SHREVEPORT – Family counseling.
That’s the advice that married couple Bryce and Kimberly Pringle received when they decided to work on a combined dissertation in LSUS’s doctorate in leadership studies.
Fear not – the Pringles are both Colonels in the United States Army who worked in the same command recently and navigated full careers as active-duty officers while raising a family together.
And if that wasn’t enough, Bryce surely could put his concentration in disaster preparedness and emergency management to good use, right?
“(LSUS faculty member Dr. Stephanie McConnell) did say she offers family counseling when she heard we were doing that, but it worked out for us,” Bryce said. “We have our different personalities, and that comes into play whether you’re doing a dissertation with a family member or not.
“We may not have agreed on everything, but we agreed to finish this thing together. It helped having your spouse in the room, working through the problems. The biggest thing was when we had issues or things we needed to change, we came together to get to a common goal.”
The duo completed their dissertation “Empowering Student Success Through Transformational Academic Advising: The Role of Perceived Social Support in Student Engagement, Satisfaction and Persistence.”
The couple obtained their doctoral degrees in May, about 30 months after they began the accelerated online program.
Kimberly said when she learned you could partner with a classmate to do a dissertation, picking Bryce was a “no brainer.”
“It’s resilience – we showed that we can take a licking but keep on ticking,” said Kimberly, who completed a leadership studies concentration. “It was challenging, and there were disagreements – we just have different ways of working and doing things.
“But I knew in the end, we were going to both work toward the same goal and wouldn’t be deterred from that. And if we got upset with each other, unlike with a different partner where you might fall out and not recover, I knew we’d recover and be OK.”
And if that wouldn’t have worked, Kimberly “controls what happens in the Pringle household.”
SUPPORTIVE LEARNING COMMUNITY
As tightly knit as the Pringle household is, both Pringles say the bonds formed within their cohorts were key to their educational experience in the accelerated online doctoral program.
With Bryce and Kimberly taking different concentrations within the program, students start by taking classes just within their concentration before joining other concentrations in shared classes.
The weekly Zoom interactions provided for lively discussion on topics ranging from gender and culture to civil unrest and social group dynamics.
“We both formed relationships within our groups – Bryce was even part of a group that called itself ‘The Fab Five,’” Kimberly said. “They had a clique, and we had a clique, so that made for some healthy banter.
“Our group kept it comical. To be honest with you, we had our core nucleus in the house, but being part of the larger group made it doable.”
Because of the initial separation, the Pringles think other students and professors didn’t know they were married until about a year into the program.
One cohort member discovered that fact in a humorous way.
The Pringles are stationed in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, and one of Kimberly’s male student counterparts messaged her in the cohort’s GroupMe to make sure she was OK during the 2023 Maui wildfires.
“I put a map of the Hawaiian islands, showed him where Maui was, showed him that Team Pringle is on Oahu, and said ‘We good,’” Bryce said through a smile. “The GroupMe was silent for two or three days.”
Kimberly added, “I told them my husband is crazy.”
The bonds strengthened throughout the program, and multiple “Fab Five” members were present in Washington D.C. at Bryce’s military retirement party on Aug. 1 after 30 years of service.
Bryce retired from his post as the chief planning officer for the 8th Theater Sustainment Command, a logistics role that coordinates the movement of people and goods among other duties.
With Kimberly’s position in human resources, they would cross professional paths occasionally before serving on the same command from 2019-21.
“It wasn’t a big leap to work together in the doctoral program because we’ve been on the same staff,” Kimberly said. “Bryce was already in the command when the Army chose me for an HR position in that command – just happened that way.
“He was a Colonel, and I was a Lieutenant Colonel at the time, so I had to call him sir. I figured if we could make through that at work, we could make it through the doctoral program.”
WHY A DOCTORAL DEGREE?
Neither Colonel needed a doctoral degree for their military careers, but the pair is thinking beyond the uniform.
Kimberly participated in an Army Fellowship at the University of Louisville teaching a leadership course and being “engulfed in the higher education experience” there.
“I was teaching an asynchronous course online, and I also audited some asynchronous courses, and I knew that I didn’t want to take a doctoral program that was asynchronous,” Kimberly said. “LSUS offered weekly interface with instructors and cohort members, so that drew me to the program.”
The accelerated nature of the program was another sticking point as Kimberly wanted to finish her degree before her next assignment.
Once Kimberly applied and was accepted, Bryce realized he could finish before his scheduled retirement date, therefore opening more doors post military.
“My motivation to do it was her, and once she applied and was accepted, I thought I should do an interview, too,” Bryce said. “Being a dual military family helped because of the rigors we’ve experienced through work and deployments, having to be away from family. That kind of set the stage for us going into the doctoral program.”
Kimberly added, “For me, it’s easier that we both were doing the program because we had the same focus and same priorities.”
Instead of date nights in an elegant setting with the lights low, the Pringles chose which takeout place would sustain them through their mountains of academic articles that weekend.
Team Pringle has been steeped in the ideas of military leadership their entire careers, but both said learning from different perspectives broadened their leadership ideas and styles.
“The program brought in our perspectives as military leaders, but it also expanded our ideas of leadership because we know leadership in a more authoritative, hierarchical way and role,” Kimberly said. “There’s certain authority inherent to your rank.
“In the cohort, there were people who were everything from school superintendents to healthcare leaders – lots of diverse perspectives. It made us more well-rounded leaders and better prepared us to use those skills in the military but also outside of the military.”
Bryce’s original post military plan included a track with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but federal budget cuts could impact that path.
“Team Pringle” will be stationed in Hawaii until at least 2026, when Kimberly can decide to accept another military role or retire and move into higher education.
But one member of the Pringle family will get an in-person Louisiana experience.
Daughter Destini McVey will be attending LSU Baton Rouge to pursue a psychology degree with a concentration in cognitive neuroscience with plans to be a psychiatrist. Victoria, who is 15, will also have her college choice ahead of her.
“Being in a dual military house with both parents getting their (doctorate degrees), there’s no excuse not to do my work and get on it, so they definitely motivated me,” Destini said. “I didn’t know about LSU until my parents were affiliated with LSUS, but it made me want to check it out.”
The cohort community activated to help Destini move into her LSU digs later this month.
“One cohort member lives on the outskirts of Baton Rouge, and all the stuff we’re ordering for our daughter’s room – we had it sent to her house,” Kimberly said. “Another cohort member works at LSU, and he’s going to be ‘Uncle Brandon.’
“Our daughter will feel the same sense of community we felt.”
