20 Minutes of Sanity: The Cohort Effect - Strength in Academic Numbers #14

20 minutes.

Last night was a doozy. Two assignments were due for the Community Collaboration course and they got done. Not in the slightest my best work, but the submit button was pushed.

The first assignment was a dive into understanding the collaborations necessary to my applied research project. We were required to pull from all required readings from week 1 and 2 and let me tell you, there were about 12-15 different texts and even a podcast. I'm not going to lie…it was kind of brutal. The second assignment was a 'step one' of three steps to complete a larger interview assignment. This step set the foundation for our projected interview and identified some leaders within the context of our ARP that we will eventually interview this semester for the final assignment.

My classmates and I are pretty on edge. This class is coming at a time when we are at the primary writing stages for our 5-chapter research project (or some may call a practice dissertation). Many of us are redirecting how we approach both the course work and the larger project of the doctoral program. We are integrating our faculty committees (chair and second reader) at this point and doing all the things to schedule time with them, find a healthy cadence for connecting and writing, and even still, there are a few who are still determining what the applied research project will actually be in output form.

It's a worthy challenge. We need encouragement—thankfully we have it in each other.

The cohort has been the shining light in this journey. One of my classmates whose first language is not English (it's actually his sixth) had never heard the word cohort, but explained to the class how much this 'cohort' means to him. I can do nothing but agree.

What I appreciate about our collective of 17 philanthropic leaders from all over the globe is that when it's time to buckle down on these assignments, we do all we can to strap each other down in our seats and take the long journey toward completion. We share outlines, best practices for approach, guidelines for the assignments that we may have missed when viewing the syllabus; we reach out to the instructor on behalf of the group and share back results from our professor queries.

There's so much going on all at once, for each of us, and that's why leaning into the strength of the cohort is the most important and endearing part of this work. These peer leaders will be the people to change the world and I am grateful to call each of them friend and colleague.

After I submitted my work at 10:57 PM CST, baby boy whined right on cue and I made my way to his room to spend ohhh, an hour and a half with him before Alex came and saved me from quite the Monday night. Welcome home from vacation Evans family!

It's been 20 minutes and since I had assignments and baby duties, I didn't get to write this last night. I'm here earlier than normal at my desk at the job and I'm ready to get it in. We've got a mission to fulfill.

Good times!

Dex

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