Robert Forto

robertforto

Week 1 of 130: The Start of my Doctoral Journey (BMAL 700)

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Doctorate of Strategic Leadership program Robert Forto

Hello and welcome!

If you are new here thank you for checking out my blog. A quick bio:

My name is Robert Forto and I live in the wilds of Alaska with a pack of 38 sled dogs. I own and operate a dog training company where we train dogs from all over the country for service and therapy work. I am also on adjunct faculty at the University of Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University where I teach outdoor leadership classes.

In May of 2020, I finished my Master of Sports Management here at Liberty University and for my internship, I planned and executed a 700-mile expedition across the state of Alaska with 13 people by dog team and snow machine that re-traced the 1925 Serum Run.

Mid-life in college and doctorate program journey! Click To Tweet

Each summer, my wife, Michele, who is also a master’s degree student at Liberty,  and I travel to the Lower 48 and do what we call the Rock n Roller Tour where we go to music festivals and ride roller coasters.

I am pursuing a doctorate of strategic leadership for the challenge more than anything. Being self-employed and at (currently) 50 years old, I do not need this degree for career advancement but I am always looking for ways to continue to learn. Who knows, as I progress through the program I may find a higher calling.

My expectations are to be challenged and to learn and hopefully teach an old dog a new trick or two. Having been self-employed my entire life I have always been my own boss, manager, and decision-maker. I need to challenge myself with new ideas and processes to take my business to the next level. I look forward to connecting with each of you and wish you well in your studies.

My research interests include: Using expedition leadership as a model in the corporate environment and hope to use this for my applied research project in this program. Other project ideas are strategic management of small family-run firms, and experiential learning for team building in a small firm. Also, I just recently partnered up with a SCUBA instructor to do a study on safety protocol for recreational diving. This project suits my interests in sports management as the recreational SCUBA diving industry has little to no safety protocols after a person is certified as a diver, which you only have to do once in your life. This is much needed in the industry.

The pic above is my team of sled dogs and me on a run around the block, as I call it. We have several hundred miles right outside our back door and it is my slice of utopia.

One important fact, before we go much further together. I am far from religious and my choice to attend Liberty was for the program, not necessarily a Christian worldview. While I am faithful I am not one that you will find in a church every Sunday. I grew up in a family where we attended church for weddings and funerals and that is about it.

The truth of the matter is, I struggle to find ways to incorporate scripture and biblical research in my academic work, and do you know what? That is okay. I am perfectly fine with it.

I bet you struggle at times too.

I am far from perfect and I have had my share of bumps along the way. I have learned from my mistakes and hope that I am a better man, father, community leader, and academic because of it.

All that being said, I am glad that you are here.

 

via GIPHY

UPDATE November 2022:

This is actually an updated post that I am writing at Week 78 of my doctorate program at Liberty University.

Over the last two years, I have taken eight classes: BMAL 700, 702, 703, 704, 710, 714, 716, 727 and wanted to do an update since a lot of people have been asking for a way to search my site for particular classes and/or topics. I am in the process of updating each post and eventually, this will be a great place to find and share resources for my peers in the Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) program.

I want to give a huge shoutout to all of my peers that have been reading my posts as they navigate through this DSL journey.

You are right, there are not a lot of resources out there.

While this blog is by no means a complete source, my hope is that fellow scholars can see my papers and maybe get a takeaway or two.

My goal has always been to upload my research papers and projects from the program as PDFs so that other scholars in the program can see what is expected. I don’t always get full points, but at 50 years old, I learned long ago that there is no reason to strive for perfection in everything you do. Concentrate on what matters and everything will work out in the end.

If you like what you read, please comment and share with your friends. If you have advice or resources you would like to share, please do that as well.

Oh, if you are on Twitter, I highly encourage you to follow the hashtags, #AcademicChatter and #AcademicTwitter both are great threads with advice, motivation, and a very supportive community and if you wouldn’t mind, give me a follow at @robertforto and send me a tweet letting me know you found my blog helpful!

Also, my wife Michele is getting deep into her Master’s program as well and is almost halfway done! Please do me a favor and follow her over on LinkedIn.

One last thing… If you like what you are reading and want to show your support, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon or clicking on any of the ads that you see on the page. This goodwill gesture is not to become rich, I wish, but a show of encouragement.

Hope to connect with you along the way, and please reach out if you have any questions!

Week 78 of 186 (BMAL720)

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Week 76 and 77 of approximately 186 are in the books in my doctorate program.

It is the second week of BMAL 720 and cruising right along. After some very constructive feedback on my first paper from the professor, I didn’t lose any points on the second one. The second paper is an analysis of business analytics in a corporation. It has to have a faith component but I found it very enjoyable to research. This is right in my wheelhouse.

I want to give a huge shoutout to all of my peers that have been reading my posts as they navigate through this DSL journey.

You are right, there are not a lot of resources out there.

While this blog is by no means a complete source, my hope is that fellow scholars can see my papers and maybe get a takeaway or two.

If you like what you read, please comment and share with your friends. If you have advice or resources you would like to share, please do that as well.

Oh, if you are on Twitter, I highly encourage you to follow the hashtags, #AcademicChatter and #AcademicTwitter both are great threads with advice, motivation, and a very supportive community and if you wouldn’t mind, give me a follow at @robertforto and send me a tweet letting me know you found my blog helpful!

Also, my wife Michele is getting deep into her Master’s program as well and is almost halfway done! Please do me a favor and follow her over on LinkedIn.

Score: 50/50

To read the paper:

Forto, R., 720 Paper 2 final

Here is a great graphic of what the purpose of a literature review is:

 

Weeks 76 and 77 of 186 (BMAL720)

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Week 76 and 77 of approximately 186 are in the books in my doctorate program.

A new week, a new term. I started BMAL720 this week and it looks like it will be a lot of writing. Already this week it is a heavy discussion board post and a 4-6 page on incorporating wisdom into corporate data analysis Should be interesting.

I usually don’t put off writing papers until Sundays but this week was tough. On Saturday night we had a big windstorm at the house and knocked out the power for over 24 hours. I woke up early Sunday morning and headed to Starbucks 45 minutes away to write.

I do my best writing at Starbucks, by the way, and almost every paper of my master’s program was done there. It was tough during the early days of the pandemic when everything was closed.

On this visit, I was the only one sitting in the chairs. I put Godsmack on the Bose and rocked out. Four hours later, my paper was done and I came home to the electricity still being out!

The professor added a bunch of great resources, that I guess I should have started using long ago but, every little bit helps.

The final grade in BMAL727: A

Also, Michele is getting deep into her Master’s program as well and is almost halfway done! Please do me a favor and follow her over on LinkedIn.

Score: 43/50

To read the paper:

Forto, R., 720 Faith Paper 1

Also here is a great source explaining the differences between a research paper and a review paper:

 

Witches Blood

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This Halloween cocktail is perfect for whipping up in a big batch for a crowd. An easy-to-make cocktail that mixes vodka, whiskey and lemon together to create a twist on a whisky sour recipe, but with the added sweetness of cherry. Serve a pitcher of this at your Halloween party, or add it to a punch bowl with some plastic spiders floating in it for a simple creepy effect. Or serve in a sugar-rimmed martini glass for a dramatically spooky sip. The possibilities are frightening!

Ingredients

To make a smaller quantity use the slider above to reduce the quantities

  • ½ cup cherry schnapps
  • ½ cup vodka – see note 1
  • 1 cup whiskey
  • ⅓ cup fresh lemon juice
  • 4 cups cherry soda – see note 2

Instructions

  • Pour the cherry schnapps, vodka, whisky and lemon juice into a pitcher.
  • Stir well with a cup of ice.
  • Gently pour in the cherry soda and stir carefully to combine.

To serve:

  • Either pour into a punch bowl for guests to help themselves or serve in sugar-rimmed glasses with a spooky spider garnish. (see note 3)

Notes

  1. If you can find black vodka it would be great here, it makes the color much more dramatic. You could add a drop of black food coloring to normal vodka if you want the darker color. (see post for pictures)
  2. The darker your cherry soda the darker your cocktail will be. I bought a black cherry soda for these photos.
  3. How to sugar rim a glass:
    • Squeeze some lemon juice into a saucer
    • OPTIONAL STAGE: Add some food coloring, be generous you want the color to be quite intense.
    • Mix it with a cocktail stick.
    • Dip the glass into the saucer.
    • Dip the coated glass into a saucer of fine sugar.
    • The food coloring will seep into the sugar giving it an colored hue.

Witches Brew

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Ingredients

To rim the glass

  • 1 fresh lime
  • 3 drops purple food coloring
  • 1 tablespoon sugar

For the cocktail

  • ½ cup vodka
  • ⅓ cup lime juice (see note 1)
  • ¼ cup raspberry liqueur

Instructions

  • Start by preparing the shot glasses.
  • Cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice together into a saucer.
  • Add the purple food coloring and mix with a cocktail stick.
  • Place the sugar in a second saucer.
  • Dip the shot glasses into the lime juice and then into the sugar.
  • Set to one side.
  • Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Add the ice.
  • Shake well.
  • Strain into the prepared shot glass.

Notes

  1. To turn this shooter into a long drink replace the ⅓ cup lime juice with 1 cup of citrus soda and serve in a highball with crushed ice.

The nutritional information is based on the cocktail without the sugar rim.