A Note of Thanks to Everyone Who Helped Me with my Dissertation

As this blog posts here on IHEC Blog I am participating in commencement at Loyola University Chicago and will receive my Doctorate in Cultural and Educational Policy Studies, Comparative and International Education.  It was a long nine years to complete this degree and there are many to thank and I wish to specifically thank everyone who helped me with my dissertation and those acknowledgements follow:

THE NATIONAL SECURITY EDUCATION PROGRAM AND ITS SERVICE REQUIREMENT:  AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF WHAT AREAS OF GOVERNMENT AND FOR WHAT DURATION NATIONAL SECURITY EDUCATION PROGRAM RECIPIENTS HAVE WORKED

I would like to acknowledge everyone who has assisted me throughout my doctoral studies over the years.  I would first like to acknowledge my adviser, Dr. Noah Sobe, for agreeing to serve as my adviser and for his patience and feedback during the many courses I took with him and as I completed my dissertation.  Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Robert Roemer and Dr. David Ensminger for agreeing to serve on my dissertation committee.  I truly appreciate all of their time and assistance as I navigated this process!

A very special thanks is due to my friend and colleague Dr. Kevin Gormley at the National Security Education Program for his encouragement dating back to a lunch meeting in Los Angeles in 2009 to our phone conversations and e-mail communications throughout 2010 and 2011 about my project.  This dissertation would not have been possible without Kevin’s support and assistance!  I also wish to thank the many staff members at the National Security Education Program including Dr. Michael Nugent, Judy Collier, Roy Savoy, Katie Davis, Alison Patz, and Stuart Karaffa for their approval of my project, their time in reviewing my survey instrument and providing valuable feedback at our meeting back in November 2010 and their assistance in launching my survey instrument.  I also wish to thank Genie Lomize, Treasurer of the Boren Forum, and Dr. Philip Lyon, Former Executive Director of the Boren Forum, for their support of my dissertation and for Dr. Lyon’s continued support and time to meet at the National Security Education Program Office in November 2010 to review and provide feedback on my survey instrument.  A note of thanks is also due to Christopher Powers, Director of the Boren Awards for International Study at the Institute of International Education for answering my e-mail questions about historical program dates.  I hope that the National Security Education Program, the Boren Awards for International Study and the Boren Forum will find some value in the results of my dissertation.

I also want to thank all of the National Security Education Program Alumni (Boren Scholars and Boren Fellows) who took time out of their busy schedules to complete my survey instrument!

Additional gratitude is offered to many colleagues in the field of international education who provided resources and feedback as I worked on my dissertation.  This list of individuals includes the following:  Dr. Gary Rhodes and Dr. Miloni Gandhi from the Center for Global Education at the University of California, Los Angeles for taking time out of their busy schedules to review and provide feedback on my dissertation proposal and survey instrument; Mickey Slind for sending me her personal collection of primary documents related to the early years of the National Security Education Program (they will always have a home in Bury Book International Education Library & Archive); Elizabeth Mandeville for sending me a valuable  primary document pertaining to the early years of the National Security Education program; Stephanie Kirmer for taking the time out of her schedule to meet with me and provide a statistics tutorial and for lending me one of her publications as I worked on the data analysis portion of my dissertation; Kyle Flynn for helping me better understand the statistical analysis of my results; and, Dr. Louis Berends for his friendship and support throughout our studies and time at Loyola University Chicago and beyond.

Further acknowledgement and thanks is due to my supervisor Christine Gramhofer at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  Her support for time off to work to research and write my dissertation was truly helpful and greatly appreciated!

Thank you to my mother Vicky and Sam, father Jim and Mary Ellen, and my mother and father-in-law Therese y Don Carlos for their encouragement and continued support over the years and their enthusiasm as I neared my goal.

Finally, but most importantly, I wish to thank my wife Ana and children Gabriela, Andrés y Lucas for their patience, assistance, support and faith in me.  The nights away from the family while attending classes and the days and nights away from them while writing my comprehensive exams and, in particular, this dissertation were truly difficult.

I could not have completed my research without the support of all these wonderful people!