Several Elimination Steps:

I had applied for my doctorate degree during fall of 2019. By the time the department processed my application, the world was thrust into the COVID pandemic during spring of 2020. The doctorate admission committee invited me to a Zoom interview with other candidates who went through the first weeding process. We were asked questions individually and were given time to respond. After the initial interview, the department broke up the candidates into Zoom rooms with 3-4 faculty members interviewing each of us. At the end of the two online interviews, we were notified to anticipate an e-mail inviting us to a timed follow-up writing sample (even though we had submitted a writing sample as required with our doctoral application).

Instead of scheduling a third interview on another day, the doctorate admission committee decided to invite the candidates who had the most potential to compose a timed essay with a provided prompt. I sat in anxiety watching my email for the message to drop. It dropped! I am in the final running for admission!

The e-mail message was only about four lines long. We had one hour to compose a three-page essay explaining the strengths and weaknesses we are bringing to the program and our motivation for seeking a doctorate degree from the department. Thank God for giving me the speed to type which I gathered from high school typing classes decades ago and for endowing me with the love of writing. I cranked out the post-interview essay and tried to organize my thoughts as decently as I could. I had enough time to read the essay only one time. I knew there were some errors, but I hoped the errors were not egregious enough to cost me the final offer.

I was offered a full ride! The university would pay my tuition for the six years of the program. My excitement was boundless!

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(Even after obtaining three degrees in the United States, there are situations in the American English that my brain fights to comply with. One of them is PhD. These are two words. The British English demands that when two words are abbreviated, each one earns its own period: Ph. D., which makes more sense.)

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Interview Day Writing

Strengths and Challenges (PhD in Curriculum and Instruction):

As a student who has completed degrees through face-to-face and online learning platforms, I find myself gravitating toward online learning. I am an eternal student, a lifelong learner. I will do anything for education (mine and students’ education), go anywhere for education (to learn lifelong and to teach), and keep my options open for any opportunities that will come my way in this profession. Years of teaching and learning exposed me to both ends of the classroom, as a learner and as a teacher/instructor. The numerous strengths I possess will fortify me as I pursue my doctorate degree. In response to this discussion, I will divide the strengths and challenges into human and technology.

All my life, I have been blind to color, race, national origin, and so on. All my life, I have made friends from every country whose citizens want to be friends. I have had friends from Iran, China, Ghana, Cameroun, France, Britain, the United States, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Virgin Islands, and Jamaica, to name a few. I love humanity. Also, years of professional, on-the-job experience have equipped me with the ability to work with other professionals, and the years have made me personable. I relate easily to people. As a decent human being, I believe in the Golden Rule, which is the height of compassion and empathy. Therefore, at any moment, and in any given situation, I place myself in other people’s shoes and see if I can walk a mile in those shoes. Years of being a single parent to my daughter from her birth until she married at age 23 fortified me with survival skills. My personality is an additional strength. I have persevered, thrived, cooperated with others, and achieved common goals with others. I believe in human decency and honor and reciprocate these feelings towards others.

My other skill/strength is technology. I am conversant with technological software programs and other learning management systems. I feel that I can control many aspects of the internet. I completed my second Master of Arts degree entirely online. I bring all these strengths on my journey at the University of Houston. As much as I love humanity, I know there are situations I cannot control when dealing with humans. These will be my challenges, the inability to control what others will do to me and with me as I plunge headlong into accomplishing my goals toward my doctoral degree. Part of that inability is the traffic in Houston that snakes and furls. Coming from Katy, I foresee this as a challenge, hence I plan to be on campus as early as I can. On the same level, as much as I am conversant with technology, there are aspects of technology that will be out of my control, but I will endeavor to overcome with all my faculties and abilities due to my resilience. Giving up is not an option. Other than these, I do not foresee any other challenges.

Motivations (for Applying to the CUIN PhD Program)

The world needs so much that must be righted for our youth. I had planned on going headlong into my doctorate after I completed my first Master’s of Arts degree and accomplishing so much that would help our youth after I taught second grade. However, I fell in love, got married, and started a family. This situation was the fulfillment of Langston Hughes’ “What Happens to a Dream Deferred?” I may have deferred my dream because of family, but my dream had not left me. After years of helping my daughter achieve her educational goals and get married to the man of her dreams, I had to recall that deferred dream and attempt to make it real.

My motivations for applying for my doctorate degree in Curriculum and Instruction are numerous. The first one is that I have seen firsthand what needs to be done for our youth. I have been in the “trenches” for over 25 years. I have written grants, shifted teaching into a paradigm, and helped struggling students. Still, I know I have not contributed all that I must. I need the mental enrichment, the titular awards, and the confidence that a doctorate degree will confer on me to tackle what must be done in reading, literacy, technology, English for Second Learners, and Special Education. Fortunately, I have taught and have experience in all four. However, there is a whole lot more that I can do. I would like to use my degree to work with school systems in any capacity that will enable me to design curricula. I would like to equip future teachers/leaders and give them alternative and far-reaching means of helping our youth. I would like to work with other non-profit organizations that mentor or teach the youth. Putting it simply, our youth is the reason I am applying to begin and finish my doctoral so that we can improve literacy rates and student success rates.    

Are there faculty member(s) you would want to work with on their research? 

I have scrolled through the University of Houston website for weeks after I submitted my application to acquaint myself with the faculty should I be honored enough to be accepted into the program. I sent an e-mail to Dr. Hale, Dr. Hutchison, Dr. Wong, and a few more with questions about the program and expressing my interest in working with them. I am open to working with any faculty who will take me under his or her wing and help me to achieve my lifelong goal of obtaining a doctorate degree.

I thank you for the interview today and for the opportunity to meet about 14 faculty members during the Zoom session. Thank you.