Overview

First Time Participants (Doctoral Students)

As a first-time participating doctoral student (regardless if you are a first year student or have not yet met the Institute requirement), this year’s Summer Institute will provide students with opportunities to explore topics related to your chosen area of concentration and to acquire knowledge and skills that will assist you in successfully completing the program. In addition, there will be activities that will encourage dialogue, collegiality, and networking among your fellow students and concentration faculty.

If this is your first year in the program, you are not required to participate in the 2020 Summer Institute. If for some reason you cannot participate this year, we look forward to seeing you at the 2021 Summer Institute. 

If this is your second year or longer in the program and you have yet to meet the program requirement of participating in at least one Institute, you are required to participate in the 2020 Summer Institute to fulfill this graduation requirement. Participation in one Summer Institute is a requirement for graduation. The on-campus attendance requirement for the 2020 Summer Institute is waived and all activities will take place virtually.

Returning Students

All students who have previously participated in a Summer Institute but have not yet completed their dissertation can take advantage of this opportunity to move closer to the completion of their program. This year’s Institute will be virtual, there will be a variety of sessions/workshops offered to assist students in making progress on the applied dissertation and to reach your academic goals satisfactorily. In addition, there will be a variety of activities that will encourage dialogue, collegiality, and networking among your fellow students, dissertation chairs, and concentration faculty.

Students will be placed into one of five dissertation tracks based on where they are in the program.  Track 1 will be geared towards students in their first or second year that have yet to begin the dissertation process, while Tracks 2-5 are dissertation-specific based on their current dissertation benchmark. To assist with planning and to be sure you are assigned to the correct track we will be sending a survey out to all students via the Summer Institute Canvas course at the beginning of June.

• Track 1: First-Year Experience
• Track 2: Prospectus (Problem, Purpose, and RQs)
• Track 3: Proposal Development (Literature Review)
• Track 4: Proposal (Methodology and IRB)
• Track 5: Final AD (Data Analysis)

On Friday, we will have a FCESCJ student experience focusing on meeting with your concentration faculty and fellow students; attending various sessions on plagiarism, APA, and library resources; and opportunities to engage with other students and faculty. On Saturday and Sunday, all students will attend two track-specific workshops blending direct instruction with allotted times for students to write and create draft products in the morning, followed by opportunities to meet one-on-one or in a small group setting with dissertation chairs, concentration faculty, research faculty, librarians, IRB reps, academic advisors, and writing consultants. The overall goal of this year’s virtual summer institute is to immerse students in a 3-day learning experience resulting in students identifying a topic and research problem for students in Track 1, and draft work worthy of submission to assigned chairs for immediate consideration, editing, and eventual approval for those students in Tracks 2-5. Please see below for a draft of the schedule.

Click HERE to download the full agenda.