Andrew Alcala is the first person he ever knew to earn an Ph.D. degree. Now, he’s the first person ever to complete the Doctor of Global Leadership Program at Troy University.
“A couple of months after I finished the master’s program at TROY, the Global Leadership program had just been announced, and I decided to just enroll in it. I knew I really didn’t know what I was getting into, but I was determined to rise to the challenge,” he said. “I enjoyed it a lot and I definitely learned a lot, and I enjoyed the research process. I’m very glad I did it.”
The former Marine artillery officer majored in international studies at Georgia State, then tripped into the Trojan Nation for a master’s in international relations through support from TROY’s Atlanta Site.
“Jumping from master’s to Ph.D. was basically all my decision. No one knew about it, so no one really encouraged me to do it. I just took it on myself to do it,” he said.
Soon however, Alcala said he learned that encouragement from a mentor was a positive plus. He was teamed with former Senior Vice Chancellor for Student Services Dr. John Dew, who would ultimately become his dissertation chair.
“Dr. Dew was very helpful. He was very encouraging when things got tough and some unforeseen obstacles got in my way,” Alcala said. “He just encouraged me to keep going, so I’m very thankful for Dr. Dew.”
Housed in the College of Education, the Global Leadership Program is a one-of-a-kind, fully online Ph.D. program aimed at preparing leaders in business, organizations, education and government institutions. The 63-hour program includes specializations in organizational leadership, higher education leadership, instructional leadership and administration, public administration or strategic communication.
“Coming out of the military, I would say that if you were successful there, you can be successful in the civilian world,” Alcala said. “You’ve already learned about perseverance and overcoming difficult things, so as long as you don’t give up, you will succeed.”
That’s exactly what he would tell any students coming into the Ph.D. program: “Don’t give up and you will succeed.”
Now a two-time TROY graduate, Alcala was treated to a special doctoral commencement ceremony in late June with Chancellor Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr., due to his new job interfering with commencement exercises at Trojan Arena. Dr. Alcala has joined the U.S. Department of State as a foreign service officer and was expected to be posted somewhere in Africa by July 28.
The trip marked only his second visit to the Troy Campus. In the future, he hopes to be closer to University activities.
“For a lot of my time in this Ph.D. program, I was overseas or living in another state, so I haven’t gotten a lot of time to come to Troy. So, in the future, I would like to get more involved in alumni affairs and spend more time supporting TROY activities,” he said.
