Tia defends her research thesis on Poke Ball functionality, with friends and family to support her.
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
“How are you feeling?” Kit asked Tia, looking her up and down.
“Like I’m about to throw up,” Tia said faintly. She was sitting on a bench outside the Department of Applied Pokemon Knowledge building, clutching a folder of papers. Aidan sat next to her, rubbing her back.
“Oh, come on,” Kit said, grinning. “You present your paper, answer questions, and then you’re done. Most straightforward two hours of your life!”
“Easy for you to say,” Tia muttered, “You’ll never have to do one!”
“True. I’m satisfied enough as Elm’s assistant.” Kit sat down on Tia’s other side. “You’ve spent almost a year working on this thesis. You know the info backwards and forwards. You got this!”
The door to the DAPK building opened, and a stream of students came out.
“Hey there!” a voice called out. The three of them turned. Taiyu walked toward them, waving.
“Long time no see, Kit!” he called out.
“Still plugging away back in the lab, Taiyu?” Kit asked, smiling.
“Always right behind you,” he said jokingly, “Peanuts compared to being a Pokemon Professor’s assistant, but I’m not complaining.”
He turned to face Tia. “Everyone’s ready for you,” he said.
Tia swallowed, and clutched her folder harder. Aidan took her hand.
“It’s going to be okay,” he told her soothingly, “We’ll all be there to support you.”
Tia looked at him, then at Kit and Taiyu. She took a deep breath, nodded, and got up. “I’m ready.”
Several minutes later, Tia walked into the conference room, amazed by the number of people attending. Aidan, Kit and Taiyu were there, along with her parents, and several other researchers she knew only casually. The five members of her dissertation defense committee sat at a row of tables in front of the audience.
Her laptop sat on a table in front of a large projection screen. She moved over to it, pulled a small thumb drive from her pocket, and plugged it in. A slideshow presentation soon appeared on the screen.
Tia looked up, scanned through the audience, then began to speak.
“Hello everyone, and good afternoon. My name is Tia Cade, and welcome to the presentation of my professorial thesis.”
Aidan listened as Tia continued with her presentation, breezing through her introduction and going over her methodology and results with charts and graphs. Some of it he had heard from her before, during their phone calls and dates together, while the rest of it was information he was hearing for the first time. A lot of it, especially the technical details, went right over his head, but he felt nothing but awe for Tia and her intelligence.
Kit followed along as Tia explained her analysis of her research data, and recognized bits and pieces from what she knew about raising and battling Pokemon. She thought Tia could be a little more confident and forceful in her speaking, but she didn’t waver or hesitate, which was a good thing.
Naomi and Nathan listened as Tia discussed how her research results supported her original argument, and continued on to her conclusion. She was almost finished with her presentation, and they felt both pride as the parents of a successful researcher and love for their daughter as she achieved her dreams.
“On that final note, that concludes my presentation. Thank you for your time and attention today.”
There was applause, and the audience began to get up and leave the room. Naomi got up and turned to Tia, mouthing good luck to her as she and the others left the room.
Tia watched as the room emptied and the only people present were her and the members of her thesis defense committee. She thought about the presentation she just gave and allowed herself a small smile. It had gone well. Now came the hard part – the oral defense. She stood facing the committee members, waiting for the first question to be asked…
Tia’s parents, Aidan and Kit sat in a row of chairs outside the conference room, waiting for the oral defense to be over. About half an hour later, Tia emerged from the room, looking drained, and collapsed into the seat between Aidan and her parents.
“How did it go?” Kit asked.
“Okay, I think,” Tia replied softly, “I hope I did okay.”
“We’re sure you did fine,” Nathan assured her.
“So we just wait until the committee makes their decision?” Aidan asked.
Tia nodded.
They waited as the committee made their deliberations, and about fifteen minutes later, the door to the conference room opened.
Professor Acai emerged from the room, followed by Kurt, Professor Marigold, Professor Larimar and Professor Haumea. Tia got up to meet them.
Professor Acai looked at her for a moment, then broke into a smile. “Congratulations, Professor Cade. You did well.”
Like Kit, I never had to do a dissertation defense when I was in college (I was an undergrad!) so all of my research for this piece was secondhand. I could imagine the stress overload, though!