Welcome to Millersville University’s Spring 2018 edition of MUsings: The Graduate Journal. Our journal continues the exciting mission to be a creative and scholarly outlet for our graduate students as they explore unique topics and share their expertise with peers, the Millersville community, and their academic disciplines.
Sharing your research with the broader community is an important aspect of a graduate education. Whether submitting your work to MUsings, traveling to present at a professional conference, or placing your work in our Made in Millersville campus event, exhibiting your work invites collaboration with other like-minded scholars and offers valuable feedback to refine your ideas and open new lines of intellectual inquiry.
I am very excited to announce that at our May 2018 commencement, our first doctoral degrees will be conferred to students in our Doctor of Nursing Practice, Doctor of Social Work (jointly with Kutztown University) and Doctor of Education (jointly with Shippensburg University) programs. Our first doctoral recipients have been hard at work on their research and completing their oral dissertation defenses.
Many of the doctoral students, along with several master’s students, have taken advantage of our graduate dean’s research funds, and Millersville is ready to unveil our inaugural digital repository for our students’ scholarly products. Special thanks to our McNairy Library faculty for spearheading the multi-year project of transforming our thesis and dissertation process into the digital age so that our students’ work can be accessed by a national and international audience.
As always, I would like to offer my sincere appreciation to the faculty, graduate editors, and student authors for this edition of The Graduate Journal. The College of Graduate Studies and Adult Learning is fortunate to have this team of talented and committed individuals who continue to expand opportunities for graduate student research.
Best Regards,
Victor S. DeSantis, PhD
Dean, College of Graduate Studies and Adult Learning
Associate Provost, Civic and Community Engagement