Micki: “As a professional who has worked in the university domain for 17 years, it is evident that the learning outcomes have emerged over the many years of Meridian University’s existence.”

“Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny.”

–Gandhi

My family of origin, while well-read and traveled, did not have access to education past primary school. Therefore, there was no aspiration or expectation that I would obtain a formal education.

However, I knew myself to be a learner, and the calling to pursue education though for many years elusive, grew with the passing years. In my early forties, after working in the non-profit sector, I received a master's degree in organizational leadership and training at Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Shortly after completing my master’s degree, I took a position as faculty at Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. For the next 11 years, I appreciated working in higher education, yet the unquenchable feeling of being adrift was ever-present.

I endlessly took workshops and courses, looking for chances of advancement out of a current role–an underlying malaise that penetrated my professional and personal life. It was not until I entered Meridian University that this unsettled and discontented condition and previous insatiable restlessness ceased.

Meridian University’s entire selection of concentrated courses and the opportunities for relational engagement with classmates and esteemed faculty were extraordinary. The curriculum at Meridian University, woven into its culture, created a nourishing learning environment. As a professional who has worked in the university domain for 17 years, it is evident that the learning outcomes have emerged over the many years of Meridian University’s existence. As a learner and professional in higher education, I could see how each assignment and activity offered an opening to develop both my conscious and unconscious worldview that had shaped extant biases. In my EdD in the organizational leadership program, I had to confront my prejudices, beliefs, and ability to be relational.

The substantive dimension of the curriculum invited me to face myself. I encountered resistance and questioned my and others’ perspectives. I also began to understand and have language for what had always been present and persistent, a search for a soul-level transformation. At the end of the second year, I experienced feeling disoriented and the unfastening of what I had previously thought and held as a certainty; what I knew to be the right way to conduct and live one’s life. This was difficult work for me. Facing myself, my world views, bias, fixed view of identity, and social and emotional constructs. No longer could I deny there were capabilities I needed to develop to create a life of purpose and meaning. Indeed, moving through this challenging stage, the theory and practices of Transformative Learning helped me to hold and be changed by others’ viewpoints and to take risks in my learning. The formerly generationally locked caged door has permanently been unshackled. Meridian University’s beautifully weaved coursework and activities leading to the writing of my dissertation were a journey of discovery, development, and newfound freedom to explore, to see beyond what I had accepted as fated.

It is an honour to be an alumnus of Meridian University. Dr. Aftab Omer is a beacon of knowledge, courage, and integrity. Aftab and his life’s work, innate wisdom, and regard for individuality and sovereignty: each student, myself, feeling genuinely seen, is awe-inspiring. As an EdD student, his teachings and experience related to the soul within an organizational context are applaudable. They have exponentially assisted me in my current work as a cultural leader in higher education. Dr. Melissa Schwartz must also be mentioned; her brilliance and dynamic teaching–her ability to meet people where they are and to demonstrate equality of kindness, vulnerability, flexibility, and adherence and value of practices to a high standard of education are remarkable. Each teaching faculty in my program were scholars with broad experiences, expertise, and teaching capabilities. 

Meridian University was just what I needed and longed to experience. My capacity to participate in conversations regarding the complexity of the conditions of individuals and the global and local ecology significant to my work in higher education is now honed with more compassion, inclusivity, and capability than previously imagined. I feel enormously satisfied and grateful to be an alumnus of Meridian University.

With appreciation, 

Micki McCartney, EdD
Meridian University Alumni