David Yastremski dedicated his career to teaching and administration, and he turned to Rockhurst University’s Online Doctorate in Education and Leadership with a concentration in K-12 Leadership to take the next step in his journey. The program’s flexibility, supportive cohort model, and capstone approach gave him the tools to balance professional demands while advancing his leadership skills. Through Rockhurst, David gained the confidence and preparation he needed to expand his impact as an educator and leader.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

An online program like Rockhurst really allowed me the ability to make this experience fit within the crazy, hectic, busy life that we all need.

My intention was to go straight from undergrad to grad, to doctorate, and do the university job. I started in northern New Jersey as a high school English teacher. I never left when the Rockhurst program showed up in my feed one day and I clicked it and I just started looking at it and saw the convenience of it.

The Jesuit foundation was important as well. I knew if I ever did want to go back, I wanted to go to a school that has a brick and mortar environment that I could actually visit, and I started looking into Rockhurst and all of a sudden I realized it was the right price. It was asynchronous. There was a good cohort structure where you can engage with people, and it was because of that that the online world, which I was very apprehensive about at first, really nurtured itself into a great opportunity learning experience and growth.

The program at Rockhurst really gives you that student-faculty connection to help guide you along. The vast majority of the faculty are here on campus. They're engaging with one another. They were talking together about the program. Even though you may be doing your coursework at four o'clock in the morning like I was, I knew that my professor was only a quick email or even a phone call away, and their response was so immediate, so genuine, and really helped motivate me that I want to do more in this program than I even currently am doing.

The Ed.D. program literally makes everything that you study have purpose. The conversation was, who's going to benefit from this? How can I grow within my profession? How can we share this knowledge with the people that we engage with on a day-to-day basis so that what we study here has meaning out there. It's phenomenal.