{"id":274,"date":"2025-06-01T03:12:42","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/01\/navigating-pomp-and-unexpected-circumstances\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T03:12:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:12:42","slug":"navigating-pomp-and-unexpected-circumstances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/01\/navigating-pomp-and-unexpected-circumstances\/","title":{"rendered":"Navigating pomp and unexpected circumstances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kudos to Wartburg College<\/strong> <\/a>for exemplifying the leadership and adaptive change it taught and instilled in me as a graduate student these past 20 months.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The MA in Leadership hooding ceremony program was already printed with me as the class speaker.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was among the eight students enrolled in the third cohort of its online MA in Leadership program<\/strong><\/a>, and I was poised to return with my wife, Jennifer, to the Wartburg campus in Waverly, Iowa, for commencement over the Memorial Day weekend.<\/p>\n

Not only was I driving back from Michigan to walk across the stage and graduate with my classmates, but they were also the ones who nominated me to serve as our class speaker during the hooding ceremony. What an unexpected and amazing honor!<\/p>\n

My speech almost didn\u2019t happen. <\/p>\n

An unexpected turn of circumstances forced Jennifer and me to stay in Michigan and not attend graduation or deliver my speech.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Dr. Michael Gleason\u2014one of my professors and the Irving R. Burling Distinguished Professor in Leadership\u2014wouldn\u2019t let that happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdaptability is a key feature of our program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
I delivered my hooding ceremony remarks via a pre-recorded video<\/a><\/strong>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr. Gleason worked with me and his Wartburg colleagues to ensure that I remained involved in the ceremony.<\/p>\n

In less than 36 hours, we executed the plan to:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Stick to the script, as my speech had already been written and approved.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Use the audio\/visual technology in the Wartburg Chapel to broadcast me giving my remarks.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Avoid connectivity glitches that potentially come with live streaming by pre-recording a video of me delivering my speech as I was clad in my commencement gown and master\u2019s hood.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Acknowledge me when appropriate during the ceremony, as I, along with Jennifer, streamed live through Wartburg\u2019s KnightVision.<\/p>\n

Sure, I couldn\u2019t be there on campus\u2026 at least not in person. However, with some quick thinking, evaluation, assessment, and adaptation to the situation, I wholeheartedly participated in the ceremony <\/a><\/strong>with my cohort and received my MA in Leadership.<\/p>\n

And considering that this two-year program was asynchronous and entirely online, weren’t we all already used to not being in the same place together?<\/p>\n

\"\"
While I wasn’t able to make it back to the Wartburg campus to graduate with the seven amazing members of my MA in Leadership cohort, I celebrated the day with them virtually and am grateful for our grateful for our forever friendship and connection as leaders. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Source: acoupletakesonms.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kudos to Wartburg College for exemplifying the leadership and adaptive change it taught and instilled in me as a graduate student these past 20 months. The MA in Leadership hooding ceremony program was already printed with me as the class speaker. I was among the eight students enrolled in the third cohort of its online…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11,15,9,8,13,14,12,10],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multiple-sclerosis-research","tag-brain-repair","tag-marburg-type-ms","tag-ms","tag-multiple-sclerosis","tag-myelin","tag-neuroregeneration","tag-oligodendrocyte","tag-remyelination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}