Just a day after officially receiving her Master of Public Service at the Clinton School’s Commencement Ceremony, Lea Metz will take the next step in her academic journey by beginning orientation for her Ph.D program at Fielding Graduate University.
Metz, a graduating Clinton School Online student who is based in Winston-Salem, N.C., will enroll in Fielding’s Ph.D. program in organizational development and change. Orientation for the ODC program begins on May 8 – the day after she walks across the stage and receives her diploma. Her courses at Fielding will officially start on May 16.
Metz, who also holds a degree in microbiology and cell biology from Methodist University, said that when she began searching for a Ph.D. program she was focused on programs specialized for organizational development and change. But it was Fielding’s unique emphasis on personal growth that helped settle her decision.
“While I yearn for the education, I know that my personal growth needs just as much attention and even more,” Metz said. “Fielding Graduate University will help me to grow academically and importantly for me, Fielding Graduate University will help me to grow personally. They focus in on the student growing personal skills as well as focusing in on knowledge, practice and research.”
Metz’s time at the Clinton School has helped her rediscover her love of learning, she said, and has shown her that she can continue to develop as a scholar-practitioner. The past two years have been filled with moments where she realized “I can get messy as a student, still grow personally and professionally, while being a successful student.”
“In a sense my graduate degree has been but a starting point in my growth to uncover me, to reconcile my role as a public servant and to strengthen my skills as a consultant,” said Metz, who owns and operates her own LLC in Winston Salem. “As I am nearing graduation, I have this overwhelming sense and feeling that while I have done a lot of hard work to embrace learning and give myself grace, there is still more to come.”
Above all, Metz loves working with people. She boasts more than a decade’s worth of professional fundraising experience and, through her LLC, provides consulting services in a range of areas, including marketing, fundraising, and event planning, among others. As she looks to the next step in her career, she wants to find a role in higher education that allows her to work with and connect with others.
“I love holding space for people,” Metz said. “And I love seeing the spark that happens when that ‘ah-ha’ moment is realized.”
Metz’s two years at the Clinton School have been filled with courses and experiences that have helped inform her views of public service. Two specific classroom experiences stood out, she said: Ethical and Legal Dimensions of Public Service and Program Planning and Development.
“I loved Ethical and Legal Dimensions of Public Service because it really made me think about my personal ethics and how I show up in my public service work,” Metz said. “We had the opportunity to write our own code of professional ethics, so I wrote them for my LLC. That was an amazing exercise of really uncovering what is most important to me and how I want my business to reflect my ethics in my values and in my actions so they are congruent. Program Planning was such a great class as well. Dr. Bavon has such high expectations but also is so willing to help his students. I learned so much from this class that I was missing in my own practice.”
Additionally, Metz’s field service work was extremely valuable. Working closely with her advisor, Dr. Susan Hoffpauir, Metz’s final Capstone project allowed her to grow more comfortable with the process of “researching, gathering data, and pulling it all together.”
“With my Capstone, I truly had to trust the process and I feel that my project found me,” Metz said. “I have to also say that it was empowering to be able to research a topic that I was interested in while applying all that I have learned over the past two years. Dean Hoffpauir was great in holding space for me to explore and she was also great in her kindness when I had some growing pains from some of the feedback I was receiving.”
As the commencement date approaches, Metz said that her Clinton School experience has helped her realize that she can continue developing as a scholar-practitioner.
“I have this overwhelming sense and feeling that while I have done a lot of hard work to embrace learning and give myself grace, there is still more to come,” Metz said. “As professors provided me with feedback, I have reconciled that while I’ve been successful as a facilitator in assisting organizations with strategic planning, I still have more to learn. Learning is a powerful process, and I have just begun to develop my theoretical orientation to strengthen my professional work as I know it can be.”
“Anything is possible if I put my mind to it. Fielding’s approach to mentoring students as a scholar-practitioner will provide me the space to continue to grow. With this growth I know that I will be a better public servant to those with whom I work. Change begins within me.”
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