing any Doctor of Philosophy program will require not only a significant measure of internal fortitude and resilience, but also a comprehensive plan of action which dictates the course I plan to maintain for the duration of the program.  As a new Ph.D. student just beginning my program of study, it will be my endeavor in this paper to define my own course of action to seeing this program through to completion.   
The most important part of this planning process is understanding the academic requirements involved in the degree program.  As a Ph.D. student pursuing a degree in the field of Organizational Leadership, Northcentral University already has a degree program laid out for me with an anticipated timetable.  According to the academic degree plan and the timetable agreed upon with my academic advisor, my degree program is as follows. 
CLASS 
START DATE 
COMPLETION DATE 

Doctoral Studies in Business 
January 23, 2017 
March 17, 2017 

Scholarly Literature Review 
March 20, 2017 
May 12, 2017 

Statistics I 
May 15, 2017 
July 7, 2017 

Building Organizational Capacity 
July 10, 2017 
September 1, 2017 

Research Methods 
September 4, 2017 
October 27, 2017 

Theory & Practice of Organizational Leadership 
October 30, 2017 
December 22, 2017 

Research Design 
December 25, 2017 
February 16, 2018 

Ethical Leadership 
February 19, 2018 
April 13, 2018 

Qualitative Research Design 
April 16, 2018 
June 15, 2018 

Communicating Change 
June 18, 2018 
August 10, 2018 

Statistics II 
August 13, 2018 
October 5, 2018 

Leader as Coach/Consultant 
October 8, 2018 
November 30, 2018 

Executive Leadership 
December 3, 2018 
January 25, 2019 

Elective (Undecided) 
January 28, 2019 
March 22, 2019 

Elective (Undecided) 
March 25, 2019 
May 17, 2019 

PhD-OL Portfolio 
May 20, 2019 
July 12, 2019 

Components of the Dissertation 
July 15, 2019 
September 6, 2019 

The Dissertation Proposal 
September 9, 2019 
November 1, 2019 

Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Data Collection 
November 4, 2019 
December 27, 2019 

The Dissertation Manuscript and Defense 
December 30, 2019 
February 21, 2020 
 
If the circumstances of my own personal and professional life cooperate with the schedule constructed in this timetable, my anticipated completion date for my Ph.D. program is February of 2020.  This would make the entire length of my program at just over three years.  My own anticipation and expectation is that the above timetable will be strictly maintained until the "PhD-OL Portfolio" and subsequent portions of my program, at which time I will likely stretch the dissertation and defense beyond the anticipated timetable out of necessity. 
 Between my personal and professional life, there could be numerous obstacles which, if not anticipated, could certainly derail or adversely influence my completion of this program.  My wife and I have four young children (ages eight, six, four, and two) who require a tremendous amount of physical and mental energy.  Additionally, my wife is currently pursuing a BSN at Western Carolina University, and I am overseeing a church and Christian school.  I am also an Army Reserve Chaplain, which occupies at least one weekend per month and two weeks per year. Realistically, I could be deployed at any time, which could dramatically effect the ability to complete the program in a timely manner. Any of these factors could be enough to cast doubt on a realistic program completion plan, and this is without considering other possibilities like illness or other major life events which cannot be foreseen. The cumulative weight of these factors is most definitely enough to consider disruption in the planned course of study to be likely. 
The coursework portion of the PhD-OL program is certainly straightforward enough, but the research and construction of the dissertation merits a plan of action in and of itself.  Luckily, my current residence is very well situated for academic pursuits at the highest level.  I am within one hour of two universities with extensive libraries and within two hours of the  "Research Triangle" of Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina, well known for its concentration of research capabilities in such a concentrated area.  In particular, Duke University, known as one of the premiere academic institutions in the United States, is also a religious institution, which aligns with my intended focus on religious, non-profit organizations.  The resources available at Duke University, along with UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State, UNC-Wilmington, and Coastal Carolina University will provide much of the necessary research required for the composition of a dissertation. 
Another significant contributing factor to a realistic program completion plan is the ever-present issue of time management.  As a self-employed professional, I have the fortunate benefit of a very flexible schedule.  When I was completing my Master's degree, I had the ability to rearrange my working hours to free up one workday per week to focus exclusively on educational pursuits.  This flexibility over scheduling and appropriation of time to prioritize education was essential to the completion of my Master's degree and, in similar fashion, this formula will be both necessary and equally applied in my current pursuit of a Doctor of Philosophy degree. 
Although this realistic program completion plan was conceptually present in my mind, it was extremely helpful to be required to think through the actual timeline and process of completion. And, more importantly, to construct this timeline on paper to be referred to when needed will be valuable to me as I go through the dissertation coursework.  I can anticipate such obstacles as discussed above, but when those obstacles are weighing on my mind in real-time, it is helpful to reflect and have something tangible as a reference point for needed motivation.  In my own journey through this PhD-OL at Northcentral, I will continue to look back upon this realistic program completion plan as a benchmark of where I am, where I am going, and the rate of progress, especially in those inevitable seasons of self-doubt or overwhelming fatigue.