By Lydia Szyjka ’09 M.A.
It all started with a flyer on a school bulletin board. Thor Edmiston ’21, then a principal in the Midd-West School District in Central Pennsylvania, noticed a flyer promoting Immaculata University’s new cohort for its Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Administration. Intrigued, he shared the idea with his friend and fellow principal, Dane Aucker ’21, and they attended an information session together. Afterward, Edmiston challenged his friend, “If you do it, I’ll do it.” With that, the deal was sealed. They both enrolled in the program, defended their dissertations and attended graduation together.
Edmiston’s positive experience has made him an advocate for Immaculata’s Ed.D. program. The University’s strong regional reputation, he said, makes it a compelling option for educators pursuing advanced degrees. Many need to fulfill continuing education requirements, and Immaculata can fill that need within the community. Edmiston appreciates that Immaculata offers cohorts at Warrior Run School District where he is a superintendent, making it convenient and eliminating the need for traveling a long distance to attend classes. Currently, there are students from the school district enrolled in Immaculata’s master’s and doctoral education cohort programs. He appreciates that they are learning and benefiting from their classmates like he had done.
For Edmiston, a sense of community was key to completing his degree. Immaculata’s cohort model, which keeps students from the same major progressing through their classes together, helped foster that connection. He likes the cohort model better than the traditional classroom model because students create strong, lasting bonds with others in their cohort. He noted that students lean on one another—checking due dates, assignments and interpretation of lessons— and these bonds continue after graduation.
“Immaculata has a system in place that creates success and more ‘finishers’ of the doctorate process. They are great in making sure that folks get what they need when they need it because it can be an intimidating and time-consuming process.”
Besides members of their cohort, both Edmiston and Aucker credit Joe Corabi, Ed.D., a professor of education and their dissertation chair, as a mentor who supported them while pushing them to succeed.
“Dane and I were very competitive throughout the process,” Edmiston said. “We pushed each other along the way, and that was nice too.”
Aucker agreed, calling their collaboration a friendly rivalry. “We always made everything a competition,” he said. “Thor would win at one thing, and I’d win at another. But we laughed and had a great time, no matter the topic, sport or task.”
Their competitiveness extended to writing their dissertations. The two spoke daily, sharing updates on their progress. If one wrote a few pages, the other felt motivated to keep pace—or exceed it. “Before we knew it, we were completing chapters quickly,” Aucker said. “Dr. Corabi could barely keep up with our progress.”
When it was time to defend their dissertations and earn their doctoral degrees, Aucker found out when Edmiston had scheduled his dissertation meeting and intentionally chose to defend his dissertation the day before so he could brag that he received his doctorate first.
Beyond the camaraderie of the cohort, Edmiston found practical benefits of Immaculata’s Ed.D. program. After taking a school finance class, he shared some best practices with folks in his school district that led to some improvements.
He also appreciated having a writing class that provided opportunities to draft chapters for his dissertation, which ensured that he completed his degree. “Immaculata has a system in place that creates success and more ‘finishers’ of the doctorate process. They are great in making sure that folks get what they need when they need it because it can be an intimidating and time-consuming process,” Edmiston said. He noted the contrast from other doctoral programs where students stop before finishing their dissertations.
Since earning his degree, Edmiston has advanced his career, becoming superintendent of the Warrior Run School District and joining Immaculata’s Ed.D. faculty as an adjunct professor. Without his doctorate, he believes many of these achievements would be beyond his reach. He credits the University’s internal processes and cohort model for ensuring students’ success. This is one reason why he encourages others to consider Immaculata for their advanced degrees.
Looking back on his educational journey, Edmiston believes his diverse roles—teacher, administrator and doctoral student—give him a broader perspective on challenges facing education.
“If COVID taught us anything, it’s that it is essential to be face-to-face,” he said. “Most students learn best in a setting when they have a person right there with them—to help them and push them—in all the ways to be successful,” he stated, reflecting on his own experience and how learning alongside his friend played an important role in earning his doctoral degree.
