My 1st class starts Monday. I'm currently a little over halfway through the degree. It's a Master of Arts in Leadership or a Master of Arts in Religion with the focus in Leadership... haven't quite figured out which i am technically doing because it's the exact same classes for both.
it's at the same seminary i started at = Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. i love that place and my time there so far has been awesome. It's actually located up in Boston, but there is a really nice campus here in Charlotte and the professors are amazing.i've only got 9 classes left + a Thesis to write.
i'm going to try to be on the fast track and knock this thing out in just a little over a year by going full time this Spring, Summer, & Fall.
i'll actually take 1 or 2 of my remaining classes at Harvard up in Boston. Gordon-Conwell is in some type of partnership with Harvard that allows students from either school to take a certain number of classes at the other for their degree.
i'm definitely looking forward to sitting in a Harvard classroom.
i'm pretty pumped about some of the awesome classes and profs i'll have here at GCTS too.
For example, starting Monday i am in a class all week with a prof i'm really excited about. He is actually a long time Cambridge Professor in the PhD department! And he just comes to Gordon-Conwell to teach this class in his specialty... then heads back to Cambridge for the semester. should be awesome. never had a Cambridge prof before.
some more of my remaining classes include:
The Leader as Communicator (focus on casting vision & creating organizational culture)
Foundations for Leadership
Team and Team Building
Issues in Sexual Ethics and Bioethics
Managing the Non-profit Organization
Biblical Theology of Leadership
Managing Conflict
just to name a few.
i'd like to go ahead and make this clear. i don't really give a rip about a degree. a certificate with my name on it & some letters after it is worthless, imho.
trust me, the pursuit of a degree is SOOOO not why i'm subjecting myself to all these THOUSANDS of pages of reading, staying up late & getting up early working on school stuff, pulling all-nighters to write research papers, and spending a ridiculous amount of money on tuition.
so why go back?
the #1 reason that far outweighs all others = to grow, learn, improve, better myself, to be a better leader, and to hopefully gain tools that will help me on this world-changing mission i'm on...
#2 - to finish what i started.
#3 - to not waste what i've already done = half a degree. all that time, hard work, and MONEY.
#4 - my wife made me. she said now's the time to go back when Keira is so young and i'm not missing her soccer games or ballerina performances or whatever it is little girls do. this is pretty much my last & best chance.
so it's back to school time for me. gonna be a lot busier for a while, but i'll manage.
& hopefully i'll emerge at the end of this journey as a radically better leader. that's the goal.
