Productive Rocky Gap Retreat!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to attend the Promise Community Building Retreat at Rocky Gap this year. I have recently advanced to candidacy in my doctoral program due in large part to the support of the Promise staff and student members. Completing my comprehensive exams was an exhausting and isolating experience and I am still mystified by the process. I needed an intervention of sorts to jolt me back into the process of writing again and the Rocky Gap retreat dissertation house component was essential for me. This short retreat away from my campus and usual procrastination routines of the weekend allowed me to re-enter my dissertation project with renewed energy and motivation. I think of the Promise community as a safe and supportive network that serves as a counterpoint to the competitive and often performative/posturing nature of graduate student life. The peer mentors (recent graduates) who assisted Dr. Carter in the dissertation house were especially helpful for me. Dr. Johonna McCants and Dr. Heather Holden provided individual assistance/feedback/coaching, and their presence reinforced the notion of success and perhaps more importantly the reality that community support only begins as a graduate student participant. The support and network continues well beyond our life as graduate students in that the Promise Program is an intentionally generative device. Thank you Dr. Tull, Dr. Carter, Dr. Parham, and the entire Promise staff for your support and investment in our success!