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If it's a matter of studying an extra hour or getting out there and getting yourself involved in a club, do it. Never be afraid. And uh don't shy away uh from something that you think you can do but you're not sure that you can do. Hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College. I'm your host Kelly Peiffer, a vice president of marketing communications and this is the best part of my day. My hope is that this podcast will encourage, inform, and inspire you,

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making you feel like at Manor College, you belong here always. Before we get to today's guest, it is time for a segment of the show I like to call Did You Know? Where we will share some fun facts about Manor College that you may or may not know. Did you know that the Independent Blue Cross Foundation has awarded Manor College with a Blue Safety Net Grant for the seventh consecutive year? This is a $20,000 grant that will provide operating support for our college's dental health center. The Manor College

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Dental Health Center was established in 1979, functions as both a teaching facility for dental students and a full service dental clinic for the community. Due to its status as a teaching center, it can offer dental services at approximately 50% less than the average cost of a private practice. This grant from the IBX Foundation is vital for our cent's mission to provide affordable dental care, improve community health, and offer preventative education. Thank you so much to the IBX Foundation for being

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a sustaining partner with the Manor College Dental Health Center. We are keeping our community healthy thanks to your partnership and support. Today's episode is sponsored by Manor College's Bird Feed. Did you know that some of Manor College's students struggle with food insecurity? Manor College is proud to be an official PA hunger-free campus. Our bird feed food pantry provides a vital lifeline offering nonperishable food and toiletries for those in need. But we can't do it without your help.

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Your donation of canned goods, dry goods, or financial contributions help us stock the shelves and ensure that no one in our campus goes hungry. Learn how you can help by visiting manor.edu/birdfeed. That's manor.edu/birdfeed. We have a very special guest joining us today, an alumni who graduated not just once but twice from Manor College. Wow, that's very impressive. Coming from Philadelphia and a graduate of Tacony Academy Charter High School, our guests chose to pursue their passion for public

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service by majoring in both paralegal studies and public policy here at Manor College. A truly remarkable achievement. They earned both their associates degree in 2021 and then a bachelor's degree in 2023. As a first generation college student, they didn't just attend classes. They became a force for uh for good on campus, serving as a student senate president. Today, they are a powerful advocate for good government working at the committee of 70, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to

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improving Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Victoria Laughlin. Hi, Victoria. >> Hi, everybody. >> Thanks for being with us today. I I feel so honored to get to talk to you. >> Definitely. It's my pleasure. >> So, let's get started by how did you find out about Manor College and why did you choose to attend? Uh when I initially graduated from high school in 2014, I was really determined to get into law and policy and Manor College was very convenient for me for

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my local area in Philadelphia and so that was the natural course I took. >> That's great. I love I love kind of the clearcut like it was local and convenient. There we go. Um sometimes a lot of our students they want to commute so Manor is a good option for that as well. Um, so how did you know that you wanted to go into law and policy? What was that what was that drive in you and that passion? >> I was initially aspired by helping serving local communities and representing myself as a leader who can

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have a positive impact and have real effective change and offer practical solutions uh to real world problems. >> That's great. So you knew this was a a field that you wanted to go into for your career? Yes, absolutely. That's correct. >> Oh, that's great. So, what was your Manor experience like? Take us back. What was it like being a student here? And kind of give us like a day-to-day feeling so we can kind of imagine it. >> Manor College definitely helped me grow

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uh not only just professionally but also personally. It's a very positive learning atmosphere and uh instruct many instructors are willing to help you along the way with that process. It's a learning experience before you reach out and go to the world and it's definitely helped me grow and apply real world skills that I still use today. >> What um what are some of the things that you were involved with when you were a student? Like outside of like the classes, what are other activities or

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things that you get to experience? >> Um so when I was at Manor, I was initially a student senator. I served for two years um along with my other fellow senators. Um and then eventually I was elected as student president for my leadership and uh the commitment I had to make Manor a good place. H um student senate is always a really important group on campus and I know one of the big things that senate does is they um work all year to get feedback from the the students about what are some things that they would like to see

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changed or improved at manner and then the senate team presents it usually in like March or April to in like a public setting um usually administration's there usually our president's there and then whoever else wants to attend. What were some of your big projects do you remember that you had in Senate? >> Well, I remember that we helped create a bird feed uh which is a local lounge uh right near the cafeteria. Uh students really seem to take liking to that. So, um we managed to get that on campus.

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>> Oh, you mean do you mean the nest? >> Yes, the bird nest. >> Yes, the nest. Okay. Because you said the bird feed and I was like the bird feed's a food pantry. Um, but I we have a lot of bird and blue J acronym words around here, so I totally understand how that would be confused. The Nest, the Nest is such a cool spot. It's a it's a student lounge and right, you guys really pushed to get it like renovated with like better furniture, better tables. It has like this like half

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countertop bar thing you can like plug in and like study. Um, oh, that's great. That was one of your projects. I love it also when Senate has projects that we can then actually complete relatively quickly. So then you really feel like wow I had that idea I got did the research I presented it and now it's done like it comes full circle you know >> definitely yes >> yeah that's such a cool and I think students really enjoy the nest I know it's always there's always people in

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there doing stuff so I think that's a really really good project um when you were a student so obviously so you got an associates in 21 was your plan then to like turn around and continue being a student or did you were you working at the time kind of what was that like? >> Uh I planned on being a student. Um I had to over overcome some personal obstacles but I managed to get back in and graduate again and um yeah it was a good time. >> That's great. Was there anyone at the college whether it's a professor or a

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staff member or a coach or someone who like you felt really left like a lasting impact on you and was just really um like in your corner when you were a student? >> Absolutely. Professor Sims was a fantastic professor. Uh she definitely gave me a life skills and professional skills uh that will eventually help me go to law school. And uh she's just so well educated. She's great at what she does and um she really knows how to work with you one-on-one and with individualized learning.

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>> Yeah, Professor Mary Sims, she she's a longtime professor here. She's been here for I think almost 30 years. Um, she just retired this past spring and we had a retirement party for her in our library and it was obviously very well attended um by not only all of us who work here but some former students came, some of her family came, all of her um her siblings came and um there was a part where it was a kind of like an open mic where people just started going up and like sharing stories about Professor

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Sims and it was so sweet to hear. Different stories, but like they all kind of had the same theme of like she goes above and beyond. She is caring. She is there anytime, any day that you need her, whether it's, you know, like in working hours or not. And just like I think like her level of care for others was kind of in I took away as kind of like an overall theme of her as a person and how that threads throughout whether it's a student she's working with or a colleague or another professor or like

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her own brother. She cares and um she shows that in how she treats people. So I'm so glad you had to experience kind of the joy and like the you know you got to experience Professor Sims in that way. I think that's really neat. Um, and I know that we are certainly going to miss her. Um, but also very happy that she's gets to enjoy retirement. So, so Victoria, talk to me about kind of like your career path and the work that you're doing now and like what is um what is the work you're doing now?

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What's the role that you're in at committee of 70? And kind of if you had to tell people who didn't know what it was, kind of what would you say? Uh so the committee of 70 is a nonpartisan nonprofit. Uh we're aimed at increasing voter and civic engagement. Uh so part of my responsibilities of the committee of 70 was I was a policy and program coordinator. Um basically I was able to help coordinate events uh with local communities and stakeholders. Uh I even had the opportunity to do

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fundraisers uh meet important people of the community at the pillar of our community and um I also had the opportunity uh fantastic opportunity uh to go out and encourage more voters to uh vote for the election. >> That's great. How did you how did you get this job and um did you intern with them and then it turned into a job? Kind of explain because a lot of our students they want jobs and they want to be able to be successful. So, how did you go about getting this role?

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>> Uh, definitely uh my degree at Manor College with the public policy uh degree definitely did help. Um, it is great to be educated uh before you get there. I will also say that demonstrating your leadership skills and taking initiative outside the classroom is also very important. Uh, I did uh complete an internship uh with Jack Stollsteimer for district attorney uh which eventually helped me get that job as well. So a combination of like a degree, extracurricular leadership, and then also a little bit of a internship kind

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of who you know sounds like a combination of those things kind of led you to have this this role. So how would you say your work's going? Are you seeing a change in voters or more people getting registered? Kind of how would you assess how it's going? uh based upon our data that we had our recent data um we definitely did increase I believe it was by 60%. Um many of the voters did turn up and I hopefully uh maybe by next election cycle we eventually plan to be more than that. So >> well that's good. I mean for the for the

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face value that you're sharing that is really really good. We had um we had on campus last week. I don't know what day it is. That time of year, you're like, "What day is it? What week is it?" Um two weeks ago, we have we had a welcome back day here on campus. And welcome back day is a day where like all faculty and staff, everyone's back from like summer break and that kind of thing. And you're all back for one day. And um we hear from Dr. Perry and he kind of talks

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about kind of like the college and what's going on. And then we have some professional development things that we do. And one of the things that we did was we welcomed um our local state senator, Senator Art Haywood to campus and he was sharing about a little bit about voting and how if like there are so many young people particularly um college age. We're talking about how how important it is for college age people just to register to vote and that's something that obviously we want to

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support and and we have um some voter registration events on campus every year and we try to find the opportunities but he shared a stat and I I don't want to say it because I don't remember it fully and I always hate it when people share like kind of faulty stats but it was impressive about like if everyone under the age of 35 in Philadelphia registered and voted like they could control the vote because there's such a large population of them. And that to me was striking. And that to me when I was

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reading about you and preparing for today's interview, I thought to myself like that is such an important work that you're doing. Um, and it might feel like it's such a a big job like ah we're not going to move the needle, but I just wanted to encourage you and say like thank you for doing this work. I think it's really important. Um, and if there's any way that Manor College can work with you or work with your organization and try to get our students registered, um, I please definitely

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connect with me and I'll get you in touch with the right folks around here. But I just want to say thank you and I can see how important this work is. So I think it's really cool that you're in the role that you're doing right now. >> Oh, absolutely. We appreciate any time. More than willing. >> Yeah. So, Victoria, what do you see as kind of um your like career maybe next steps or career goals? What are some things that kind of on the horizon for you that you're looking forward to?

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>> Well, as of right now, I am enrolled at John's Hopkins University uh for public policy and data science. Um I hope to be complete that and do some more policy work uh more in the public sector and then I hope to go to law school. >> Wow. Oh, so you're in a master's program right now, >> correct? >> Right. And then law school. Wow. Okay. Well, you have some pretty incredible career goals that I have absolutely no doubt you're going to just crush. So, um I can't wait to keep

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following your journey and and that's really really exciting. So, what kind of law do you want to go into? >> Um I love tort law, uh car accidents, negligence, uh personal injury, uh things of that sort. Gotcha. You know, we I have to send you the link. We interviewed um a a lawyer on the show, an alumni of Manor. Um few weeks ago, I'm not sure when this show aired. Um but she is wonderful and she is a lawyer. I don't know if it's in personal injury or not. Um but I'm going

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to I'm going to find the link and I'll send it to you. We've had quite a few actually um students who have gone on to law school particularly through like the public policy or paralegal routes. Um so I think that's something that we definitely could get you connected to other Manor started but then turned into Manor lawyers. Um Helen Brooks she also graduated I don't know your paths went across. She graduated in 22 from Manor with a bachelor's degree, but she graduated in

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'09 from with paralegal. Um, so I don't know if your paths would have crossed in the in the more recent years, but I think she does work in personal injury actually as well. Um, so Victoria, what would be some advice that you would give to Manor students who are currently, you know, their students are coming back for classes next week? um college is hard and you know you just need a little bit of encouragement to get you along. What would you say for some advice for them? >> Uh don't be afraid to take initiative.

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Um if it's a matter of studying an extra hour or getting out there and getting yourself involved in a club, do it. Never be afraid. And uh don't shy away uh from something that you think you can do but you're not sure that you can do. Just try and do it. >> Okay? Have confidence. Just do it. Don't shy away from it. That that's great. Um, you know, we had new student orientation last week where all the freshmen come in and um I had the opportunity to moderate a panel and the panel was all students

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and I asked the students that same question. What advice would you give to these, you know, all freshman students and several of the student who were on the panel? you know, they're they're ambassadors, they're involved, they're people who like like you were when you were a student, and almost all of them said something almost identical to what you just said, like get involved. Even if you're shy and nervous, trust, you know, trust that it's going to be okay. Um kind of kind of fake it till you make

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it a little bit, which I think is great. I'm a big believer in that. So, um I think what you're saying totally rings true and I really hope that our students follow that advice. and and have a great Manor experience just like you did because it sounds like it it truly has paid off. Um, you know, not many of our graduates have two degrees from us that it's a growing population, but it's still, I would say, the minority population that has two degrees. So, kudos to you. um you're in

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a really special elite group and um it certainly takes a lot of hard work and dedication to to achieve that and um we wish you nothing but the best Victoria. Good luck in all of your uh career goals, your academic goals and we're here cheering you every step along the way. Thank you so much for being with us today. >> Absolutely. And you have a good one, Kelly. >> Thank you for tuning in today. If you like what you heard, listen and subscribe on Spotify or YouTube. And stay up-to-date with all new episodes by

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following Manor College on Instagram at Manor College. And that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest. Stories about life after Manor College. Remember, Blue Jays, you belong here always.