While more and more individuals are getting vaccinated -- Chester County went from one of the trailing counties in PA to the county with the highest percentage of vaccinated individuals -- we are starting to venture out a bit more. We were wearing masks on hikes in late April (shown above along Valley Forge's Valley Creek Trail), but now we are occasionally going to shops (below's quick Target run that permitted James to get a wonderfully weird Mindcraft Creeper sweatshirt). It will be nice when we can go out without masks. I miss seeing people's smiles.
Spring is my season as I celebrate my birthday, Mother's Day, Easter (my favorite holiday? maybe!), and too many plants/flowers inside and around the house. I'm in heaven.
In other news, I'm finishing my last doctoral class this semester -- Qualitative Methods II -- while also working on my dissertation proposal, which I hope to defend in the fall. I will complete my research next academic year. My "dumb hobby" as I have lovingly nicknamed my doctoral program -- I simply started by taking one course to see how it was, I loved taking classes, and now it seems that I should finish what I started -- will be finished in the next two years. This fact always solicits a slight groan from Josh and the kids who have been going through every part of the doctoral process journey with me since I began in 2017. While they cannot always tell when I'm taking classes or not (my grant writing work looks exactly like my paper-writing homework), they would like me to be done. I'm not especially in a hurry since doing a good job with my actual job will positively affect my employment prospects and salary more than getting a doctorate.
Surprising statistic: 50% of those who complete doctoral coursework never get their doctorate because they drop out during the dissertation process. I'm hoping to not be in that all-but-dissertation (ABD) category because too much work and time have already been put into this process. Therefore, I'll keep calling it my stupid/dumb hobby to keep my energy light (... although I recognize this does not sound especially positive). I've enjoyed being in grad school again (besides the long nights and additional deadlines being added to my life), so I may as well keep going.
My dissertation's tentative title is Supports and Barriers to Persistence for Hispanic Students between 2015-2021. It will be a qualitative study exploring the perceptions of Hispanic students and leader-practitioners regarding academic and non-academic supports and barriers to Hispanic student retention and completion in higher education institutions, specifically during increased public bias against the Hispanic community and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Below I'm pictured working in a park while Alma was on a playdate and taking a selfie with the dog and my new bonsai (thanks, Erica!).
Another thing that has been occupying our time and energy recently has been Alma's transition to middle school. We toured the campus (it's huge!), met with staff to discuss the transition, and Alma has been completing placement testing. It's all very exciting. She will be such a great middle schooler -- academically, she is great at keeping track of assignments and socially, she is kind, warm, polite, and can speak up for her needs when necessary. It will be a big change from the small little Montessori school, but she is ready for it. I'm so proud of her maturity and poise. She's a great kid.
Above, she is headed to school with James and a painted salt dough topo map of Aquila Ala, her fictional island that she created as a culminating project during her final year in Mr. Josh's class.
And she's getting so tall, too! Ha!
And, last but not least, we were able to celebrate Mother's Day with my parents, which was fantastic. We had a great brunch that Joshua made and stood around the yard chatting about plants and flowers, which was lovely.
