Celebrating Doctoral Candidates with WCU’s Inaugural Three-Minute Thesis Competition
WCU’s Graduate School has partnered with the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for the inaugural Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, an international initiative
hosted in the United States and Canada by the Council of Graduate Schools. As a pilot,
this year’s competition on March 24 was open only to WCU doctoral students, who presented
their dissertation, thesis, or final project in three minutes in terms understandable
by a non-specialist audience.
Overall winner Janelle Harding, a senior improvement advisor for Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, will complete her doctor of nursing practice at WCU in May. Her work involves advancing healthcare quality and partnering with healthcare leaders to improve healthcare processes and patient outcomes, which was the subject of her final project, “When Seconds Matter: Redesigning Sepsis Care.”
“I currently assist in improvement efforts within the sepsis program at my organization,” Harding explained after the competition, “and [Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health was] at a point to review our sepsis order sets that drive our sepsis care in a fast and efficient way. There was also a recent move for a CMS sepsis care measure to be included into one of their programs that now tied a financial risk to performance, so our sepsis group felt it even more essential to review and optimize our sepsis order sets to produce the highest rate of consistency of sepsis care. My final project was to evaluate the statistical and clinical significance of this optimization to share the imperative nature of the design of care processes to match clinical workflows.”
Harding entered the 3MT competition “for the enjoyment and fun nature it proposed,” she said. “I also felt it was important practice to deliver my ‘elevator speech’ of my project since oftentimes we have minimal time or opportunity to share our work. This was also a great event to be able to bring doctoral-level work to the community.”
Second place in WCU’s inaugural 3MT competition went to Grant Butler, a doctor of education candidate, for “The Role of Growth Mindset as a Mitigating Factor in Teacher Burnout in the Secondary Math Classroom.” Third place was won by Becky Eckburg, a doctor of education candidate, for “Factors that Impact Teacher Self-Efficacy.”
Dr. Marci Major, professor and chair of the WCU Music Education and Music Therapy Department and faculty associate to the Graduate School Dean, noted, “It was inspiring to see our graduate students step into this space with such confidence, creativity, and purpose. The energy around this first Three-Minute Thesis event was remarkable, and we’re already looking forward to growing it so that even more students can share their work and voices in the future.
“The Three-Minute Thesis reminded us what’s possible when graduate research is made visible, accessible, and engaging,” continued Dr. Major. “This first event is just the beginning. We’re eager to expand participation and continue creating spaces where more of our students can share the impact of their work.”
The next round of 3MT competition is a virtual regional event on April 22 hosted by Concordia University. Recordings by Harding and other finalists are currently under review and she hopes to be notified shortly if she is chosen to participate in the regionals.
The Three-Minute Thesis competition was developed by Australia’s University of Queensland.