- Who? Vanderbilt University
- What: Peabody College of Education, Ph.D in Learning, Teaching, and Diversity with an emphasis on Development, Learning and Diversity
- When: Fall 2011
- Where: Nashville, TN
- How: Vanderbilt waives admissions fees for applicants that apply online, and “All admitted Ph.D. students receive funding for up to five years of study. Those invited to join us will receive a financial package which includes full tuition, a monthly stipend competitive with any college of education in the nation, and health insurance.”
My first day of class in Graduate school I had to fill out a note card about myself. Name, age, ugrad degree, track, and future career aspirations. I wrote: Jessica J, 25, B.S. Psychology, Community Counseling, and I will be attending Vanderbilt University for my Ph.D. Arrogance. I knew that Vandy had a very good college of education though, one of the top in the nation…and I’ve had my focus on maintaining a 4.0 GPA while working on my Masters so that this goal (may) come true.
Now…you guys know that I want to move to Cali more than anything in the wooooooorld. But, I promised myself and Deeds that I would do the best for my future. The things I want to do are not available in California quite yet, perhaps in a few years. For that reason getting the PhD I was supposed to be trying for, would leave me unemployed out there lol. So I need a degree I can work with. One not so specific. I found this one looking for Higher Education programs (which was my 2nd choice PhD but they often require work experience prior to admission) and it sound absolutely amazing. Here are highlights:
Vandy says: In the DLD concentration, students investigate and experience the variety of ways in which diversity plays out in human learning. We employ an interdisciplinary approach as we examine a broad range of sources of diversity, including variation in racial and cultural backgrounds, learning environments, organizational supports, and developmental and learning histories.
This works for me because working in higher education (something I’m qualified for with my Masters degree and experiences) and diversity is really what I want to do. Whether thats teaching multicultural counseling, working in a college counseling center and conducting research on diversity affairs in higher education, or working in admissions on diversity recruitment and retention. That may sound like garb to you guys but to me it sounds like a DREAM! I’ll be highlighting other programs as I find them…but as for right now this one is pretty exciting.
Someone working at my firm just left to be director of diversity at a major school up here.
The director of diversity just got laid off last year at my alma mater and their role was merged with someone else’s.
It’s an interesting field…do you know about the long term trajectory of it?
LOL Whats the long term trajectory of any job? Its hard(er) to say because I’m moving to California too and we all know that their higher education system is going through some things currently. My main focus is counseling. Getting this degree will definitely qualify me for being a director of diversity but I’m more so interested in multi-cultural counseling. Now THAT is huge…right now the ACA’s code of ethics has been modified to include the importance of multi-cultural training and California just joined the rest of the 49 states in requiring Counselors (Therapists) to be state licensed. This means that they will have to also create counselor education programs…as it is also law that Counselors must be education by Counselor Educators, NOT psychologists. Means great things for me
Not to mention that in the higher education system even in diverse states such as California there is NOT a lot of diversity in the higher education programs. Seriously Stanford is paying kids to come out for some Doctoral programs and visit/apply.