Career is a "by-product of a larger purpose"

Deb Petrone is a PhD candidate in education and a recipient of the Coca-Cola Critical Difference for Women Scholarship. Her generous donor support from The Coca-Cola Foundation is allowing her to improve our educational system through her original research.

"My name is Deborah Petrone, and I am delighted to take time to express my gratitude for being selected and to reflect on the progress that the Coca-Cola CDW Scholarship has made possible. I offer my sincere thanks. However, to simply say 'thank you' conveys only a fraction of what I feel.

Twenty years ago, I never thought I would be working toward my PhD at The Ohio State University. At the time, I focused primarily on my husband, daughter, two jobs and household chores. I loved learning and I did take courses at the local university from time to time. However, I was never fully able to pour my energies into exploring my potential. My story is not atypical, yet my resolve to find my niche in life was firm. I made a promise to myself that after my daughter was grown, I would take time to discover how I might contribute to my community and world.

After years of experience in the workplace I came to understand the disparity between working toward making a difference versus working toward a career. For me, the career could be a by-product of a larger purpose, but it was not my goal. Several life-changing events, including divorce, my diagnosis of and treatment for breast cancer, the birth of my wonderful granddaughter and significant financial loss pressed me to consider how to best live my life and to improve the human condition, however modest it might be.

To date, I have completed my course work and comprehensive exams for my doctoral degree in education. I have interviewed women from different parts of the United States and collected narratives about their desires and contributions to the world and the people in it. My participants are humble women who have no claim to fame, but are all remarkable in their own right. Currently I am studying and writing about their narratives and editing a short video documentary that will accompany my dissertation.

I hope that my dissertation will be my first contribution among many to explore the voices of people who can affect our society's educational goals through positive, ethical change in the direction of our personal lives, communities, society, environment and the world.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to you for making my work possible!"

If you would like to change the world through an industrious student, contact Leslie Kreinberg at kreinberg.3@osu.edu or at 614-247-6600.