MSP Webinar Leadership Concentration and Q&A Session with Dr. Chris Ewing

0:00I just wanna welcome you all to the webinar for the master's in psychology program. Really, the main purpose, excuse me, why we exist is, our mission as a school is to integrate psychology with the Catholic Christian teaching on human, of the human dignity. So, doctor Ewing, if you could share a little bit about the online formatting and our mission, our integrative component, that would be great. So I'd be happy to. So one of the great things about teaching at DMU is the integration piece. For those of you who are involved already are aware of the text that we use to guide that, which is the Catholic Christian model for the person, the meta model. We have actual theologians that work with us for designing the courses, and we get a lot of great feedback from our, our priests and the lady.

0:59And it's, it's really a valuable source of wisdom that, especially when designing the leadership part of the course, we take into account. So something you might expect to see, for example, in the six fifteen course, which is personal leadership, or practical leadership is, examples from the saints and martyrs about, certain cardinal virtues that we may or may not take for granted in our our everyday leadership opportunities. But the understanding of psychology as it's married to thriving of the human person through our Catholic Christian is central to everything that we do. Great. Thank you. Let me continue on. And by the way, for those that are that have joined a little bit later, if any questions come up, by the way, feel free to drop them in the chat section and the q and a section, and we'll be sure to address those at the end when we open up the floor.

2:00So the next thing I'd like to share with you is our accreditation, and we are institutionally accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. This is one of the seven major accrediting bodies. And in the bottom left section, you'll see the APA, the American Psychological Association. And while this degree is not accredited through the APA, because you would not find that at a graduate level. You'd see that at the doctoral level, and our PsyD program is APA accredited. We do use the APA writing style in this program so that we can better prepare you for your, just your understanding of psychology and when you enter into the into the workforce or if you're trying to advance in that field or adding to your vocation.

2:51And then we also have in the bottom right side, the NC SARA. That's the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement. And what this means is that regardless of where you're located, this degree will be recognized as coming from a regionally accredited in institution. So we make sure that we are really preparing you for quality education. So as I mentioned before, this program is 100% online. We're institutionally or regionally accredited. And, by the way, the GRE is not required. I know that's a big question for many people. This is a this is a step that you wouldn't have to worry about in going through the enrollment process. So now we're gonna dive into the different concentrations that we offer.

3:50So one that we offer is marriage and family studies, and this is a great option for students that wanna have more of a background with the marriage and family population, whether you're working in human services or in ministry or whatever it may be. And then we also have a pre PhD concentration. This is a great option for those of you that are looking to eventually further your education with the doctorate, it's primarily for those that are going into academia and into research. It's not a requirement that you take this one if you're planning to go into your doctorate, but it it it is a good source of preparing yourself for that. And then, of course, we have leadership psychology, which we're gonna be talking about today, and we'll be covering how it it works very well for those of you that are looking at, more industrial and organizational positions and different types of leadership skills.

4:47Then we also offer a, let me start with this one, human services counseling concentration. In the program, you do learn some counseling techniques. Again, it's not a counseling program, but, this is something that you'll still, you'll still learn about, and this one does hone in a little bit deeper into that. And then self design, this is a great choice for those of you that have an interest in many of these different directions. And if you wanted to take electives from, let's say let's use human services counseling as one example and leadership psychology as another, you could pull electives from each of these. So that way you can further customize the program. Doctor Ewing, if you could just share a little bit of an overview on the, on the concentration for, leadership psychology and how it works and how it leads very well within your one's personal life and in their their vocation and their, their profession.

5:47That would be great. Sure. I'm not sure if you wanna rewind the slide one or not. But Sure. I can tell you, for those of you who are are here, thank you for being here, by the way. It's a fascinating program, the leadership psychology. It's something that I've seen at many universities. This one is doing it in the most thoughtful way. We have a solid course curriculum with three different courses for the concentration, each one focusing on different aspects of leadership. You'll learn all kinds of great tactics and techniques. More importantly, you'll learn how to lead yourself. You'll learn more about self reflection than perhaps you already know. I've received some great feedback from some of our consecrated individuals that this follows a lot of their early instruction, at least in the introspective part.

6:44But one of the things that I think that we definitely need to emphasize is that leadership exists at every level and in every job. You can be a leader of your family. You can be a leader of your parish. You can be a leader of a program or organization. But everyone has the opportunity to exercise those leadership skills. But we might not all have those leadership skills. But the marriage of psychology and leadership, I think, is something that, is really valuable in your everyday life. I have found at least over the last ten or eleven years since I got my doctorate in psychology that the understanding that it has given me, allowed me to write a book, allowed me to to advance in my career, and gave me the tools that I needed to better understand what was going on, why it was going on.

7:36We'll use the dirty word of office politics, hierarchical organizations, democratic organizations, the difference between transformational, transactional, and servant leadership styles, and, the strange quirks that certain individuals seems seem to have picked up over time. But, this program really does go into everything from building yourself in self leadership to the the stages of team formation all the way through leading entire organizations. Great. Wonderful. Thank you. So the next thing I wanted to share with all of you is, the the the curriculum itself and what this will look like a little bit more. As students, you would all be taking in this program a total of 11 courses. And eight of them are the core courses, and you'll see that on the left hand side.

8:32Again, these are the courses that every student in the program will be taking. But then on the right hand side, primarily for this program, you'll see the three electives that you'll be taking. So these are transformational leadership, leading people programs and organizations, and applied leadership skills. So, doctor Ewing, if you could also share a little bit about where these, where these electives fall. I know that it it could vary based on when the student enrolls. But if you could share a little bit more about that, then that would be great. And, also, of course, the content of each elective. Sure. So as you can see from the from the numbering scheme, these do fall toward the end of your tenure in the program.

9:22That is intentional. A lot of these leadership courses have been designed with the idea that you have a lot of the psychological principles, the developmental principles already under your belt. Some of them are may apply less than others, obviously. Statistics will require previous courses. But I can tell you that a lot of the the underlying psychological principles are addressed not from a teaching and training perspective, but from a utility perspective. So, site five ninety five in transformational leadership, is a course that is in progress right now and being built. We are renovating the course so that it is more applicable to larger organizations and and, really moving from that internal to external focus.

10:20Five ninety is the, the program that has been in effect for several semesters now. Leading people programs and organizations. This is where we focus on teamwork, esprit de corps, the morality and ethics of organizational decision making, and those types of pieces. We learn about we do case studies like, the Challenger disaster versus some of the other pieces. I can't, I can't recall which of the, us, Branson. We We talk about Richard Branson and his success, and we, we kind of define that. And there's some great videos that the team over at DMU has put together, that relate all those sorts of things to the thriving of the human person in the Catholic Christian perspective. Applied leadership skills is in its first, teaching session right now.

11:21It has yielded some amazing fruit. I'm very proud of this this particular course. It was built based off of several ideas that we've had over the course of the last few years. We took the book that I wrote. We took some additional literature, and we combined it. And it's really started to, to take off. So we encourage things like, contemplative journaling. It we use the Jesuit examine. We focus on yourself as a person and as a leader and how those relate to each other. And then it isn't until the very end of that particular course that we start even orienting toward the other. We kinda take one of the John Maxwell max maxims, if you will, that you want to become a kind the kind of person that people want to follow, if you want to be a leader.

12:22Great. I you know, it's interesting. I I've spoken with a lot of students that go into this program because they have an interest in going into consulting. They love the idea of of going into life coaching, and so they have a natural interest in positive psychology. Doctor Ewing, I remember I believe it was doctor Clousey that shared a little bit about that when we launched this program that that's sort of a component. Can you speak on that a little bit? So positive psychology underlies almost all of what we what we teach in these courses. It's it's a one of the components, I think, that is crucial. Social psychology, the psychology of self, we we talk about, for example, social, determinism, triadic reciprocal discern determinism from Albert Bandura.

13:19We talk about, the the stomata that we create and how that relates to, our persona. It's, but all of it really does come back to a lot of that positive psychology. So, doctor Klaus is absolutely right. And she's involved, integrally involved as the the leader of the department or the program, if you will, in writing and revising and approving these courses. So she does great work. I love working for her. Great. Alright. Let's continue on. And for many of you, by the way, many of you are here because you are, you're still exploring your your options as to going into this degree or maybe you're seeking other schools and and, that's wonderful. But for many of you, you you have different reasons of why you're exploring this as a potential degree to follow.

14:17Some of you are currently working in the field, and so having this degree will be a good way for you to, to advance and climb the ladder and and gain some credentials. Many of you are here because you you might actually be in a religious vocation, but having a background in psychology will help with faith formation and working within the seminaries and serving as a catechist. And we have a lot of people that that pursue this degree for those reasons as well. And many of you may even be here fresh out of your undergrad. Maybe you're completing your undergrad and now just looking into the next step. And, and this is also a good option for those of you that are planning to go into a brand new position, whether it's in, in an organization serving as a consultant or in HR, or maybe you're looking to go into human services, which is wonderful.

15:14So I I I'd like to share this just to to reaffirm you that there are a lot of different, motivations for pursuing this degree. It's a very versatile degree as well. One thing that it's not signed for is to go into, licensure as a counselor. We do have a degree for that, but there is a difference between the counseling program that we offer and the psychology program. And for those of you that are looking for something versatile and 100% online, especially for those that you of you that do have that interest in positive psychology and in leadership, this would be a great option for you in those realms. Now the next thing I'd like to share with you would be the career opportunities. Again, I'd mentioned just a second ago that it's a very personal degree.

16:06It can lend into many different directions. And so listed here are the industrial and organizational positions that are very common. So as you're seeing, this is great for those that are going into more of an executive position, as an executive director or consultant. Many of you might be exploring the idea of going into HR or within, public relations or serving as a policy officer or even going into behavioral analytics. Again, this is this is, very useful. You'll be gaining a lot of writing skills and communication skills. And, again, with this concentration specifically, it is very good in training you to take on those leadership positions as well. And I'd like to highlight, Emily Leadham.

17:00So Emily is a graduate of Divine Mercy University, and she earned her master's in psychology with us back in 2019. And she now runs the, they they actually have a a new name in the Diocese of Sioux Falls, but, and I I think they they call themselves the Lord Center now. But it's basically the the Diocesan Office of Marriage and Families, and she serves as the executive director. So her role is to oversee the the licensed professional counselors and the clinical psychologists, and she does a lot of the behind the scenes, involvement and leading in that, that environment. So for those of you that are looking into that sort of direction, whether it's within a religious environment or secular environment, this degree and, specifically, leadership psychology is very useful for that.

18:01Next, we have social and mental health service positions. Again, many of you might be looking a little bit more into going into human services, and these are just a collection of examples of the type of positions you could go into, with this degree. And, and, again, this is a this is a program where you will learn some counseling techniques, though it's not a counseling program, but it's great for those that wanna have that background in psychology, learning how to better identify mental health difficulties that individuals are facing and how to work with them, and also properly, refer them if it's necessary to go toward a clinical psychologist or a psychiatry psychiatrist potentially. So this is very useful in these directions.

18:51And then next, we have education. Some of you might already have that involvement with education, but this is a great option for those that want to teach psychology, whether it's within a high school setting or within a community college setting or serving in some sort of capacity in higher education. We also have examples of those that get this degree, and they end up working in more of a government law enforcement environment. So it's very possible to use this degree within criminal profiling or as a parole officer being a specialist in those capacities or within voc rehab. So, again, this is just lending a little bit more to the versatility of this degree. And then lastly, ministry. Many of you might already have involvement in the ministry, and you've been called to add more of a background in psychology because it it works so well, whether it's within catechesis or working within the diocese.

20:00Folks have earned this degree, and they've gone into working in, marriage and families or as a victim within the the the diocesan office of victims assistance. It works very well with faith formation as well, and it's very common for those that are in a consecrated life to, to use this degree within faith formation. So, again, just to share the the diversity of of this degree. So next, I want to share with you the different options that you have. So as students, these are just a couple of examples. They're both considered full time, but you do have the option to either complete this degree in twenty six months or in sixteen months. And depending on what your daily schedule would permit, for those of you many of you might be working full time or maybe you have a busy home life.

21:01And, so perhaps the twenty six month track would be a good option. And then for those of you that maybe have a little bit more time where you could commit toward pursuing your degree at a faster rate, the sixteen month track might be a great option as well. So, doctor Ewing, if if you could share a little bit more about your experience at least with the students that you've spoken with and have worked with as far as their time commitment, and their experiences, that would be great. Sure. You know, like any course, it's going to take longer for some folks, per week than it does for others. We always have a decent amount of reading. Obviously, this is a master's level course. But I can assure you that at least in these three courses in the leadership concentration, the reading will be personally applicable and definitely applicable to your style and learning about leadership, either your own competencies or the skills that you'll be learning.

22:02Most students take, you know, if I would have to estimate anywhere from ten to fifteen hours a week, per class, that has been my experience. Although I have had students in five ninety say that it takes slightly less, and students in six fifteen is take say that it takes slightly more. Again, some of that might be due to the, the critical reflection required at six fifteen where people are examining themselves and having to, to, you know, essentially regurgitate, their emotions and the way that those emotions tie into leadership characteristics or their own psychological well-being into a journal journal article, or journal entry, I should say. But, realistically, you can expect to spend a minimum of ten hours a week, I would say.

22:59Yeah. And, you know, I'll even just jump into that as well. I I hosted a webinar a few weeks back with Emily Ledum. She was the example of our graduate. And, her experience has been that there have been some terms where she was going through the content in, six hours a week. That that was really the commitment that she needed to put in because she was very familiar with the information. Some of the information she just loved, and so it was very easy for her to breeze through it. And then there were other terms where maybe the content was a little bit more dense, like statistics. That's very common for students. So she might have to set aside a little bit more extra a little extra time to, better absorb the information.

23:47So it really can range. If you're looking at the twenty six month tracking brackets, you're seeing fifteen to eighteen hours. It's actually from just my experience as well, speaking with students, maybe a little bit closer to ten to twelve, but I think we've actually put in fifteen to 18 to be a little bit more conservative with that number. For the sixteen month track, it's probably a little bit closer to 20 to 25. Again, we we put in 25 to 30. Again, just be a little bit more conservative. And, you're also seeing two different costs here. And I I I want to highlight first that there are, scholarships available, which we're gonna dive into. But you're seeing a difference be between these two because for the sixteen month track, on average, you would be taking two courses per term.

24:40That's not the case for every term, but for most of them, that would be the case. But one of the benefits of that is that any term that you're taking two courses, that second course is gonna come out to 25% less. So that will allow you to skim off a little bit of the cost. So the next thing is, is grad school affordable? And it certainly can be. And there are different ways of funding your education. Most people don't pay the whole lump sum up upfront. I've never met a student that has done that, but, of course, that's an option. But for most students, they're funding their education either through federal aid or they're doing a payment plan. They're they're paying as they go. When looking at federal aid, when applying it to a graduate program, it'll be in the form of student loans, And that's an option for those of you that that might be looking to, take out those loans and fund your education.

25:38If you're concerned about reaching your point, grad plus loans is another option. And, again, if we schedule time for you and you and I to speak one on one, I'd be happy to talk a little bit more about that. But, again, doing a payment plan is another alternative where you are paying course by course. And in the program, we do have 13 different scholarships. And as a student, you can apply up to four of them and receive up to two. And as you're seeing, they range between the dollar amount and the percentage. And it's a good idea for you to look through the different scholarships that we offer and see what you qualify for. And this will also be part of the application process. At some point, you'll speak with the financial aid department, and they'll walk you through the awarding process.

26:33So we make sure that this is covered before you've even been admitted just so that it's not a headache that you'll worry about, as you're leading up to starting class. And another option of reducing your tuition is through one of our partnerships, or we we also have them as titled MOU, a memorandum of understanding. Many of you are probably familiar with that term, but this is basically a partnership the university would have with maybe a diocese or with an individual parish or an organization. And these are just some examples that we have, but these aren't all of the scholar the, the partnerships. We have many others. And if, let's say, you belong to a to a diocese or a school or a parish where that partnership has not yet been, established, it's one that we can establish, and I'd be more than happy to speak with you again to figure out how we can get your costs reduced.

27:37And this brings us to the end. And I do wanna highlight very quickly, by the way, and this is also in relation to tuition reductions. We do have a start date coming up on May 17. That's gonna be our summer semester. And that semester only covers one term. So you have one eight week term, and then you're gonna have an eight week break after that before the fall semester. And this is a great time to apply only because right now, we're actually at our peak level of scholarships. Again, it depends on what you qualify for, but I know that this is gonna be the height of our scholarship. So, if you're looking for a more substantial one, this would be a great time to begin class. And I've also included, by the way, my contact information is in here, so feel free to save it.

28:27But I've also included for each of you a code for the application. And, typically, there's a 55 application fee. But if you put in the code CCMMP1999, then that'll waive the application fee for UC. So we'll make it a free one. So that concludes the details. And what I'd like to do now is open up the floor to each of you, for any questions that you have. So whether it's for me or for doctor Ewing, I'd be happy to answer, have us answer your questions. Okay. And so one question was, can you outline the length of each term? So the length of each term, so and this is also a very common misunderstanding. Usually, terms and and, the words the word term in scholarship can be, misunderstood as being one and the same, and I think we usually use those words interchangeably in our in our regular English language.

29:48But they would be two different things. We are semester based. A semester consists of sixteen weeks, and then a term is eight weeks. And so in any given semester, with the exception of summer, that's sort of an outlier, you'll have term one and term two. So So if you're taking one course per term, that means that you're going through that one course within eight weeks before you jump into your next term. There's usually, I I believe, about a a week break between each one. Great question. Okay. Let's see. There's another question here. I have past degrees and licensure in New York State for a registered nurse and adult primary care, gerontology. Do any credits transfer? That's a that's a good question.

30:47So there are transferable credits. It's I think it'd be unlikely to see it come from that, that field of study. Usually, we would see more transfer of credit to be found in either counseling or psychology. Though, of course, we could always talk a little bit more about that. There there still might be an opportunity for this. We'd have to look at your transcript. So there's no we we wouldn't weigh out the option of transfer of credit. Again, we would just need to review your transcripts and also the syllabi for the courses that could be considered transferable. For any questions that come up, my contact information, my telephone number is (703) 705-9118. And you're welcome to call me. You're welcome to text me.

31:34I'd be happy to to, answer any questions that you have. Hopefully, schedule an appointment between you and I. Or you can email me, and my email is admissions.msp@divinemercy.edu. So, with that said, I'm going to, have us end here. But, again, doctor Ewing, thank you so much for for, sitting in with us and just sharing the program from the from the perspective of faculty. It's been my pleasure. Thank you for having me. Alright. Thank you all for, for coming in, and I wish you all a great evening.