What I believe...
Philosophy and Personal Statement: Doctorate MSU |
While it has taken me longer to arrive at my current status as a student, my journey has been one that has supplied me with a broad collection of skills, abilities and knowledge that have not only supported my learning but also helped me be very successful. I have a wide and varied background which is steeped in experience, but common to all my endeavors is the desire to always be challenged by pushing myself in order to reach new and complex understandings of the world, both professionally and within my personal life. Discovery as a function of curiosity has been a driving force in my personal and professional development. I have found no better fit for my disposition than the field of education, which constantly poses challenges and possibilities for me to make a positive impact on society as a whole and students as individuals. I continually strive to expand my knowledge and influence in the field of special education so that I may help make a larger and increasingly positive impact on society, which I think will be best achieved through continuing my education and conducting research. It is for these reasons that I intend to pursue my doctorate in Educational Leadership at Michigan State University.
As an undergraduate, I studied finance and economics at Eastern Michigan University, graduating in less than four years. It was not until years later, after selling two successful businesses that I decided to stay at home to raise my three children while my wife continued her career working as a school social worker. During this period of time I coached soccer, earning national accreditation, and traveled the country as a professional soccer referee. Additionally, I was asked to be a substitute teacher because, as I was told, I was very good at working with all different types of children, regardless of age. Being in constant demand, I was able to experience teaching in many different areas and found myself drawn to special education first as a substitute and then as a person who had an affinity, as well as ability, to help those that so often are under served and or overlooked. Later, I served as a long term substitute, teaching 6th and 7th grade science. I enjoyed both the students and the work, even though it was outside of my area of expertise. While working in the science classroom, a fellow teacher insisted I look into the Masters of Arts in Educational Studies with Secondary Teacher Certification (SecMAC) from the University of Michigan, which was a challenging but surefire path for me to enter into the world of education. A requirement of acceptance into the SecMAC program necessitated that I complete an additional 30 credit hours of study in order to qualify for a teaching license, which I completed in late 2011. Consequently, I graduated from the University of Michigan with a master’s degree and toward the top of my class in the spring of 2013. While working as a general education teacher, I was asked if I would be interested in working as a special educational teacher in a self-contained emotionally impaired classroom. I seized the opportunity, and the district immediately applied for emergency certification while I started my pursuit of the needed special education degree. It was in this classroom that I found my true calling, working with students with disabilities. I completed my second master’s degree, from Purdue University, earning a 4.0 GPA. During my time at Purdue, I was afforded the opportunity to work specifically with Dr. Matt Broadhead and Dr. Mandy Rispoli and was overwhelmingly drawn to ABA and how behaviors impact the classroom. Often engaging in my own researching outside of the scope of the class, as I was driven to investigate the functions of behaviors and how application of ABA techniques can lead to improvement in social relationships, communication and learning. Currently, I am an ABA (applied behavior analysis) professional and I support persons with autism navigate the varied environments of their lives such as their home, community, and school lives. Through this additional experience I have come to understand that I want to know more and that I believe I can make a larger impact on and in the world of education by packaging all of my past experiences and education with new and greater understanding of how the world of education works by earning my doctorate in educational leadership. My goal is to synergize what I have done and have learned paired with what I will learn and will do so that I can add not only to the body of research but also to the practical teaching and improvement of our educational system. Given my eclectic background of work experiences and education I am confident I am not only ready to continue my education, pursuing a doctorate, but also ready and able to meet the challenge head on while being successful. My goal is simple; I want to attend one of the most exceptional and challenging Educational Leadership programs in the country in order to further develop my skills as a researcher and practitioner. This course of action will enable me to research new ways to improve the education of students with and without disabilities and to then disseminate those methods to teachers, administrators and other shareholders. The current disconnect between research and practitioners defeats the ideologies that many in education currently subscribe to, namely research that will help improve the state of education. Moving forward in my education I find myself drawn to many areas of student learning and instruction, but specifically to the areas of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), r how behaviors impact the instruction and literacy. Throughout my coursework and practicum experience I have witnessed first-hand the realities of students with disabilities and their struggles with all aspects of learning, many of which we simply take for granted. For example, phonemic and phonological awareness have been foundational to reading instruction for students with disabilities in order to break down the barriers to learning that so often plague them. Finding ways to engage students with exceptionalities in learning so they can master the same concepts and skills as their peers, is of the utmost importance to me as I strive to contribute new strategies to the field of special education in the interests of equity for all students, despite dis/ability. Gaining better understanding of how to increase and or decrease targeted behaviors through the application of behavioral principals through intervention is basal to effective teaching practices in classrooms that serve students with disabilities. Guiding students toward improved and socially accepted behaviors, as dictated by social constructs, and the implementation of scientifically validated interventions is an ongoing aspiration. As a pragmatist, I recognize the inequity in societal norms, but believe that I can have the largest positive impact by helping teachers develop strategies that will help students function in society as it currently is constructed. This is not to say that I will stop trying to change the status quo, but simply that I recognize a more immediate impact in tackling issues of practice. I am a firm believer that “literacy” is not just the ability to read and write, but the ability to effectively communicate and connect in a meaningful and effective manner in order to interpret and position oneself within said society. As a function of success, students with exceptionalities must be competent learners, to the greatest extent possible, which requires the management of behavior in the learning environment. I am strongly confident that my current level of academic aptitude, skills, ability and experience will translate into ongoing success as I pursue my academic and professional goals. I enter into the next progression, after currently completing my graduate certificate in ABA from University of California Santa Barbara, of my learning with proficiency as both a dual graduate student and a teacher and experiences that support successful completion of the doctorate in Educational Leadership program at Michigan State University. My goal is to not only challenge myself but to seek out new ideas and approaches that will support students in their development, and that will enable teachers to better meet the needs of their learners. Through personal and professional growth, I am endeavoring to make a long lasting impact for not only students with disabilities, but all students, while increasing all students’ opportunities to learn. I believe the best place for me to achieve this goal is through your state of the art doctoral program in Educational Leadership at Michigan State University. |