The Journey of a Doctoral Student

Opening Vision 0:00 - As I've evolved, I really wanted to look at civil rights, equal rights attorney, immigration, those types of things. 0:07 'cause there are things that I deal with every day and that I see that there's not equality 0:12 and there's a lot of disparity in education. Ultimately, my plan is to graduate from law school 0:19 and run for Congress because if you wanna make real change, you have to put yourself in a position to make that change. Guest Intro: Dr. Rose Lorenzo 0:38 - Hello and welcome to the Degrees of Success podcast. I'm your host, Frida Richards. And today we have an outstanding guest. 0:46 She's an author and entrepreneur and educator and a mentor. And she's also received her bachelor's, master's, 0:53 and doctorate from University of Phoenix. Help me welcome Dr. Rose Lorenzo. 0:59 So in doing your research, I recognized, oh, I actually saw a LinkedIn post about you and the hackathon. 1:08 Oh yes. Because the kids were here on campus. - Yes. - And we were, we were using it in, so I work 1:16 for University of Phoenix as the podcast host, but also I do digital marketing. 1:21 I'm the digital marketing campaign manager. And so I get to see and evaluate all the data from all 1:28 of our like influencer assets and things. So, and UGC assets. And you were one of them. And when I was doing the research, I was like, oh my gosh, 1:34 I'm so excited to get to meet her because when I was watching the video, I thought, this is so cool. 1:39 'cause I have a great passion and love for children, so - Me too. - Oh, me too. I do. From Law Aspirations to Education 1:47 I could tell a children's book and Yeah. - Yeah. So, and I never thought, 1:55 because I always said I wanted to be a lawyer, right? And, but I never thought I would be in the education 2:02 realm with children. Right. I thought, I'll get my doctorate degree, maybe I'll go work for University of Phoenix. 2:09 Maybe I'll go teach a doctoral class. You know, adults, right? 2:15 Never children. But during the first year of residency at University 2:21 of Phoenix, I met three amazing individuals. We all live in different states. 2:27 And out of research we were researching emotional intelligence and technology. 2:34 Well, that first year class was really interesting because Dr. 2:40 Debbie, Dr. Katie and Neil, that and myself, we sat next to each other and we were gonna be on the same team for research. 2:49 Well, there were 13 people in our class and it was only gonna be one team of four. 2:55 And so another team decided to make a team of four, and we couldn't be the team of four. 3:04 So I was like the odd man out, right? Because now it was like they were gonna be on this team 3:12 and this other team created a team of four. And so I ended up being on somebody else's team. Team. 3:18 But I always think God has a plan because Debbie and Katie 3:25 and Neil, they did this research and I was able to watch it from a business perspective while 3:32 they did their presentation. And when they finished, I asked them, I said, have you considered this as a business? Hackathon Jr. is Born 3:38 And they're like, what are you talking about? I said, this would be an amazing business. We should talk about this after class. Right? 3:46 And so we were leaving the next day. So I flew back to North Carolina and on the plane I wrote a business plan 3:52 and I emailed it to them and I said, this is what I think we should do. And they're like, first of all, Dr. Debbie and Dr. 4:00 Katie are both in education, right? Debbie teaches in Nevada and Neil, he's a business person outta Tampa. 4:07 He, Neil was like, yeah, I think you're right. And they're like, I don't know. And I said, I think we would be a great partnership 4:14 because you can teach the children and I can run the business and Neil can run the social media side 4:21 'cause that's what he does. And they're like, well, if you think it'll work, I'm like, yeah, I think so. So that's how Hackathon Jr. Was created. 4:29 Primarily because out of the research we found that 4:34 children who use a lot of technology live in a narcissistic bubble. 4:40 And they don't care about anything that's going on around them. They only care about what's in front of them. 4:46 And so they, you know, the world could be falling down and as long as the screen is still going, they're happy. 4:54 Right? So they lack in social skills and emotional intelligence, they don't know how 4:59 to get along with others. So the objective and mission of Hackathon Junior was not to teach coding, Emotional Intelligence Through Tech 5:07 but to improve emotional intelligence by using technology as the platform, because 5:13 - It's to improve emotional intelligence using technology. So we already have them glued to the screen, right? 5:19 We know that because they're glued in front of the screen, that they're lacking social skills and emotional intelligence. 5:24 And now you're bringing these things together - Because it's one computer for every four kids. 5:31 So as a team, they have to learn to create an app for a phone that will solve a real world issue, social, 5:40 environmental, or public safety, which means they have to learn to collaborate, communicate, research, 5:47 design together, and then code that app and then present it as a team to panel the judges. 5:54 So what we've seen, 'cause this is our eighth year for Hackathon Junior, 5:59 and what we've seen is children who have a really low emotional intelligence, you can spot them immediately when they walk into the room. 6:07 'cause they don't have anything to do with being on a team with anybody. They want a computer, they wanna sit in a corner under a desk. 6:14 They don't wanna socialize. Putting them together and them learning that, working with others 6:23 and communicating and building this app, it developed those social skills 6:29 and the communication skills improves emotional intelligence. You can see the change almost immediately, you know, 6:36 in these kids. And we have seen a lot of change in kids. We, I think we've served close 6:44 to 2000 kids in eight years. - Wow. So tell me this, all across the United States, 6:51 tell me what it looks like to be able to either add your child or, or threaten to, it's not 6:57 - Virtual. The only time we did virtual was during Covid, because right Success Stories & Impact 7:03 before Covid, we had an initiative for 2020 to teach 2020 children in 2020. 7:12 And we had so many things going on. We were gonna have a golf tournament to raise the money we needed for all the computers 7:18 that we were gonna need. We had all of this. And then Covid came and all that crashed. 7:24 And so we decided to go virtual. And we held virtual hackathons, 7:29 which ended up being a weekend event. Like Friday to Sunday. Our events in person are one day, 7:37 they're an eight hour day, they start at eight o'clock in the morning and they end at five 30 in the evening. 7:43 And they get food and all kinds of stuff. And coding and TED talk 7:48 and coaching by mentors that we bring in with University of Phoenix has been amazing in helping us bring in tech Event Format & COVID Shift 7:57 mentors to come in and help the kids with their coding challenge. And so they get to learn to create an app prototype, 8:07 and it could work and it maybe won't work, but it doesn't need to be perfect. 8:12 It needs to just identify what the problem is. Whether the problem is climate change. 8:20 What do you think you need to do to fix that? And how would you want your users to fix that, you know? 8:26 And so we had a team who created this amazing app on how to measure your carbon footprint. 8:33 And they created this algorithm that said, if you drive a certain type of car, it's this many points. 8:41 If you live in this size of a house, it's this many points. The type of gas you use in your house, whether propane 8:48 or regular gas. It's this many points. Like, and it then it gave you a number that said this is 8:56 how you're affecting the environment, right? So you could change that, maybe make some changes to App Creation & Carbon Footprint Tool 9:03 what your everyday living is, was amazing. These kids are nine to 13 years old, so they're young, 9:11 you know, they're third grade to eighth grade grade. And so it's amazing to me what they can come up 9:18 with in such a short amount of time. And that no one, you know, we always say Dr. 9:25 Debbie and I always say that children are the best innovators because no one's ever told them that they can't do it. 9:31 You know? And so they're not jaded by, oh, that's not possible. And you don't have anybody telling them 9:37 that you can't do it. In fact, we tell them that we want them to fail because we believe that failing is the 9:43 first attempt in learning. And so there isn't anybody, 9:49 not even the brightest genius in the world that started something and got it right the first time they failed. 9:56 Right? And then they said, okay, that didn't work. Let me try this. And then they failed again. And it could be thousands of times 10:02 before they get it, right? And so I think when we tell children about failure, 10:09 they look at it as a negative thing opposed to as a positive thing. Because if you're learning from it, that's great 10:16 because now you, you won't do that again. And now you're gonna move forward. Just don't quit. 10:22 You know? And so, yeah, hackathon is amazing and we're hoping coming forward that we can bring it 10:30 as an academy to Phoenix area. And so that's, we've had a lot of parents reach out saying, 10:39 how can we get our kids in this program outside of the one day event? Right? And so we're really, we're looking in that direction 10:48 to try to bring it out into that area as an afterschool program. - Well, I'm lucky enough to live in Phoenix. I know. Summer Coding Camps 10:56 I said I may be moving to Phoenix. Oh my goodness. Well that would be incredible. 11:01 My son will be in the third grade next year, so I'm just gonna have to take advantage because, 11:07 - You know, that sounds amazing. It's, it's amazing. We did the past two summers. 11:12 We've done a summer camp in Charleston, South Carolina, 11:17 which we did a three week camp, and then we did a five week camp of coding every day. 11:25 You know, and these kids learned all different types of coding, coding, robots, creating video games, creating 11:33 animation apps for the phones. And I think in the camp last year, 11:41 the kids created something like 679 games. Wow. And so in some of those games, you know, 11:50 once they're posted and they can live on blocks so anybody in the world can play it. 11:56 And so, you know, you'd pull it up and it's like, look, you had 500 different people played 12:02 your game last night, you know? And they're like, what? You know, it's like incredible that, and they could go home 12:09 and tweak it and play some more and take it home and show their parents what they created. 12:14 But it inspires that innovation, that creativity that I can, I can create anything. 12:21 'cause look what I did. You know? And that's really what we're trying to do, hoping that kids will maybe wanna go into tech, 12:28 but there's so many jobs outside of being a coder in the tech industry that just giving them 12:35 that ability that, you know, range that, hey, you can go into this. 12:41 You don't necessarily need to be a coder, but there's other areas in tech that you could go to. 12:47 And giving them exposure primarily to kids who don't have exposure to these items. And so The Power of Innovation in Kids 12:55 - Let me ask you, you said that you can see a young student that doesn't have necessarily a high 13:03 emotional intelligence score. Tell me what the importance of emotional intelligence is, 13:09 and especially in technology moving forward with, with this new future of ours. 13:15 And tell me about a little bit more about emotional intelligence and just how it plays in our everyday life. 13:21 - So emotional intelligence is really being able to see the other side of the coin, right? So when you say something to somebody, understanding how 13:29 that might make them feel, you know, and how being sensitive to 13:37 things that we say to individuals that might hurt their feelings, you know? 13:42 And so a lot of what's happening with this generation, this newer generation, is 13:49 because there's such a low EIQ score with these kids, 13:54 they don't know how to socialize with somebody else. They can't empathize with 13:59 what somebody might be going through. For example, somebody gets hurt Emotional Intelligence in Practice 14:05 and a kid with a low EIQ might go, that's all right. Where one with the higher EIQ might be like, are you okay? 14:12 You know, can I help you with something you know, you know, and help them up. The one with the LE E, the lower EIQ might go, okay, 14:21 and keep walking and not even help them up. Right? And so, because they don't even understand what 14:29 that feels like on the other side, they could say something really mean or harsh to somebody 14:35 and not understand that they're really hurting somebody's feelings because they're so cold. 14:42 You know, it's like that lack of sensitivity, lack of empathy, you know, and emotion, you know? 14:50 And what I've, and we have a lot of adults like that. And what I've found that most adults with the lower EIQ 14:58 hide behind the word that it's okay, it's okay. 15:03 You know? And I'm like, it's not okay because if it was okay, you wouldn't be going. 15:09 It's okay. But that doesn't matter. Right? And so those are words that people with a lower EIQ will say 15:17 it's okay, that doesn't matter. But they hold that emotion inside 15:23 because they don't know how to express that, right? And so when they deal 15:29 with others, it's okay. And it doesn't matter, right When they hurt somebody's feelings 15:36 because they, it's what they're seeing, they're saying to themselves and they're doing to others. 15:42 So when we get kids that have a lower social skill or lower EIQ, putting them on a team 15:51 and making sure that they can communicate and when they don't, there's always gonna be someone there 15:58 that will be the leader of the team is working with them and getting them involved, right? Pringles Challenge & Team Building 16:05 It's not okay to just have 'em on a team and not have them involved, have them just being there. 16:10 No, they need to participate. And once you get them in there, and we have these icebreakers with them where they learn 16:17 to do the Pringles challenge, they have to make a ring of standing ring with Pringles, a free standing ring 16:24 with Pringles in six minutes, right? So they have to learn to like stack 'em, you know? 16:30 So it stands straight up, you know? And so when they're doing that as a team 16:36 and they, it's not easy, but once they figure it out, it's like, oh, 16:42 you need a strong foundation in order to be able for the ring to stand at the top, right? 16:48 It helps them break that, oh, I'm not, I'm by myself. You know, you are not on an island on your own. 16:56 You know, people are there to help you. You just have to be open to allow people to help you so 17:03 that you can socialize yourself better. And a lot of this had happened more I think when Covid 17:10 and people were homeschooled and kids, I mean, literally the mental health of kids 17:17 went down because they weren't designed to stay home all day by themselves, you know? 17:24 And trying to do school, it was really, really difficult for them. And then not having that outlet to be able to socialize 17:32 with other people, especially younger kids who maybe didn't have phones. You know, I think teenagers, it was, 17:40 I think a whole different realm with teenagers because you then you started getting all the cyber bully 17:45 stuff happening, right? And, but the younger kids, I think it was really hard 17:52 for them because they didn't have any friends. Their friends are the friends they see in class, you know? 17:59 And you can't go outside if you live in a neighborhood. So what I find really fascinating about neighborhoods in Post-COVID Social Struggles 18:05 America, when I was growing up, we were always outside you. You go into a neighborhood 18:11 and you know that there's kids there, you don't see any kids playing outside. Where are these kids? 18:17 They're indoors on computers, on Nintendo switches, on ps, fives on whatever technology they can be 18:25 on, you know? And it's become the new babysitter. Just go use your devices. 18:32 But it's creating a really low EIQ because being outside and playing with your friends is develops that social skill 18:39 and that emotional intelligence that you need to have empathy for someone who gets hurt 18:44 or someone who bullies someone and you stand up for them, you know? But if you're not really seeing that on a day-to-day basis, 18:51 'cause you're indoors all the time, that's why we're seeing a lot of that. And they're having a lot of issues with that in schools, 18:59 you know, with these kids that have the lower EIQ. - So what would be your advice for a parent that recognizes, 19:06 well, my child clearly has a low EIQ, but I do need to have them in front of the TV every now 19:12 and again, or on their iPad or whatever the case may be. What would, what would be your advice for that parent? - I would say aside, I didn't, 19:18 and definitely, I'm not saying technology is bad because I am in tech education, right? And so I want kids to be in technology, 19:26 but I also want them to not only be in technology, right? 19:31 So having them participate in other projects in sports, in other things outside of technology. 19:39 Something that is not an individual sport, but a team sport team, sports track 19:45 and field tennis, things like that. They are the best for building character 19:52 and emotional intelligence and social skills, confidence, right? 19:57 They may not become a track star, but they become a, on a team that maybe wins a ribbon. Parent Advice & Sports Benefits 20:03 You know, if they're playing baseball, if they're playing soccer or football, outside of doing the tech stuff 20:11 gives them a better balance because they need that socialization even outside of school. 20:18 You know, I am a fan of extracurricular activity. I grew up running track 20:24 and field from the time I was 10 years old. I ran track until I went to college 20:30 and I ran, what did you run? I ran, I was a sprinter. So I ran the 400 meter and I ran the two 20 20:38 and I ran the relays. - Okay. I ran the 100 and the 200, 20:43 - Yeah, not 100. I'm not, I wasn't that kind of a sprinter, not that fast. 20:49 - I was, well, you got longevity because you did the 400 that's - Yeah, - I, mm. The two was a stretch for me. 20:56 - Yeah. And back then, you know, and I, I look at like the different, 21:03 the times now, you know, that's been, you know, 40 something years already, 21:08 but the times that they have now are not that much faster than it was when I was running, 21:15 which I think is really amazing. And my biggest mistake was that I didn't go Track and Field Life Lessons 21:24 to a university out of high school that had a track team. I went to Point Loma Nazarene College 21:31 and they didn't have a track team. And I wasn't really thinking about track. I was just thinking about, okay, I need to, I wanna go 21:37 to law school, right? And then I ended up getting married. And so all of that changed. God had a different plan. 21:45 But had I gone with my partner in crime to USC when she went to USC, we both would've ran track. 21:54 We probably both would've made it to the Olympics. 'cause we were that fast. Wow. 22:00 But it wasn't, it wasn't in my cards to do that. - It was not in your cards. And you know what, I bet there's a lot of children, 22:07 if I'm not mistaken, I heard you say 2000 in the last eight years that are probably very grateful 22:13 for the path that you took. - Yeah. I, I always think that, you know, the path I took was the right path, you know? 22:19 And everything that we do makes us who we are today, regardless of whether it was good or bad. 22:26 You know, there's always a plan and we make, you know, God has his plan and we sometimes go in a different direction, 22:34 but we will always end up where we're supposed to be. You know, it might take you longer to get there because you decided to go down the wrong road, you know? 22:43 But, but it takes us to where we need to be. And you know, I am so grateful for the University of Phoenix 22:51 for giving me the opportunity and, and the support I got throughout my whole degree path. 22:58 I had the best academic advisors there that like, just helped me all the way through. UOP Support & Dr. Lorenzo’s Journey 23:04 And they never let me give up. They always said, no, you could do it. And I was going to school and I was running my company 23:11 and trying to, you know, keep going and it just, my company kept growing. And then Lorenzo Financial grew, 23:19 and then we started Hackathon Junior and that became its own entity over here. 23:25 And I branched off a hackathon junior to I two O Academy, 23:30 which is an entrepreneur and steam academy with an apprenticeship program 23:36 for high schoolers. And so that's what we're really working on, trying to get in 23:44 different, because I truly believe that 23:50 college is not for everybody right off the bat, right? But the generation of children that we have right now, 23:58 and what's going on in the education realm is that we have a lot of children who are failing children 24:05 who don't know how to read when they get to high school. They don't know how to do math when they get to high school. 24:11 And this is happening all across the United States. And so what's happening is that by the time they get 24:17 to 10th grade and it's, they're 16, they drop out. So I Tool Academy came about 24:27 kind of as a spinoff of Hackathon Junior, after I finished my doctoral degree, I wrote a book called Get It Done, which is a guide 24:35 to entrepreneurship. And the idea of that was to teach 24:42 that to students who wanna become entrepreneurs, right? And so if you wanna become an entrepreneur 24:50 and you're in high school, but you don't really know how to do it, and your parents aren't entrepreneurs, what do we do? 24:55 You know, you might have a great idea, but you may never act on that 25:00 because you have a parent who's saying, who's gonna fund that? How are you gonna do that? You know? 25:06 And so you give up your dream of starting whatever it is that you wanna start, you know? 25:13 And so I've had some eighth graders go, I really wanna start a business, 25:18 but I'm not sure how to do it. My parents don't know what I need to do. Can you help me? 25:24 Like, yeah, you know, I'm, I'm all for that, you know? And so that's kind of how I two O Academy came about 25:32 as an entrepreneur academy that then we merged in Hackathon, junior STEM component 25:39 to teach a higher level of coding for people who maybe wanted to become programmers 25:45 or start their own gaming company or start their own IT company. 25:51 We're just setting them up for success as future leaders of the world, right? 25:57 Because if we don't, we're just gonna have all these young kids dropping outta 26:02 school or not going to college, or not really just kind of finding themselves lost. 26:08 I think a lot of them feel lost and not sure what they wanna do, - Right? 26:13 - So giving them an arena in which they can explore what would be best for them. 26:20 - Thank you for seeing the need because to your point, there's many children 26:26 and those that are growing up into being young adults that do feel stuck. I it, whether I hear it on social media 26:32 or if I hear it from a friend, or if I hear it from, you know, some young twenties that I know myself, there is a sense of loss. 26:39 We're never gonna be able to purchase a home. We're never gonna be able to, everything is more expensive and unattainable. 26:44 It's not like 20 or 30 years ago. And there is a sense of like, hopelessness. You guys are destroying our earth. You know? Giving Youth Purpose & Direction 26:51 And there's just, the more I listen to people like in their, their twenties 26:57 or 18, 19, there does seem to speak to be a lot of disparity. 27:03 And so thank you for creating something where we could possibly get the youth back, 27:09 get them excited about something. Because - Yes, - Technology is obviously the way moving forward. 27:15 - So I did my study as a quantitative study, right? Because I, I'm a statistician Generation Hopelessness & the Need for Change 27:20 and I am not, I'm a numbers person. I don't really wanna be out interviewing and looking for themes 27:26 and all of that's, that's just not me. And so he kept telling me that this other professor 27:33 that I could not do it as a quantitative study would have to be qualitative. And I'm like, no, I can do it this way. 27:40 But for his class, I shifted it. I did some research on qualitative, did it this way. 27:47 And when I got outta his class, I shifted it right back to what I was gonna do. And that's how I finished it. 27:53 Because I was not gonna allow someone to tell me how I could do my study. 27:58 I already knew. And the biggest thing I think that I found Her Quantitative Study and Academic Struggles 28:03 when I was there is that a lot of my cohort of students that I was with a lot dropped out. 28:10 And primary reason is they don't know what they wanna study. They don't know what the problem is. 28:17 And they get someone that along the way tells them that their problem is not a problem 28:23 and they don't know how to defend that it's right. And so a lot of my classmates in third year dropped out 28:31 and I'm like, how are you dropping out? At the very end? I told, I was told I had to start over. 28:38 No, tell them no, you know, and they just get frustrated, you know. But the one thing I have 28:45 to say about the UOP doctoral program is probably the best program design 28:54 because other universities, they give you all the classes and then you have to go off on your own 29:00 and write your dissertation. It is really hard to write your lit review 29:05 with no support, right? I mean, it's like you're looking at 40 pages 29:11 of literature review, thousands of articles and books that you gotta read to find 29:16 what is gonna fit in there. And without anyone telling you, Hey, maybe you're going in the wrong direction here, 29:22 or maybe you need to look at this. - Dr. Rose, we appreciate you. University of Phoenix is so proud to have you as an alum. Closing Reflections 29:29 Thank you for joining us here on the Degrees of Success podcast. And somehow that brings us to the end, which is so hard 29:37 to say because I know there's so much more knowledge. So there may need to be a part two with Dr. Rose. But thank you so much for joining us 29:44 and for making it here to the end of this Degrees of Success podcast episode. 29:51 I'm your host, Frida Richards, reminding you that your next chapter just might be the best one yet. 29:56 See you soon.