Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 2, 1 February 1988 — Unique Doctoral Program Offers Hawaiian Professionals Tailor-Made lndependence [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Unique Doctoral Program Offers Hawaiian Professionals Tailor-Made lndependence

By Deborah Lee Ward, Assistant Editor Ka Wai Ola O OHA A little-known graduate degree program is available that ean benefit Hawaiian professionals who want to obtain a doctoral degree but who mayfind traditional doctoral programs too restricting. At least two Hawaiian women have already benefited from this program and Ka Wai Ola O OHA spoke recently with them about their experience. Ellen Colburn-Rohn, Ph.D., management eonsultant with Pacific-Asian Resources, and Genevieve Kinney, Ph.D., Director of Nursing, University of Hawaii at Hilo, earned their doctoral degrees from the Union Graduate School, an innovative accredited program based in Cincinnati, Ohio, that was formed by a consortium of universities throughout the U.S. They have found the program professionally rewarding, and that unanticipated new doors and opportunities have opened to them as a result. The appeal of UGS, says Colburn-Rohn, is that "It offers an individualized, creative doctoral program alternative for persons in mid-career, who are put off by the rigid requirements of traditional graduate programs. The average leamer is 30-60 years old and has been working and growing in life experience." Here's how the program is unique: — It is designed for working people, and allows them to fit its requirements around their working and personal lives. The minimum term for eompleting the program is two years. Most people average three years. — The program encourages an interdisciplinary approach to combining several fields (for example, law and social work) for a specialized degree in your areas of interest. — The program is conducted at home, and the only travel required is to attend the few mandatory UGS seminars and an opening colloquium. — The "learner," as doctoral candidates are called, heads his or her own doctoral committee. This committee is selected by the learner and includes two UGS faculty advisors, themselves on the faculty of leading universities throughout the country, and two "adjunct" faculty who are selected from the leamer's home community. The learner thus has access to faculty who are often on the "cutting edge" of their respective fields. The committee is completed by two "peers," who are either concurrently enrolled in the UGS program, or who are alumni of the program. Peers support and provide opportunities for learning together. There are three components to the doctoral program: an academic course ofstudy, viacoursework or independent study; a related internship or mentorship; and completion of a project whieh ean be a dissertation, book, film, or social action project. Colburn-Rohn says, "This program is lessstructured, and allows individual creativity as well as more group and peer learning, instead of the traditional solitary approach to a doctorate. However,

it also requires very high motivation, commitment to quality work and innovation, self-discipline and willingness to work in an inter-disciplinary framework. Personal motivation is extremely important." Colburn-Rohn combined education and bioethics (ethics in modern medicine/biology), from her eoneem over the use of the drug Ritalin for hyperactive children. She studied ethics and children's law, did research in psychopharmacology and child psychology. Through ber program, published papers, and addresses, she was able to raise public and professional awareness of the abuse potential of this therapy. She holds the added distinction of being the only UGS graduate to be on its faculty. Since completing the program, Colburn-Rohn has done: — consulting work in Micronesia for the Department of Education in Palau; — visiting lectures in Australia; — an agency operations manual with the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center, because of her work on rights of children; — directing graduate and undergraduate programs of Antioch University Hawaii; — management consulting for U.S. Human Resources Corporation; — professional editing of a 300-page book on the elinieal treatment of bereavement with a husbandwife psychiatrist/nurse team; and — formed her own management consulting firm, whieh among other projects, plans to work with Japanese companies in Hawaii on intercultural

corporate-community relations. Kinney also completed her doctoral degree through UGS. She is married to Everett (Sonny) Kinney, who heads Alu Like ine., in Hilo. Kinney chose nursing and anthropology to pursue her field of transcultural nursing, a discipline founded by Dr. Madeleine Leininger. Kinney says only the UGS program would have allowed her the opportunity to have Leininger, a worid-re-nowned authority, as a consultant to her doctoral program. Despite some early doubts about whether she could do it, Kinney decided to enroll. She was 50 when she entered the UGS program, an assistant professor of nursing for UH with four children at home. "When you're ready to go, you do what you have to," she says. She received financial assistance through the American Nurses' Association minority program, as the first Native Hawaiian applicant. After receiving her Ph.D. , Kinney was asked by AN A to testify in Washington, D.C., in support of the Native Hawaiian health care bill. As a result of her completing the UGS program, Kinney now has personal connections with professional peers around the world, and with graduate and undergraduate nursing faculty whieh she ean use to benefit her nursing faculty and students. She also gets mail from major universities, and invitations to teach, speak or present papers, and to participate in further research activities. For example, in November, 1987, Kinney was invited to present a paper on family health research at the University of Akron, Ohio, whieh is known for its family health programs. There she met 125 peers from all over the world who share the same interests. Her goal is to develop professional nursing in Hawaii through nursing education, practice and research. She just received authorization to plan for a B.S. in Nursing degree at Hilo, and is encouraging more Hawaiians to consider a profession in nursing. Of the UGS program she now says, "When you get in the program you meet peers who have progressed, and you realize you ean too." She encourages other Hawaiians to consider the benefits of UGS' unique program, "Hawaiians are so indus - trious, and work so mueh with heart. You have to make a pathway for yourself, and in doing so you ean help others too." For information about the Union Graduate School, eall 523-5928.

Ellen Colburn-Rohn