Great Falls teen earns Doctorate degree

https://www.krtv.com/news/great-falls-news/great-falls-teen-earns-doctorate-degree

"Meet Dr. Kimberly Strable. On Thursday morning, at just 17 years old, this Great Falls teen successfully presented her dissertation defense virtually to receive her Doctorate in Business Administration with an emphasis in Global Leadership from California Intercontinental University."

A Google search shows she's home-schooled, looks like it paid off! I do worry about the age discrimination, being 17 with a doctorate and employers assuming that you're falsifying your credentials. I'm really interested to read her thesis but unfortunately she doesn't have any kind of web presence.

 

That's quite an accomplishment!

 

Big whoop. The first thing one learns about CIU is that it is a "for profit online university." In my book, that makes it a joke. Yes, you turkeys, despite DEAC accreditation (about which I have never thought highly), I say that about all for-profit online so-called universities. Before I went into higher education, I was a corporate personnel type, and Kimberly's résumé would have gone right into the trash. (I do find it interesting that the article gave no coverage to her bachelor's or master's degrees. If, of course, she holds any.) Not to mention that, other than this article, there is nothing significant about her in a Google search. I expect everyone who holds a doctorate to have some Internet presence.

Kim would likely then sue me, since she already appears to be doing that, despite my rejection of her qualification having nothing to do with her age:

"Right now I'm actually working on some legal battles, discrimination I faced because of my age. So that's a really interesting part and I've actually applied some of my knowledge and I'm working on that. But after all that wraps up, I plan on trying to get into executive management,” she Strable.​

(". . . she Strable?" The author of that article is a grammatical slob.)

Moreover, if you look at Kim's video, you will find that she is a bit heavy on the "um's" and "you know's." And that she does not appear to have any significant corporate experience, which will hinder her executive management goal on its own. And it is unlikely that she knows that many managers will not hire her with any doctorate - managers tend not to hire those with higher credentials than they have.

As for CIU, I again submit that it's a joke of a school. Look at the faculty listings - the mere absence of where its alleged faculty received their own degrees is downright sleazy. And while they seem to have a lot of "professors," I see no assistant or associate professors.

Yes, I know . . . I'm an academic snob. But I've never been crapped on because I "attended" a for profit online university." And that's why I can laugh at those who did - regardless of their age. Or, for that matter, regardless of their gender, race, religion, gender identity, country of origin, disability, or any other quality. I just can't help it that I am great and they are losers. It's just a fact of life, I guess. Um, like, you know?

 

Of course not. All online universities you attended, accredited or not, were non-for-profit. Just like Keiser or the late Argosy.



Steve-bashing aside, I feel that a practitioner-doctorate is meant to build upon someone's extensive professional experience. At 17, you better off chasing Eagle Scout than a DBA. It might have been different if the PhD was in arts or sciences and from a research institution. This one? Um, okay, she gets the title "Dr.", but what else?

 

https://caluniversity.edu/pdf/Academic Catalog - T2 2021 - Final.pdf

The 2020-2021 calendar does list where they achieved their doctorate, I'm not sure which part of the website you were looking at. You'll scoff at the schools listed (90% Capella/Walden/NCU/Phoenix), but it's there.

 

My thought was more around how much support she had. Can she independently do a lit review? Can she write at a scholarly level or get published? Having a coach is one thing, but if your parents push you along so much that it's no longer considered independent work, then it raises issues.

 

Quite right - the list I read is the one at California Intercontinental University | CIU Faculty Team (caluniversity.edu).

You're also correct in the notion of my scoffing - if I saw a faculty list with the percentage of the schools you cited, I'd write them off as a joke based on that alone.

 

This article notes "So how did she do it? Well, she was homeschooled her whole life, so the pacing was up to her. Then she graduated high school at 12, graduated college at 15, and on Thursday completed her dissertation and now holds a Doctorate in Business Administration with an emphasis on Global Leadership." https://www.montanarightnow.com/great-falls/introducing-dr-kimberly-strable-a-17-year-old-from-great-falls/article_98fa55a4-88f2-11eb-a67c-1fd2b009aa45.html?fbclid=IwAR3v8fOIpeJxe15h9HWtQ1XW_TjTrv8BWnzmhXtNQzAk5NU2RY2AYzZxDuo

So she likely earned a Bachelor's and then straight into the DBA.

 

https://dli.mt.gov/Portals/57/OAHDecisions/poldec2018_2010.pdf

Looks like her dad had some trouble with the Board of Real Estate Appraisers. In one notable quote describing extensive professional development he undertook, "The hearing officer finds this some of the most self-serving and misleading testimony he has ever heard."

Yikes.

 

I hope she never sees some of the posts in this thread, smh. Good lord.

 

If she did, all she would need to do is read ever so slightly into how people react to those who cannot stand the success of others. Once she realizes that we barely tolerate those people, she won't be so bothered

It's quite an accomplishment for her to have a DBA by the age of 17, though I agree that this is unlikely to help her in any significant way unless she knows how to really woo people. Then again, some small company might just hire her as a position that looks good on her CV to capitalize on the publicity in the local area.

For anyone who scoffs, did any of you have a doctorate by the age of 17 that was from a legitimate, accredited university anywhere?

 

It won't help her yet because she has to gain experience in the business world. But once she has that behind her she will do fine.

 

I hope she does - for her sake. So she can realize that her doctorate is from a mickey mouse school (a category I use for all for-profit online so-called universities) and that she has a long road ahead of her if she wants to be successful. She can also realize that her father appears to be sleazier than either she or her school are. And while she is preoccupied with suing people, she will perhaps start to learn how to act like a doctor. Earning a DEAC-accredited doctorate a mere two years after her bachelor's degree? (Stanislav should have a blast with that.) Between Kim and her family, I'd say that no one did their due dilligence, and they got snockered by a school that is mediocre at best.

So, what's the bigger joke - Kim, or her doctoral alma mater? Never mind - that was a rhetorical question. As for the "smh," Kim has joined the big leagues, whether she deserves it or not. If she can't handle constructive criticism, she shouldn't have a doctorate. (Not that I'm even impressed with a D.B.A. They've essentially become a cash cow for all schools, not just for-profit online jokes.)

And she still needs to improve her public speaking skills. Um, like, you know . . .

 

Usually employers do not know your age. They can assume in some cases but only certain types of job will explicitly require your date of birth to determine your eligibility for employment, e.g., law enforcement, armed forces, and so on.

 

Good point. Because I dropped out of school at 18 and didn't go back until I was almost 22, my professional resume starts later than it does for my high school classmates. Sometimes people would try to work backwards from graduation and arrive at my age but they'd always under-estimate by a few years. Luckily I now have a decade of experience on my resume so my age is no longer an issue.

 

Maybe for the business world she will have to gain experience. However, most professor jobs don't require non-teaching work experience, except for community colleges and other career-focused schools. The only issue is that she doesn't have an RA doctorate and prob cannot compete at major private and public universities. Still, networking is everything.

 

To start, she could begin consulting on homeschooling, fast degree completion and thesis writing for gifted kids. I think wealthy parents with wealthy kids would pay top dollar for that lived-experience advice.

Depending on her thesis topic she might also look into consulting. If she wrote a thesis on supply chain management, what did she learn that companies would pay for? Maybe she performs company evaluations/research? Etc.

 

Good for her. I tell my young sons now and then to not be TOO concerned about what I think, and to concern themselves even less with what some random, irrelevant **** thinks.

- That doesn't mean they should not seek wise counsel or ignore the advice of relevant people.

 

She earned her BBA from Montana State University-Northern where she made the Deans List, 2016-2019.

 

That would be quite some company. One would hope for a very extensive period of really incredible (and valuable) publicity to incentivise hiring her.

One of the downsides to homeschooling is that it tends to prioritise academic achievement first and foremost, failing to observe that much of the learning in formal schooling is learning how to work with others (besides your mother). These 'others' at any given school will be of all leanings and personality types. Many of these personalities will be fundamentally unappealing to you, and knowing how to be productive with these people is a learned skill that takes years.
Few employers are keen to pay you while you figure out a fairly basic skill that other applicants come to the table already having. Least of all small business owners looking to hire a 17 year old with no work experience, but a doctorate in Leadership (who are these people again???).

I've no doubt she's clever and a hard worker. But I'd be hesitant to employ her in any situation requiring teamwork and cooperation, or one where she had to tolerate and accept conditions not to her liking.

I wish I could speak differently about homeschooled individuals. As a general rule, they have an admirable enthusiasm for learning, can be (in the right circumstances) very self-driven, and (in very specific circumstances) able to problem-solve with minimal interference.
However, I've yet to come across many homeschooled individuals who didn't have very serious deficits in teamwork abilities.
Perhaps for managers in very profit-driven industries where staff are dispensable and easily replaced, this might not be an issue. I wouldn't like to work in any of those environments myself.

I suspect she would do okay (both for herself and for the organisation) in an academic environment, purely research based, similar to her homeschooled environment. I wouldn't like to vouch for any context beyond that which is customised and catered entirely towards her own individual needs, however.