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Last spring, four men and four women of vastly different careers, different life experiences, and different ages graduated from the ɫ����’s Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program. As the program’s first-ever cohort of graduates, the eight knew they would face plenty of challenges, but the experience presented such an opportunity — to be the first students of the Gary Tharaldson School of Business to receive a doctoral degree — that they couldn’t resist the chance to influence future iterations of the program. Pastor Corey Bjertness and Marby Hogen, both members of the initial DBA cohort, had always wanted to embrace the rigor and challenge of a doctoral program, and when they learned of the new program, both leapt in without hesitation. “The timing was perfect,” Hogen said. “I had a long-held goal to pursue a doctorate, and the opportunity to provide feedback and help shape the program for future students was too good to pass up. When I received a postcard from the ɫ���� about the program, I was elated.” Hogen, Bjertness, and their classmates in the DBA program handled their experience with such grace, poise, and respect that the university began to refer to them as “The Great Eight.” 

The Benedictine Sisters of Annunciation Monastery, the university’s founders and sponsors, serve as the primary exemplars of pioneering courage for all who study at and work for ɫ���� today. The eight members of the first DBA cohort looked to the Sisters’ example as they embraced a kind of pioneering courage, too. “Within us is an unshakable impulse to serve needs,” reads the university’s description of pioneering courage, “even if it means going beyond our realm of comfort, and even if it means doing what’s never been done.” The Great Eight certainly had to do the same. “What stands out the most about my experience in the DBA program,” Hogen said, “is having a renewed sense of purpose in serving others.” This call to service allowed the members of the Great Eight to see the concrete connection from their classroom knowledge to their careers and encouraged them to forge stronger bonds with one another.

All graduate programs promise the opportunity to complete advanced coursework in a particular field, but for the Great Eight, our DBA offered more than that. It became an avenue through which they were able to form community and friendship with the other members of the cohort, sharing unique perspectives and expertise. “What I learned from the others in my cohort was nothing short of remarkable,” Bjertness said. “Each person brought something different to the table: business acumen, ministry experience, higher education experience, health care insight, and nonprofit leadership.” With such an array of fields, members of the cohort quickly realized the incredible value they all brought to the program. “It’s not just the coursework that helped shape my experience in the program,” Hogen said. “It’s also the incredible colleagues we had a chance to work with. They touched my life forever.”

“We faced every challenge and celebrated every success together.”

In asynchronous, online programs like the DBA, it is rare that students move past being discussion-board partners to become colleagues and treasured friends. For the Great Eight, however, it was universal. Some graduates knew each other at the start, but the group used the DBA program’s institute, held on campus each summer, to form lasting and meaningful relationships as a whole group. And in a three-year program, such relationships became crucial. “We faced every challenge and celebrated every success together,” Hogan said. “I am so grateful for the group’s support and friendship.”

The commitment to complete a doctoral program is a significant one, especially with full-time jobs and families, as many of the Great Eight have. Without exception, they had to field questions from well-intentioned friends, colleagues, and family members. People asked, “What are you going to do with a DBA?” Pastor Bjertness gave an answer that summed the experience up for everyone: “It’s not what I’m going to do with a DBA,” he said. “It’s what this DBA is going to do with me.” For the Great Eight, after three years and hundreds of hours of work, their doctoral program has transformed them. They are new leaders, new colleagues, and new people, all thanks to the community of students and faculty they found in the ɫ����’s Doctor of Business Administration program.