For my friends in the lower 48 states. This is what midnight looks like on the summer solstice in Alaska. Here versus the lower 48 in darkness. The dot is Denali National Park, home to the tallest peak in North America and just a few hours north of Anchorage.
alaska
Week 1 of 130: The Start of my Doctoral Journey (BMAL 700)
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.
At 5 this kid wanted to be a doctor. Now 50 he’s earning a #doctorate in #leadership ! Share your old school photos. #AcademicChatter #midlifeincollege pic.twitter.com/qSf8qp133X
— Robert Forto (@robertforto) November 9, 2021
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 TweetEach 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.
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!
Midlife Crisis: Big Changes
A lot of men make a change or two when they reach the half way mark in the journey we call life. Some buy red sports cars and pursue online dating services for the younger gal. Others all the sudden start saving for retirement that they have neglected to think about for the first twenty years of their working lives, that is if they have a decent job and are not wearing a headset at a fast food joint wearing a polyester pull over.
For me it was time to get into shape and get healthy. A good mushing friend told me a couple years ago that a dog team will move much faster down the trail if they are carrying much less weight. Of course that was coming from a guy that weighed a buck fifty in all of his winter gear.
This spring I started to take things seriously. I have never had a health problem accept for a nasty allergy fit or two every week in the summer. My heart ticks good. My cholesterol is in check even though I hate oatmeal, and my blood pressure only is high when I watch stupid reality TV shows about Alaska.
We re-up’d our membership at a health club in town, one that will make you about a hundred bucks poorer each month, and I started going three nights a week. I started off pretty slow, mainly concentrating on cardio. There is no need for huge muscles where I am going and I’m pretty strong when it comes to lifting what needs lifted.
My goal was to finish a triathlon this summer. But before that my daughter and I competed in the Mud Factor event in Anchorage. It was a 5K with a mud pit or two and a bunch of obstacles. It was a blast.
The first triathlon was the Why-Not-Tri in Wasilla the second week of June. They call them sprint triathlons but for my first one it felt a lot longer than a sprint! We had to swim 900 meters in the pool (up and back eight times), a 10K bike ride and a 5K run. I finished ninth in my age group. Not bad but I was not prepared for the swim at all. I should have warmed up, but me being me, I didn’t and I had a cramp the first lap.
The second triathlon started on June 26th. It was called the Midnight Sun Lazyman’s Triathlon. This is the one that I actually turned the corner in my fitness goals and probably the biggest reason for the changes that come forward of my mid-life crisis. In this event we had to record (on the honor system) that we swim 2.2 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles. I have never cheated at anything and I meticulously recorded every step using my Ambit 2 watch.
Over the next six weeks I was at the gym or on the trails at least four days a week. I became a monster in making sure I reached this goal. I did and went over in every category by several miles. All for a t-shirt and medal.
Until right up to fall training with the sled dogs I will be competing (to me that means finishing) several more of these t-shirt events including a 5k run in Wasilla and then driving six hours to Soldotna to compete in another triathlon the next morning in September.
But all of this is not the biggest change in my mid life crisis life.
In May I decided I was going to stay on the trend of fitness and I enrolled in college (again!). I decided to enroll in a bachelors of science in physical education with a focus in outdoor leadership. Why may you say? I don’t know. Just because? No, I’ll show you, keep reading…
Over the coming weeks I immersed myself in becoming a college student again. I filled out paperwork for financial aid, took placement tests and had my previous college transcripts sent to U.A.A. To my dismay, only two of my courses counted toward the core classes and I have about 40 credits that are worthless but are showing up as electives. The reason? Most of my credits were on the quarter system versus the semester system at U.A.A. No problem, who remembers college algebra from 20 years ago anyhow?
In June I found out that almost all of my educational funding will come by way of the Pell Grant, which means I don’t have to pay it back! I guess there was a reason I paid my way through college the first time working the night shift at 7-11.
In less that three weeks I will be back on a college campus. Most with people half my age. Well, not really, most of my classes are online. I didn’t have that option in the 90s.
How is all of this related to fitness? Well, it is a physical fitness degree, hello! No, really, many of the courses require four season back packing, sea kayaking, ice climbing, swim tests and more. The end goal, in less than four years, for me to get a job teaching. What for? To save up for retirement like that guy I talked about in paragraph one.
So to come full circle: one has to be in good physical shape in order to work in a tough career for more than the next twenty five years (I will be 67 at that time) so that I can have enough in retirement so that Michele and I can rent and RV to that condo on the beach.
See its not a crisis at all. It is a well thought out plan with an end goal in mind. Isn’t that what life is all about anyhow?
Gotta run, I have a cord of wood that needs stacked and its not getting done by itself…
The Dog Days of Summer
Here in the land of the midnight sun, the mosquitos are out and the dogs are enjoying their vacation. They spend their days lounging around in the barking lot and wishing for the colder days when training will start again. We are truly in the dog days of summer here at Team Ineka.
That does not mean that nothing is happening, the mushers are busy running triathlons, working their summer jobs, fishing for salmon that they will use for trail snacks and backyard BBQ’s, plenty of chores to be had, dog houses to build and kennels and fencing to be installed, bees to attended too and cord wood to be stacked.
We are already planning our season. Robert will attempt (once again) to do his Iditarod qualifiers IF the snow comes and none are cancelled like they have been for the last two seasons. Nicole will run the Junior Iditarod for the last time before she heads off to college in the fall of 2015, Michele plans to enter a small race or two and our friend Dale will too.
We are always looking for people to be a part of the team too! You can learn more about our incredible athletes, the mushers and our daily life with 40 sled dogs.
You can sponsor a dog, booties or become a race entry sponsor, or help with the daily kennel needs with your generous contributions.
It takes a small army to get to the starting line. Our sponsors and supporters are not just people that donate money, goods or services to us. They are part of the team. We appreciate your support and look forward to new partnerships.
Our sponsors receive letters and pictures directly from your favorite mushers. You have the opportunity to meet the team at race events and if you are up in Alaska we can teach you how to drive your own dog team. The mushers are always willing to travel to speak to our sponsors and supporters and to school and other groups that would like to learn more about living a life with dogs!
If you would like to find out more, comment below or check out our sponsorship page by clicking the button below.
Sponsor
My daughter is growing up too fast!
It seemed just like yesterday my little girl Nicole would rock out to White Zombie with a sippy cup in one hand a cookie in the other in her car seat as we travelled down the mountain into Denver to run errands.
Now she is growing up to become a very smart, beautiful young lady. She is entering her senior year if high school, plays softball on the varsity team, enrolling into college classes and helps out with the family business like she owns it.
I know she will always be my little girl but why does she have to grown up so fast?
