Maria joined the dissertation shell of Dr. Jimenez’s class in the spring of 2016. I was still trapped in the Internal Review Board Process otherwise we might have missed each other. I wonder if this was all a part of God’s plan to bring the four of us together. It was evident from the very beginning that Maria was eager to learn and was very motivated. If my post was not first, it was because Maria had entered her post several hours before mine. Irene and I, being the two “old students” in the shell, quickly began offering advice and suggestions. Within a couple of weeks, Maria and I were talking at least a couple of times a week. As we talked about school, our assignments, and our personal lives, we learned we had a great deal in common with each other. It just seemed the natural thing to invite her to my graduation as well. Like Irene, I had no idea what Maria looked like when I picked her up at the airport. As with Mariana and Irene, as our friendship grew we learned about each other’s past. Maria’s journey had also been a difficult one but again I did not grasp the full impact until I read her chapters for the first time. At the party, we all came together and our common experience of being in Walden and earning our PhDs forged a bond between the four of us. That was when I knew we needed to write The Fab Four.

Dissertation Information:

2017 – Effect of intimate partner violence on children of Puerto Rican Women. Read it here.