LIFE ‘POST DEFENSE’ JON STOESSEL
Defending my dissertation was definitely a surreal experience. It was also extremely rewarding because of the unique nature of my topic, and how strongly it was encouraged as a field of study by all members of my committee from start to finish. What a lot of people may not know, and what really is a testament to our program, is how clearly our introductory courses guide doctoral students progress to achieving the ultimate goal of obtaining the Ph.D.. I was able to write a literature review on social media policy in Dr. Chen’s Policy Analysis course in my first semester of course work, and expand upon it with a project in Dr. Babo’s Directed Research course. These experiences, that identified my strengths and weaknesses, afforded me the time and necessary encouragement to continue pursuing this topic despite it being something relatively “new”. Dr. Kelchen was able to take my crazy ideas for a national study (maybe one day) and gradually help me identify unique perspectives on social media and social media policy in higher education. At the same time, more traditional avenues of research in higher education were folded in to create something I am truly proud of.
A final thing I can say, is that most if not all of my good fortune in the past few years has come from my 10 year career as a student at Seton Hall in the College of Education and Human Services from undergrad through Ph.D..I met my wife on my first day on campus freshman year, married her in the chapel two Septembers ago with loud support from the 4th floor balcony, and reached my ultimate goal on March 9th by defending my dissertation. Thank you for making me a better student, writer, educator, researcher, and for watching me literally grow up in the College of Education.