She Wanted a PhD Since She Was 25. She Got Something Better.
The word that changed everything was ‘online’.
Smrite Goudhaman had wanted a doctorate since she was 25. She and her father had talked about it properly — the cost, the commitment, the years of full-time study a traditional PhD required. At the time, she was working in fashion and retail, building a career, running a home—the math never worked. The dream was shelved, but not abandoned.
Two decades later, she saw an advertisement for an online Doctor of Business Administration program. “The fact that you could study while you were working,” she says, “that flexibility is what made me do it.”
She was the first Indian graduate of Golden Gate University’s DBA program. She had been carrying the intention for over twenty years by the time she enrolled.
Her dissertation examined AI-enabled training interventions in the hospitality sector. She began with a pilot study of 100 participants — a modest, manageable scope. What happened next was far from modest. Her research was presented at IIT Delhi, then at an international AI conference in Singapore, then at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, then at the United Nations in Geneva. The pilot of 100 became a program reaching 700. She launched a government course for visually impaired students built entirely from her findings. In addition to her full-time job, she’s also an Adjunct Professor at Golden Gate University.
“What no one tells you,” she says, “is that your life starts after your thesis gets published. People get to read your work and they connect with you.”
The DBA, unlike a traditional PhD, is built for professionals who cannot stop working to study. Smrite was a pre-sales solutions manager at the time of her graduation. She had never left the industry. The research ran alongside the career, not instead of it, and produced something that outlasted both the program and the dissertation committee.
Her five year old daughter wrote something on her school noticeboard during this period: Mama’s happy when she works. And Maya is happy when she works. And that means both of us can dream.
That line, Smrite says, is the one she keeps coming back to.
Smrite Goudhaman completed the Doctor of Business Administration through Golden Gate University’s online DBA program — a fully accredited, fully online doctorate for working professionals. Applications are open.
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