Trident University International

It is the purpose of an Institutional Review Board (IRB) to ensure the protection of human subjects who participate in research studies, and to ensure adherence to federal, state, and local regulations. One of the most common questions asked by doctoral students preparing their dissertation is, “What criteria must be met for IRB approval?”

Here are the answers:

As social media and the internet are the primary means of communication among employers and job seekers, it is important to take advantage of valuable facetime opportunities when they arise.

One way to be prepared is with an “elevator speech.” This is a 30-60 second speech describing who you are, what you do or have done, and how your experience may benefit your audience.

During a recent webinar, Manny Sepulveda, Manager of Trident’s Career Center, explained the five components of a great elevator speech.

1. The ”hook” is a statement or question that sparks interest. Use the research you’ve done on your audience, and open with something relative to their needs and how you can meet those needs.

Trident students enter their respective programs with a wide array of professional experiences, representing almost every industry and function area. This diversity of perspectives creates daily learning opportunities for both students and professors. 

What makes Dr. Dena Breece, a 2017 Ph.D. in Business Administration graduate, unique is that her professional background is one that her instructors understood very well. Dr. Breece entered the program as a college educator, and by the time she graduated, she was a full-time faculty member and business school department chair.  

For all of these educators – Dr. Breece, her dissertation committee, and her instructors – this was another learning opportunity.

Read to see how her learning opportunity at Trident helped her to achieve career success.

Trident: What is your current professional position?

Dr. Dena Breece: I am the department chair of accounting, business administration, entrepreneurship, and management, as well as, an assistant accounting professor at Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC. 

As graduation day approaches, most doctoral candidates are contemplating their future career paths. While traditional academic positions may be enticing to many of these individuals, this is not the only route for doctoral holders.

Here are some effective tips for pursuing a career outside of academia with a doctorate.

Transferable Skills
Doctoral students gain a lot of transferable skills. These include the ability to work with teams of diverse individuals, demonstrating strong critical thinking and analytical skills, and advanced communication and presentation abilities. It is important to tailor and highlight the skill set most relevant to the position one is seeking. For example, familiarity with research software is also important for non-academic positions, especially with the growing corporate focus on big data.

Many people dream of earning a doctoral degree, but the number of those who accomplish this is small. The path to graduation is challenging – just 4% of adults in the U.S. hold a doctoral degree.

To succeed at this level, you don’t just have to be smart, driven, and determined, you need to be ready for everything life throws at you. By avoiding these stumbling blocks, you can be among the group that is proudly called “doctor” and earn your walk across the stage at graduation.

Most people who are considering a doctoral program have a long list of questions they want answered, such as the quality of faculty and the relevancy and difficulty level of the curriculum. Questions like these have clear answers that are readily available on a school’s website or through conversations with a program’s director.     

On the other hand, answers to other questions – which often are equally important – can be a bit harder to obtain. Here are three more things aspiring doctoral students should be sure to look into.

Adapting the dissertation topic
What schools do not often tell students is that dissertation topics will change - a lot. When analyzing the novelty of a study, one must keep adjusting variables and measurements to best align the study with its objective and theoretical frameworks. This is a time-consuming process and the dissertation topic one initially intends on doing will likely be changed several times to meet the needs of the dissertation requirements.

A recent Trident doctoral graduate, seasoned professional educator Dr. Cris Ritenour presented her dissertation research and findings during the Culture of Research and Education (CORE) webinar, “Student Health: Before and After the 'Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.”

Passionate about personal health, fitness, and teaching, these three interests conveniently transected into Dr. Ritenour’s dissertation. After her presentation, we talked to her further about how she came to choose this topic and what’s next for her scholarly research.

Trident: You've researched subject matter that impacts a large percentage of the country's population. How did you come to choose this as your dissertation topic? And why are you passionate about this subject matter?

Dr. Cris Ritenour: My interest in fitness and wellness began as a young gymnast who desired to take the best possible care of her body.  This passion for exercise and nutrition then continued through adulthood and lead me to my current profession as a Health and Physical Educator.

In Trident’s Ph.D. in Educational Leadership program, preparing for the qualifying exam requires a great deal of planning. Passing the exam is a prerequisite for advancing into the dissertation phase. The exam itself is comprised of different concepts including research methodology and theoretical frameworks, the population in the study and variables, as well as the novelty in the study as it pertains to the research questions. Students will choose whether their study will be quantitative or qualitative in nature.

The transition from military to civilian life can seem like stepping into a different world. If you’ve been a service member for decades, leaving the Armed Forces may raise a lot of questions – especially when it comes to your career.

I know exactly how you’re feeling – I felt the same way when I decided to retire from the Navy. Hanging up my uniform may have been tough, but preparing well before my separation date made the transition easier.

Here is my advice for a successful transition:

The motivation for obtaining a degree varies from person to person, but one of the keys to being a successful student is to know and understand that motivation. Upon starting his doctoral studies at Trident, Dr. Aaron Maike was already a president at Baker College’s Allen Park campus, and then its Owosso campus.

In his journey to completing a Ph.D. in Business Administration not only did Dr. Maike accrue increased professional responsibilities and learn how to do his job better, he was able to set a positive example for one of the most important audiences of all. 

Trident: Since you were a student at Trident, have you made moves upward in your career?

Dr. Aaron Maike: I am currently the President of Baker College’s Muskegon (Michigan) campus. When I started the Ph.D. program, I was the President at the Allen Park campus, a commuter campus near Detroit.

I was asked to lead the Owosso campus in 2014 during the dissertation phase of the program. The Owosso campus has one of two Baker College branded programs ADI (The Auto/Diesel Institute). The campus also has a significant residence hall population. During my time in Owosso we created a strategic plan for ADI and transitioned the program into a cohort model.