I am proud to report that I successfully defended my Masters Thesis and earned my Masters of Fine Art! I completed my public defense of my Thesis last Thursday June 11th, in front of faculty and fellow MFA students and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. Since I was a horrible undergrad, I am very proud to have gotten all A's.
For those of you that may not be familiar with the Thesis process, here is a summary:
- Submit your Thesis proposal to faulty for approval.
- Form a Thesis Committee. The committee consists of 3 faculty members or subject experts, who already hold an advance degree.
- Write your Thesis. Most thesis papers are 80-120 pages. Thesis feedback is provided by your committee throughout the writing process. This is a lot harder than it sounds, since most committee members are very busy themselves.
- Once you complete your written Thesis... it must be approved by the committee and MFA program director. Then, you are required to "defend" your thesis in front of a the committee, additional faculty and students in a public forum.
My Thesis topic was "Utilizing Open Source Content Management Systems to cultivate and market a martial arts subculture." I started writing my Thesis in the fall of 2008, along with developing a web content management system as part of the research. It was an exhausting process to say the least. I spent the last 6 months coming home from work every night just to do school work until midnight. My butt and back are still aching from my uncomfortable desk chair (Note to inspiring MFA candidates: invest in a quality ergonomic chair before starting your thesis).
But, the dedication paid off. My thesis defense went smooth and the faculty seemed genuinely impressed with the quality of my Thesis. Once I polish up the formatting on my Thesis document I will post it on the website... all 111 pages of it.
I'd like to thank my thesis committee members for their feedback and support during the Thesis process. Extra special thanks to my friend and committee member Julie, for reading all 12,000 revisions of my thesis and providing excellent constructive feedback. And "big ups" to my husband Don for supporting me during the process. I feel like I have not seen my husband in ages!
Don, Julie and I celebrated a successful public defense by having a wonderful dinner at Roy's restaurant afterward (attached is a picture of my desert). I continued the celebration into the weekend, spending the weekend in Orlando visiting the Islands of Adventure theme park. I had a blast! Now, I am ready to take it down a notch... I need to relax, catch up on my laundry, start running again and spend some quality time with my husband!
Wow! After almost 3 years of attending school, it feels very weird to be finished. I had integrated school into my daily life, so it feels like a piece of my life is missing. But, it will be great to have more downtime and the time to focus on my business ventures.
Woo Hoo! :)
