What’s been happening:

My graduate school journey inches toward completion with each passing day. Throughout 2009 I collected my dissertation research study data and then labored over the analysis and composition of my final dissertation document. By the end of 2010 I will become the first person in either side of my family ancestry to complete a doctoral degree. My specialty within the Instructional Systems field focuses on nonformal learning programs for adolescents, where my dissertation study explored the training process of volunteer adult advisors who lead youth-serving groups. My career goal is to work in a Land Grant institution's extension or outreach division developing educational youth programs set outside of schools. In my time away from research and work at Penn State's School of Graduate and Professional Studies, I am an active member of the national committee of the Boy Scouts of America, and I serve the outdoors-seeking public as a Leave No Trace Master Educator with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. My lovely wife Rebecca, whom I met in a doctoral seminar about "motivation", also pushes forward with her research to complete her Ph.D. in School Psychology.