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[Music] Hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College. I am your host Kelly Peiffer 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, 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? Did you know that Manor College is ranked among the top two safest campuses

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for colleges and and um institutions in the entire United States with nearly 4500 colleges and universities across the United States, 400 of them being in Pennsylvania alone, being ranked as the second safest college by stateuniversity.com. Manor College has made this list multiple times being ranked number three and number two. This list was compiled by analyzing clearary and FBI data on the following categories. Number of weapon occurrences, drugs, burglary, vehicle threat, the theft, arson, larseny,

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robbery, non-forcable rape, and more. This um report came out a few years ago and Manor College is very proud to be the number two safest college in the United States. Dr. Perry, our president, has said that if we are not safe, we cannot learn. And I totally agree and I think that's a really important factor to any college campus. Obviously safety is number one. Our you belong here statement invites everyone at Manor to learn and study obviously safely. So some things that we do here at Manor to

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keep our campus safe. We have an ID badge system for entry on all the doors and buildings on campus. We have centralized doors so people have to enter through specific doors that have security cameras on them. We have a full staff of public safety officers who serve our community 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Yes, they are here on Christmas. They are here on Fourth of July. They are here on weekends at 2 in the morning. Um, we have someone fully dedicated to keeping our campus safe. We have a very close

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relationship with the Abington Township Police Department and other local officials. Our public safety team handles campus patrolling, investigation of incidents, victim assistance, and educational programs. And our protective measures include a utilization of a campus-wide notification, e alert system, and other communication systems. So obviously at Manor College, being safe is a top priority. I am honored now to welcome today's alumni guest. Today we have a awesome alumni guest from Brooklyn and then Philadelphia who has

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dedicated um pursuing higher education while balancing motherhood and a career. This alumni is not only an accomplished second grade teacher in the school district of Philadelphia, but also a proud graduate of Mayor College from the class of 2016 where she earned her associates degree in early childhood education. Please join me in welcoming Leslie Harris. Hi Leslie, welcome. Hi, thank you for having me. Thank you so much for being on the nest. We're so excited to talk to you today. So, um I know you're on spring break right now,

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which kudos to you and a well well-deserved rest for you teachers, but kind of take us back to how did you choose Manor College? How did you hear about Manor and kind of what made you want to attend the institution? Um I heard about Manor College from actually one of my co-workers at the time. I was working at a daycare center and I had previously attended Cheney for a little bit and then this life happened. I had a child so I started working full-time and she kept saying, "Oh, go to Manor. Go to Manor. You

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you'll love it. It'll be so, you know, it'll be so great for you." And my director at the time was like, "Get your associates degree and just take baby steps." So, I put it off for a while and then I got pregnant with my second child and I'm like, "Okay, these kids cannot get, you know, kindergarten diplomas before me. I have to do something." And I went down. I applied and everyone was just so nice and just welcomed me with open arms. And that's how I started going to Manor. I was about maybe I want to say

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about five months pregnant at the time and I just started attending classes. Oh, wow. That that is so cool. Um we often have students who are either currently parents or who are expecting. Um a lot of people don't realize that actually 30% of our student body are full-time caretakers. So like they are either working parents or they're taking care of like their parents possibly or even grandparents. So that's awesome for you to be able to pursue that. And I like how you put it. My kids aren't

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going to get kindergarten diplomas before mom mom gets hers. Um well well put and obviously I'm so glad you were able to accomplish that. So kind of what was your um how did you know that education was something that you wanted to pursue and kind of what was it about education that kind of lit your fire and made you passionate? I've always wanted to be a teacher like since little when all my cousins and friends they were practicing being a mommy. My dolls and bears were my students. I named them. I gave them assignments that

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obviously they didn't do, but it was just something that I always enjoyed. And then my younger sister, shout out to her. She was one of my students. She was my only live student, so she got the brunt of the work and the projects, but I enjoyed just teaching her and watching her learn her alphabet and learn how to add. She went to kindergarten very prepared because she unfortunately went to school at Leslie's private school. It was just so fun. And from that point on, I just was always passionate about watching

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kids learn new things, like those aha moments. Oh, that's great. I love that. Um, I totally can see like a little kid playing with their dolls and their stuffed animals, like school. Um, I have a four-year-old daughter and she's really into playing house and school and mommy and sets everything up. And I'm totally living that right now. and um if she wants to become a teacher one day, I'm all about it because I think it's a great passion. It's a great field. We certainly need more teachers.

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We need teachers who want to be teachers um and want to kind of pour into the next generation. So, thank you so much for what you're doing. So, kind of how how did Manor help you get to where you knew you wanted to go and like um like your boss said, take those baby steps and get in that associates degree and kind of what was your experience like when you were a student? I think the biggest hurdle that I had going into Manor was myself. Like I really was like, well, I know I'm going to have to do student teaching. I was thinking so

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far ahead that I was blocking myself. And at the time, um, Mrs. Crosby, she was one of my advisers and one of my professors, and she would always just talk to me and say like, "You can do this." you know, when things got really hard, I always had someone, whether it was someone in the financial aid office, someone in admissions, like it didn't even matter. Sometimes, I'm pretty sure some of the people that I spoke to, they encouraged me in areas that they probably didn't even work in. It was just like whoever was there was always

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like, "No, you can do this. I remember you came in and you were pregnant, now you have the baby." There was always just a push to keep going. And that's how I got through. I was a nursing mom. Um, I had uh Miss Crosby let me use her office to pump during classes. I had, you know, professors who helped me with independent study when I was the only person who needed a specific class and there was no one else at the time to register for that class. Like I had a lot of support and just a lot of encouragement and that just pushed me to

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to continue and keep going forward. Oh, that's so great. I love I love those stories and I love hearing that like you felt so supported. So then it's like iron sharpens iron, you know, like if you feel supported and you feel loved and poured into, then you're going to pass that along to someone else and you're going to keep going and pursuing because you're feeling like, well, they're they're supporting me, so I got to show up and I got to get the work done and I got to get that degree. Um, how cool. And how cool that you felt

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supported from not just like your adviser or your professor, but like kind of random people in random offices who might not even know your full story, your full situation, but just like I think that really speaks too to like the Manor community we have here. Um, you know, we're small and that's okay. Small is not always a bad thing and we're small. Um, but as to say that we're we're also mighty in that and like we do want to help everybody regardless of who they are, where they come from, what

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they're doing, what major they're in. it doesn't really matter. Um, if you're a part of our community, we're going to find ways to help you. So, that's really cool that you had that experience and particularly going through a major life change with having a newborn. It's your, you know, now you have two kids, now you have to pump and feed and just all those things. It's hard. Um, but I mean, what a cool thing for your kids. even if they don't remember mom going to school while I was a kid, like they're

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that's going to have an impact on them in some way, whether it's short-term or long term, it's going to impact them. So, I mean, you obviously were changing your family tree by doing that. So, that's really really cool. Um, and just I'm so impressed by that story. So, what um tell us about what was it like transitioning because you you graduated from Manor with your associate as an early childhood education which is a great degree and we still have we have that degree today. Um and then you went

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into Chestnut Hill and what did you what degree did you pursue at Chestnut Hill? At Chestnut Hill I did early childhood studies. Um, and it's funny because my transition to Chest in the Hill was really interesting, too, because if I remember correctly, I think I finished my coursework at Manor in December of um 2015, but I had to wait until May in order to graduate. And Miss Crosby was like, "Well, why don't you get started at Chestnut Hill?" So, I started at Chestnut Hill, not even completely finishing with Manor, and it kind of

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like over overlapped. And at the time, again, like I said, certification was like a really big thing. Like, having to take off to do student teaching was scary. Like, I'm like, there's no way I'm going to be able to do that. And I actually didn't do that. So, that's how I ended up doing early childhood studies. And again, back to Manor again, Miss Crosby has been like my backbone to this day. Like I still keep in contact with her. Just do it. Remember, we're doing baby steps. Do it. You'll have your bachelors that'll put

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you in a better position. And when student teaching time comes, we'll handle that when we get there. And that's what I did. And I actually finished at Chestnut Hill in 2017. So only one year. Yeah. Oh, that's great. I think it's such a good reminder, too, that like so many times people try to market to you like like accelerated degrees, take things fast, you know, like a one year, a one-year program, a 15-month program. You know, everyone we we assume that everyone wants everything like super fast, but that's not always

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the case. That doesn't always fit in your life. So, I think it's really good to hear like the reality of like, no, I have children. I'm working. I I can't do things super fast. Yes, I'm taking baby steps and like you're still going to get there and that's okay. I think that's a really good reality check. I think so many times our culture we just get I don't know associated with like fast speed and patience and you were patient, you were deliberate and getting you know those baby steps done. So you said

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that you were working while you were a student. Where did you work at the daycare still? Is that where you were working? I did. So after I got my associates, I became a Head Start teacher. Nice. And that was really rewarding and fun. And then I actually won the Terry Lynn Loff award um that that following year. So that was another exciting chapter for me. And can you explain for our listeners what that what that is exactly and what that means and not everyone might be familiar with that. So, the Terry Lynn uh Looff

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Teacher Award, it's an award awarded to early childhood educators who show um expertise and passion for their field. And one of the things that you have to do in order to qualify for the award is you have to do like a passion project that benefits the kids. So, I did equity and diversity in the classroom and what I did was I created um these mu not murals but like a collage like a wall collage where every student had like a really big frame and they could put whatever they wanted in that frame so that they could be visible

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in the classroom. So outside of like their regular work that they did, if they wanted to put pictures of their family or if they wanted to display their own artwork that maybe didn't have anything to do with what was necessarily thought, every child had like just a little slice of the classroom that was theirs to do whatever they wanted to do. And um as far as I know, I think they still do it in that classroom cuz I did leave everything behind when I, you know, transitioned over to the school district, but I still do it in my

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classroom now. not as big cuz I don't have as much wall space, but I still do it cuz I think it's important. The same way how we keep our personal pictures, you know, of our family on our desk, like the kids don't have that. So, having just a little slice of personal in the classroom, I think really links in who they are to the room. Oh, I love that so much. I mean, kids just want to see their stuff on display for sure. Um, it was so funny over the weekend. I was going on my our TV at home and my son wanted to watch

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something and and it was on YouTube and YouTube said recommended for you the Nest and it was this podcast and it was my face and my son was like mom you're on YouTube and I was like yeah like it's not that hard to do but okay. But all he cared about was that he saw he goes wait that's my picture. He saw this rainbow here. This is a framed picture that he drew for me. Um, he goes, "Mom, I I made that. I my picture's on YouTube." But like, that's so cool that you were able to incorporate that into a learning

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environment, a classroom environment, and just make those kids feel seen and included. And then also, you were able to get some kind of really cool recognition for it. So, that's awesome. So happy for you. Um, so what is it like working in the school district of Philadelphia and how has that now you're a second grade teacher in a classroom? How big's your class size? And kind of what has that been like? Working for the school district of Philadelphia has definitely changed me a lot as an

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educator only because it's such a big district and there's so many different moving parts. Being in second grade, I did kindergarten first and then I did second grade. Just seeing that like as they get older, when you know a second grader like in your everyday life, you know them in one way. Knowing them as a learner is totally different. Like they're still inquisitive. They still want to know things. They question everything. And being in such a big district, there are guidelines that you have to follow. So, it really taught me

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like how to balance the expectations of parents of districts because I feel like when you're in pre-k, parents kind of really don't know and they look to you a lot to kind of help them find their voice as a parent or help them kind of figure out what it is that they want for their child. By second grade, they pretty much know. So now it's more of you transitioning into supporting different families and what they need and what they see for their child or what their family values are. So that's been really eyeopening. It's

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been I don't want to say challenging but challenging in like a good way and like oh wow every year I have to figure out my new set of families. What do they need from me? How can I best support them? What do they believe? What's important to them? So that's been really really um interesting. and also just being confident in myself that I can teach second grade math and ELA and sharpening up my phonics skills, all of those things. It's been really rewarding. That's awesome. I love how you kind of

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are talking about like I I'm supporting the parents and the families opposed to it being kind of flipped and that's really good. And um how many students do you have in your class? I have 18 students right now. Okay. Um, my school is very one of the very few schools that has um the opportunity to have 18 students. I have no idea how my principal is pulling it off, but we have more coming in. Um, but I have 18, so but usually we usually have about 30. Wow. Yeah. Oh my goodness. That that you're you're an

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angel. Absolute angel. That's incredible. Well, thank you so much for what you're doing and all that you're doing. Um, yeah. So, as we kind of wrap up, Leslie, what would you say is some advice that you have for college students, whether they want to be teachers eventually or they want to do something else, but they know they're college students, they're kind of they might have families, they might have other expectations in their life that they're doing. Um, what would you say to them as someone who's kind of been

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there, done that, and kind of on the other side? My advice to I guess incoming college students, especially if you want to be a teacher, is like we talked about before, taking baby steps. Really figuring out your long-term goals and your short-term goals and figuring out how to achieve them because things change all the time. Opportunities arise all the time. One of the things that um I did along my journey after I finished my bachelor's, I took my certification test, but I didn't get certified until three years

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later. So, just doing things in little chunks and having a good support system, having people that believe in you, and just continue to believe in yourself, then eventually you'll like, "Wow, I did a lot." Yeah. Right. Those little chunks add up. Those baby steps get you there. I always love there's this great illustration of like um some like two ladders and someone's climbing a ladder with a lot of little steps and they're like they're getting there but the steps are really close together and someone

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else is climbing a ladder with a really big steps but the steps are so big they can't even reach the next step and it's like showing the little steps actually get you to the top faster than those big giant steps. So, I feel like your story is so much of that parallel. Like, take those baby steps. You're still going to get there, you know, and um believe in yourself. Obviously, having self-confidence is really important cuz also like you're pouring into the next generation. So, like they got to

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see that, you know, Leslie's believing in herself so that these little guys see that too and they they do that as well. So, thank you so much for all that you are doing for um Philadelphia, for these children, for these families, and just pouring into them. I know how important teachers are, and I totally believe in the power of education. So, thank you so much for living that out. I also want to just tie together that, you know, Manor, our the last line in our mission, and I love tying this in when I

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can. The last line of the last line in our mission says that Manor we um educate students to graduate to go on to serve society effectively and compassionately. So like ideally we want Manor students to be out there in the world doing good things for society and I feel obviously feel very strongly that you are a walking testament of that and are doing that. So, thank you so much for truly like encapsulating our mission and turning it around and serving children, families, all that you're doing. It's really, really powerful and

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I hope our listeners are encouraged and inspired by you because I know I certainly am today. Thank you so much, Leslie, for being with us today and I wish you nothing but the best. Thank you for having me and thank you for just letting me get my start at Manor and just keep doing great things. Thank you for tuning in today. Hey, if you like what you heard, listen and subscribe on Spotify or YouTube. Stay up-to-date with all new episodes by following Manor College on Instagram, Manor College. And that's a wrap on another episode of The

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Nest, stories about life after Manor College. Remember, Blue Jays, you belong here always. [Music]

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[Music] Hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College. I am your host Kelly Peiffer 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. 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? Today's fun fact actually was one that I I personally did not know and I have

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worked at the college here for almost 12 years. So I feel like I know quite a bit but this one definitely got me. So for today's did you know did you know that in the late 90s Manor College offered distance learning programs that were broadcasted on WHYY channel 12. That's right. In 1996, Manor College embraced distance learning by broadcasting some of its courses on WHY, our local NPR station, channel 12. These programs were specifically designed to cater to students who can't attend full-time on campus. This is like early

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online learning what we have today. So these inaugural courses offered was introduction to psychology and it had an enrollment of six students. Due to its initial success, the televised courses became available to the entire student body just a year later. So each course would typically have about 26 hours long of lectures that were broadcasted twice a week throughout a typical semester, which is about 13 to 15 weeks. The lectures were aired on channel 12 between 1 and 5:00 p.m. where students would record them probably to a VHS. Um,

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that's a throwback right there. Record them for later viewing. So, I I just I I can and can't imagine this like being on your TV recording your class that then you'll watch back later on your TV again on a VHS and then you know maybe you make an assignment or you write something that you'll hand in for a grade. So, interesting enough, these students that were in this tele televised course only had to come to campus three times for in the terms in the term of the semester for orientation, for a midterm, and for the

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final exam. So, this you know, it was innovative. This innovative approach kind of highlights how Manor was an early adopter of distance learning to try to reach a wider range of students and just really accommodate students and where they're at. I think it's kind of neat that today, you know, almost 30 years later, we are doing the kind of the same thing. Obviously, we're not broadcasting it on our local NPR station. Um, but we do have a lot of hybrid high flex and distance learning um where students can take online

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instruction. So, the one that we utilize probably the most is high flex model, which is really students can attend in person. We also will record that in-person class where it can be streamed either live while it's happening or streamed for later. So, it's recorded and put into a we have um a learning management system called Canvas. So, while on campus sometimes um students can still go to class in person if they want. If they can't make it that day for whatever reason, they can watch it later. So just trying to be flexible

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because we understand obviously the life of a student is pretty pretty busy and different than maybe what it was back in the day. Um some of our examples of programs that have probably the most hybrid and high flex options include business management, early childhood education and child development. Our criminal justice, public policy, and cyber crime programs. We also offer a program where you can either receive a laptop to use while you're a student or um you can loan a laptop from our library or some other ways that we have

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here. So definitely trying to always be flexible for our students since the '9s. So that's kind of today's did you know. Welcome back. Today we have a fantastic guest joining us who has deep roots from right here in our Philadelphia area. Our g our guests grew up in the charming town of Rockledge and spent their formative years at St. Cecilia's in Fox Chase before heading to Bishop McDevitt High School in Glenside. Their academic journey then led them to Manor College where they pursued their

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passion in paralegal studies earning an associates degree in 1992. Their time at Manor laid a crucial foundation before they transferred to Holy Family University. Fast forward to today and our guest is a successful entrepreneur serving as the founder and CEO of their own independent title insurance company H&H Settlement Services. We are thrilled to hear about her experiences and how her path through higher education and into the business world transpired from the class of 1992. Please join me in giving a warm welcome

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to Manor College alumni Heather Hagerty. Welcome, Heather. Thank you, Kelly, for having me. Of course. Of course. It's so wonderful to talk to you and I'm really excited to hear your story. So, kind of take us back. How did you hear about Manor College and how did you make that decision to attend um for uh paralegal? Uh so, I knew about Manor College as I grew up in Rockledge and the St. Basil's girls across the street. I always wanted to be them as I would drive by MA and then go to Manor. Um, so I knew Manor

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just from growing up in Manor. Yes. Yeah. Around Foxchase. Um, and the second part of your question. Yeah. How did you decide to attend? Deciding to attend. Okay. Uh, really my mother decided for me. Um, a little lost when I was about 19. I had gone away to school and it was not for me. Definitely a homebody. Um, and she really to her credit had the wonderful idea that I should go to Manor and I did and I never looked back. And it was honestly a um really transformative moment in my life and I don't know how where I would

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have ended up had I not stepped foot into Manor. Oh, that's great. Well, I mean mother knows best, right? I feel like that's a saying that's true and sometimes your mom just knows um what their child needs. So kudos to mom for picking that out. Yes, Rockledge is literally our backyard is Rockledge. So it would be hard to not know who we are. Um but growing up in Rockledge and Fox Chase and Basil's um we we miss Basil across the street. They closed a few years ago and it was really really sad. And right now

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there's some things happening in the news around Toll Brothers is is building some senior living condos over there and that's going to be happening kind of soon. But Basil was a great school founded by the same group of sisters who founded the college. So really a special place in all of our hearts. Um so kind of take me back to what was your Manor experience like? What was it what was campus like in the 90s and kind of what how was it like for you to be a student? So, back then, you know, I had um it was

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a only a two-year college, so it was for me sort of like, okay, let's see if college is for me. Um it might have just been I didn't want to go away. Um and I will say it was a mostly commuter school at the time. Uh though there were some foreign, you know, exchange students for sure. Uh much smaller than what it is now. But um the reason I went into paralegal uh studies was although I was I was actually thinking I was get a degree and then go to law school. That was sort of the trajectory in my mind.

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My father was going through a transition in his own job where the company was being sold and he had talked about how he only deals with these paralegals. It was a very new thing at the time. Um so he thought well he said if that's what you're thinking why don't you try paralegal first? see if it's something you like at Manor. So that's what I did. Um I fell in love with it immediately. I just I would credit that to certainly the program run by Diane Pevar at the time. She was such a I was just so inspired by her. Um what she was

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doing that whole program, the teachers that were associated were were actual lawyers. um you know and I wasn't sure I loved you know we had mock trials we had research it was I mean it was like you know it was a lot but I found a nice group where we studied together we really um we fought over internships together we uh found our way so that's that was my very overgeneralized experience at Manor in the paralegal the pro program yeah that That's great. I think so so many I've talked to a handful of alumni

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who are from kind of the same era that you were in paralegal and they all all of you guys kind of say the same thing. Diane Pevar was like a real pillar of strength for all of you and someone that you really leaned on and really like led all of you and in your um those kind of like formative years. So it's really cool to hear that kind of over and over again which means like it must be true. Um, and it's good that you right away were like, "Oh, I really like this." So, what about what about paralegal did you

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like? And can you explain kind of what is a paralegal? Sure. Oh, sure. Um, so what I liked and like you said about Diane, she was a woman. She was just I could identify with, you know, certainly an inspired to what she certainly inspired me in that way. Um, a paralegal is a there's a legal assistant, there's a sec, I mean, back then you had legal secretaries, you know, you had these stenographers, you had, you know, uh, so the paralegal is someone that works with the attorneys that mostly

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um, if you're working in a a law firm that is doing trial work or, you know, things like that, a lot of the paralegals we did the legal research and we you could prepare, you know, and then legal writing as well. Um, I early on that was sort of where I thought I was going. Um, was down that path having thinking, you know, I would be going to law school. Um, the legal research piece, I really enjoy, you know, really liked that. Um, but that's I didn't end up going down that path, but that was the part I

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I probably like the most. Um, I ended up having a teacher at Manor named Marshall Grainer who um he said at the beginning of the year he always picked a student that he would have come work at his law firm, you know, um, as an intern. So that was a real estate law course and then that's when it changed for me that I was like okay yeah real estate that's that's what I want to do like real estate I don't want to be a realtor I don't want to be you know but I like the contractual piece of the contractual

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piece of real estate it wasn't litigation it wasn't as much research but I really enjoyed the contract work and Marshall was an excellent teacher um and I got picked to be as intern right well that that certainly helps too to get that experience Okay. So, that's kind of what put that light bulb into you like, "Oh, actually I like real estate." Yes. Um, okay. So, kind of explain then how have you transitioned from um paralegal to then I believe you went to Holy Family. What did you go to Holy Family for? Um, I

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went there for a four-year degree basically. Uh, yeah. I realize, you know, at that point I um had worked at Marshall's firm for a bit and that was in Glenside. Um and then I back go backwards for a second as it as it I did go for an internship in Center City while I was at Manor. I decided to work with Marshall instead, but I really liked the vibrancy of working in the city as a young person. So, what I ended up doing is leaving Marshall's office and I had worked with the attorney that ran a title company

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for him and to this day we're still friends, you know, excellent. I've been very blessed to work with excellent attorneys, um, great mentors and then I wanted to work in Center City. So, I moved to a law firm in Center City. Um and that there was a requirement in that firm to have a four-year degree um in order to be on the par you know and the paralegal staff as well. So right and then around that time they were sort of offering like paralegal certificates you know kind of things like that but um

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so that's and I wanted to I was already on the path of like school school so I was like let's just keep going so glad that I did as hard as it was to work full-time and go at night you know I know me people have it much harder I didn't have any children I was young you know but so I would go you know to work in the day and then at night go to Holy Family I got a psych a degree in psychology ology from there. Um the don't ask me why I can't even remember why that was sort of I I think it's always good to understand how how

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the brain works and and you know my mind this day certainly certainly feels useful to me. Yeah. I was I think maybe now that I just said that I think it was you know this law firm that I ended up working with um they gave you a MyersBriggs test to Okay. Yeah. were hired to make sure like you fit with what attorney you were like it was very like you know and I I did find his philosophy and all of that very interesting. Um yeah so I worked at that law firm uh made you know working my way through and up to be the

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head paralegal of about 18 paralegals. Um so I worked in center city at 15th and walnut for 16 about 15 years I guess. Um, and that's kind of my life made a change because then by that time I was married and had young children. Um, and you can imagine, you know, it was certainly a a a job that wasn't just 40 hours, you know, you were working a lot, you know. Um, and I thought, "Okay, now I guess it's time to go. You know, maybe I'll be a stay-at-home mom." That lasted uh I give credit to all the stay-at-home moms

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out there. I lasted I lasted less than a week. Oh my goodness. Hardest job in the world, right? Hardest job in the world. No, I uh I um love my children. the uh the I was actually offered a pos um an opportunity to open the law firm I worked at was specialized in corporate relocation which is real estate a very real estate heavy um that we also they also had a title company which I was involved in. I worked more on the law firm side but certainly with the title company at the time. So when I left, you know, it was it was not for

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anything other than personal reasons than to, you know, to sort of I also had to travel a lot. Um, so took a break, which was nice. Um, and then was able to start a title company for a local real estate office. They asked if I would do that for them. Um, while I was just to, you know, either consult with them and do it. I said I would absolutely do that, but I just didn't want to work there full-time. Um, but then that sort of got my entrepreneur bug going a little, I have to admit. Um, you know, I was, you know,

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started that company, hired for that company. Um, and to this day, that company, well, it doesn't, that title company is no longer in existence, but the client that runs it is still is a client of mine now. Oh, wow. Um, yeah. So that led to um me then expanding and going on my own. I started to build a a client base. Had some had a reputation from the law firm I worked at. Had people that were coming to me from that like hey I hear you're doing this thing you know and so you think you know oh maybe if I you know

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I'll just have this little thing and see how it goes. you know, my husband was working. So, I was, you know, and then it turned into by that time it was like 2008, 2009, and my husband, you know, there was a real estate, you know, recession as we all know. Um, and he he was looking at being laid off and um on the flip side, the title company I ran and was a part, you know, in a partner in was flourishing because we were doing all these refinances. So my husband ended up joining us and then the trajectory from there was we because of

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that we had our own H&H Solomon services which is still in here today. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Wow. That's so cool. Rambling. No. No. I I love it. But I love hearing kind of the the the process of how it all became and the timeline and how you were trying to take a little break to focus on like motherhood and how the passion just stirred up inside you and opportunities came and you just took I did and you know and I I took him with the you know the support of my family of course um and I thought and it

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did work out very well in that I opened the company in Glenside we lived in Glenside so my son my sons went to St. Luke's here in Glenside and I was able to be right there so I could be available and so that was really a special time. They could go to our office after school, you know, and yeah, they were of it. It was fun. Right. Right. They're part of it, you know. It's a family business, so the kids the kids are in it whether you know whether they want to be or not. But I think what a what a cool

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thing for them to see um from their mom. you know, mom's mom's doing this and and that's I think they might I don't know if they if they're old enough now to reflect back on that, but I'm sure at some point they will and will be able to Yeah. kind of garner something from that. I think that's really special that you were able to do that and Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Well, that's to say it all started because of Manor. I mean, it really did. I just had, you know, such a great experience

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and it gave me the confidence, I think, now that I was like, "Oh, I can do. Okay, I get it. I can do this. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's great. I love hearing that and I love that you're able to see kind of that um that thread line back to Manor and feeling that confidence. That's so important, I think, for every college student regardless of when you come to Manor and what year, what decade. I mean, building your confidence in college is so imperative to then you going out into a career or you going out into starting

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a family or whatever it might be. Um, confidence is key to any of those successes. So, that's really good to hear. Um, so something interesting about you, Heather, is that your son actually attends Manor. Now, even can you can you talk a little bit about kind of as a parent now? What has that experience been like seeing your kids through the college process and kind of just what's the perspective on that? Well, you know, mom knows best as we talked about. So, and uh Aean graduated from Roman Catholic in center city and

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through co that was in COVID time and so he was one of those co junior seniors that just didn't have really school you know kind of the the the best parts of school which is the proms and the graduations and all those things. So, um he was accepted to Bloomsburg University. He was going off. He went off to Bloomsburg. Um CO we thought had let up and then it didn't. They closed Bloomsburg, you know, praisively first they closed the gym, they closed the couch and then he was basically in his room, you know. So we were like this is

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it was just not a good place to be, you know, mentally and you know um so he came home and that was totally fine. Um, I I know that path, you know. Uh, so as we were trying to figure things out with him together and I could see him floundering a bit, my mother's voice came to me and um, she had passed away at the time, but um, I said, "Matt, you know, Aean, I was there and my mother said to me, you know, I think that you should give this school a try." And you know, nothing against the community colleges or

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anything, but if you don't have I feel like if you didn't have a specific reason you're going, it's kind of harder to feel and I know that knew that at Manor he wouldn't be able to hide. He wouldn't be able to, you know, he would they would take care of him and it's so funny, Kelly, because he came I I don't know if but I can tell this. I I I saw like he was like, "Mom, I just had this class." And like, "Oh my god, I can't believe it. I got like a 93 and like I was like I wanted to like burst." I was like, I'm like, "That's

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it. That's confidence right there. He's getting confidence." What you're talking about thing, you got it. And then you know, he hasn't looked back. He's, you know, yeah, he's all he's a sports management major. um again has great professors, great teachers, great community, and um it's really nice to see him doing excelling. Yeah. Oh, how cool. I love I love that so much. Amen. We're cheering you on, bud. I think it's great. Yeah. And he can graduate with his bachelor's, so that's nice, too. Yeah. Yeah. He's going to hopefully

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get that bachelor's degree. And that's so cool. I when um whenever we have families who they have multiple generations who come through the college, we call that a legacy family. So, it's really cool that you guys you guys are a legacy family. Um, and I I love that it kind of goes back to mother knows best. I love that. Personally, as a mom, I'm like, yes, that is so true. That is so true. So, Heather, I I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about um you are going to be um kind of in a special role coming up in a few weeks.

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we have our 2025 commencement ceremony happening in the middle of May and you are going to be this year's alumni speaker. How do you feel about that and kind of what are your thoughts on that? Um how I feel about it is certainly honored, you know. Um I really appreciate that. It um yeah, it just really it's unbelievable to me. I just think of myself at 20 years old and you know here I am stepping into Manor in this way and it's just it's it's a little overwhelming to think about you know the

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the your life. Sure. Yeah. You know and stepping the last time I was at manor you know on that kind of stage was when I graduated and then to come back it's pretty awesome. Yeah there you know. It's going to be great. It's going to be great. I think I can't wait to hear can't wait to hear your words of inspiration for our students. I think um there's always something so special. We always have a commencement speaker and then we have our alumni speaker and I I personally love the alumni speaker

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because I just feel like they get it. They've been there in your physical shoes. They totally have like that same perspective. And I think also the students, they see that and they're like, "Oh, wow." Like this person, you know, they were me x number of years ago. And it's just that connection that you just have and the bond that you have with the students. Even if you don't talk to them, even if you don't know them, there's always that like, oh, I went to Manor. You went to Manor. It's just that, you know, it's so cool to to

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have that. Um, thank you for the opportunity. Oh, of course. We're looking forward to having you. I think it's going to be really, really a nice day. So, um, Heather, as we kind of wrap up, I want to ask you one last question. What advice would you have for current students as they are in their college journey? Um, you know, a lot of our students are working as they go to school. A lot of our students also are caregivers. I would say Manor students today, they are busy. They need flexibility. Um, and school is not their

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only thing going on. It's really not. Kind of gone are the days of like, oh, I I'm a college student and like that's all I do. Now it's I work, I take care of people, I got other stuff going on. Um, so what would your advice be for our students? Well, it's certainly in those scenarios, I would say that it's kind of easy to give up on yourself if you have all that going on. Um, you're working, you're taking care of ch, you know, probably parents, children, community. Um, don't give up on yourself. just try if you can to to keep

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going because it's just you're gonna feel awesome when you accomplish that that goal. Um I would say the other thing that I've learned certainly through careers and schools is I I just have always found and and even with my own sta our own staff um surround yourself with good people. like work with good people and trust me you'll have jobs that are offering you all kinds of money but if in your gut you feel like it's not good people or it's not good like I I just have learned so much because I decide to take the path of working with

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people that were good people great mentors helped my own growth and success um so I I really attribute a lot of that to my you know the co-workers I've had the bosses I've had and in turn I hope I give that back to our own staff. Yeah, that that's great. I love what you said about just being surrounded by good people. I think that's something that obviously we strive to be here at the college like we want to be that support to our students so that way they go out into society and kind of pay it

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forward in that sense. So, thank you so much as an alumni for doing that for the community out there. We certainly um are really proud of you and all that you've done and just thank you for today spending some time with me and sharing your story. I hope it was encouraging and inspiring for our listeners. I'm sure it was and I look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks here on uh graduation day. Thank you so much, Kelly, for this time. Thank you for tuning in today. If you like what you

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heard, listen and subscribe on Spotify or YouTube. Stay up to date with all new episodes by following Manor College at Manor College on Instagram. And that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest. Stories about life after Manor College. Remember Blue Jays, you belong here always.

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[Music] hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College i am your host Kelly Peiffer vice president of market and communications and this is the best part of my day my hope is that this podcast will encourage inform and inspire you making you feel like at Manor College you belong here always before we get to today's guest it's time for a segment of the show I like to call did you know did you know that Manor College is home to a Ukrainian heritage museum with rare artifacts embroidery and even Pysanky

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Ukrainian Easter eggs i figured I would talk about this because we are very close to the Easter holiday and Zinka um is popular around this time of year so Ukrainian Easter eggs is called Pysanky or Zinka they are very beautiful but they are a little bit more than just that they're actually steeped in tradition with intricate designs believed to ward off evil we've done a few stories on our websites and a few videos about this before but these are really really unique artifacts that come

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from Ukraine so to make the ancient art of Pysanky you'll need a special stylist called a kistka beeswax dyes and a raw egg we have a curator here her name is Chrystyna Prokopovych and she is wonderful at teaching others how to make Pysanky um so you apply wax in stages and then you use that little stylist and you draw intricate designs and each wax area resists the dye so when the egg is dipped and then you repeat this process of different colors you can build layers and patterns on top of the egg and it

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could be so so unique so finally the wax is kind of melted off to reveal your unique symbolic Pysanka it takes a lot of patience a lot of really um steady hands but the result is a really stunning piece of cultural heritage that you created yourself which is pretty neat so at our Ukrainian Heritage Museum you can find over 200 of these amazing works of art we have over 150 on display like I said our curator Chrystyna Prokopovych she will go to different schools different cultural communities and teach

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how to how to do Pysanka she's taught here a bunch of times to our students it is said that by creating Pysanka we will be keeping a legendary monster chained to ward off that evil so next time you see a Pysanka remember its beauty and powerful story i am now honored to welcome today's alumni guest today we have a fascinating guest who's taken a truly inspiring career journey from their roots in Elkins Park attending Cheltenham High School our guest today spent a decade as a therapist before making a significant pivot in her career

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having earned her paralegal certificate in May of 2018 she is now a litigation lead paralegal at the firm Grant and Eisenhofer in Wilmington Delaware working on multiple mass tors please welcome me in joining Manor alumni from the class of 2018 Rachel Freedman welcome Rachel hi nice to nice to meet you again yeah thank you so much for being with us today and for coming on the nest we're we're so happy to always happy to talk to alumni and um I'm particularly happy to hear your story i think it's a unique one but also one

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that I think a lot of students will probably find some some connection with so if you don't mind us starting off with tell us like why did you choose Manor and how did you first hear about Manor so I like as you said I was a therapist for 10 years i worked with children with autism for majority of that time and I also was an individual therapist um after a while I got pretty burnt out and I was torn between accounting and paralegal i had always been interested in the law um when most people my age uh back in the 90s were

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watching Dawson's Creek I was watching Law and Order LA Law all those legal shows i realize now it's not the same thing but uh basically I was torn between going either accounting or law um I came to Manor College um I think it was like right before the beginning of the January session of 2017 and the people there were just so welcoming i'm like you know what let me try Manor uh pretty much from the very beginning I felt completely welcome um the professors were great um so it was an interesting experience

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because the day after I started paralegal school we found out my dad had stage four cancer and I remember sharing it with my class and they're like "Oh my god why are you here?" I'm like "Honestly to keep my sanity." And my professors were great mary Sims was great um she was a very supportive uh professor advisor everything um my I had Rick Cataldi he was amazing i had a number of different professors and what's great about the Manor paralegal school was that they were all active lawyers they were not or

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paralegals they were not just professors they were actually in the field which I really appreciated um so and for the first time um the people I met there were so welcoming not just the professors but also the people like the individual classmates they ranged from being right out of college to like me changing careers which I could really appreciate i felt for the first time I was accepted unlike the other schools I had been to um I really found my niche there and just really enjoyed it oh that's um

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that's so good to hear i just I and to this day I actually still stay in touch with some of my uh classmates oh I love that i love that so much thank you for sharing that and I think it's so neat how you like took a leap and were like I'm getting burnt out and not just in this job but in this entire career i need to I need to make a switch and what what like bravery it takes to do that i mean that's a really I think scary thing for a lot of people so major kudos to you for for doing that and I'm so glad

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that manner could play a part in in that journey for you and I mean I can't even imagine what an experience like you start a new college you're starting something kind of big and scary in your life and then on top of that your dad gets diagnosed with stage four cancer i mean I'm so glad that you were in a place that was supportive and that was kind of that extended family around you because it sounded like at that time in your life you frankly need that you know you need that support um and um you know

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some of those professors were able to do that for you i know Mary Sims actually just yesterday we celebrated her retirement with a retirement party um and she's been working at Manor for 33 years so certainly she has touched a lot of lives of a lot of students and I'm so happy one of them was yours um Oh my god Mary was awesome actually um yeah any good Mary stories since we're so we have an amazing Mary story actually yeah so like I said my dad had stage four cancer and actually my cat was diagnosed with

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cancer not too long after that oh my gosh so this was like I think it was like May of 2017 and I literally was planning to go to see Mary to pick out my next classes for the summer and that morning I actually had to put my cat down because she had cancer and I and my mom was with my dad in a doctor's appointment for him and I I dealt with it i put my cat down and I came to Manor and I just like balled in her office probably for a good hour and she was just so supportive she gave me a hug she's like "We're going to get

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through this." She was just so amazing and actually she's a Facebook friend of mine like I can't She's been amazing she's been an amazing mentor confidant on everything oh that that is so great we're going to have to take that clip my our producer Anthony might need to snatch that clip that you just said and share it on Instagram or something because we've been we've been sharing Mary Mary's stories all week now and we have to add that to the collection that is just unfortunate for your cat but

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also a real testament to who who she is and how she treats students that's I I love that thank you for sharing that you're very welcome so it sounds like you came to Manor kind of at the right time in your life where like you kind of need those supports around you um so you were at Manor for about 18 months I would say a year and a half right about a year and a half um okay yeah i kind of did because I already had I actually had a masters I only needed to take the 10 classes sure sure so I did I think I did

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three in the fall i mean yeah three in the fall no sorry three in the spring two in the summer both with Mary and then three in the fall and then I did my uh internship that's great that's great so yeah how how was it transitioning like from I'm a professional I'm a therapist to I'm now a college student like what was that like for you because that could be kind of tricky for some you know I love being a student i love learning and like I said from my first day in paralegal school I'm like "This is

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where I want to be." Um my professors were amazing this was like where I should have always been um when I was in when I was in college I had some growing pains and um I kind of went towards the psychology field when I feel like I always was meant to be in the legal field so it kind of felt like this is the right time for me not to mention like I said there were other people even older than me who were in the midst of a career change so we really bonded over that that time of like okay this insecurity this stepping out of our

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comfort zone of our careers and really making that like you said that leap into a whole new career yeah that's great i think having peers along with you who are like "Oh yeah i'm I'm older too or I'm even older than you are and I'm right there with you." Like that makes you feel a little more reassured in what you're doing definitely and what was nice is like the classes like I bonded with people who were right out of college like I said bonded with people who were older than me um and just really like I said like I've

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been in multiple multiple educational experiences and programs and for the first time manner I was with my people that's how I felt i felt like I was with my people um I remember I was taking it was like in electronics was like learning about the different programs for being a paralegal and I remember there were like three or four of us who literally would stand outside after class it was an evening class and we would stand outside for like hours just talking about life about class about everything and I remember like one

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person like his girlfriend would be like "Are you coming home?" Cuz like the class would end at like 8:39 and sometimes we didn't leave till 10:30 11 we would literally stand in that um in the parking lot and just chitchat all night long right right well when you find your people it's hard to stop talking you know you just feel so um comfortable with them that's so cool to hear so kind of take us through um you graduate in 2018 you've been working as a paralegal for seven almost eight years now do you still feel like this is

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my thing I should you know and has it been that like sense of confidence and and as you continue in your career you know it's interesting um I actually I my first professor actually hired me part-time right out of right out of graduation um at the time my dad was still very sick and I needed a very flexible experience so he's like I will hire you part-time so I was part-time paralegal doing disability um my actually my in my uh internship person was like "You can stay on." That was an employment law so I was literally

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working part-time as an employment uh intern paralegal part-time as a disability paralegal and I was also working part-time at the part-time job I had started when I started um at Manner so I was literally working three part-time jobs wow just so I could have the flexibility of helping my mom out with my dad sure sure so I really got like dug in into that and that the disability paralegal job was it really I realized like I was meant maybe at some point if I had changed careers long ago nursing doctoring being

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a doctor I don't know cuz pretty much the majority of what my job is now is going through medical records and finding that um that needle in a hay stack that proof of injury that proof of use so yeah can you actually take a step back and explain for us what working on mass tors means if I had to look that up myself um in my my show research so if you could maybe share what that means i think that's really interesting and really specific type of of law you're Sure actually that was my first full-time job

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was a master basically what we do is we sue bad drug companies um the bottom line is a lot of pharmaceutical companies okay let me take another step back the pharmaceutical companies are basically who pay for the FDA they're the ones who pay the FDA so you can imagine there's some back and forth going on right so basically what we do is when a drug has come out and we find later that there's some severe side effects that they didn't tell people or they kind of lowballed the severity we go after

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that um so where you've got when you've got like your regular like personal injury medical malpractice you've got maybe 50 60 70 clients at one time in mass sort like for instance I probably have maybe about a thousand clients or more at this point um in approximately five or six different masters so for instance um we are doing we are the head uh law firm in the Gilead uh lawsuit which is in California that is an HIV drug they are one of the largest um pharmaceutical companies in the country and in the

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world they came out with pharmaceutical drugs for people with HIV and unfortunately those drugs caused more injury and death than they led on to so that we're doing Gilead um I'm sure you've heard of Johnson and Johnson and the talcum powder we do that uh let me think uh Roundup I'm in I'm in charge of that one as a paralegal and also I'm sure you've heard of the Camp Lejeune case um all those military personnel their families their friends who drank the water and now have 50 60 years later are suffering severe side effects so

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basically what mass sword is is rather than it's like a class action but the difference the way I tell talk about it is because it's a health issue every single person is taken differently so let's say you have a class action for a bank that they committed fraud and everybody gets the same amount it doesn't work that way in mass because everybody's health consequences are different so for instance you've got people who had cancer and passed away they would be they wouldn't be able to get more money than somebody who survived and

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maybe only had like a fatty liver or something so everything is taken into consideration in an individual case so I mean this is it's so much my goodness the volume of things that you need to know is insane not only the legal stuff but you also need to know medical i mean yes my goodness Rachel I don't know how you do it because this is How does one brain even think of all that that's so um just hard to wrap my head around it frankly well honestly that first I I would say like almost year working in the disability law

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really helped a lot cuz I literally spent hours on end going through medical records trying to pinpoint the worst injuries to basically say "Hey Social Security Administration this guy deserves disability because they have such and such injuries." Now it comes to um basically proving now with mass tort um rather than looking at one or two people like I said you're looking at thousands yeah sure wow well incredible and I'm so happy that there are people like you doing this type of work because it's certainly needed and

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hopefully just so appreciated by your thousands of clients um so kind of tying things back a little bit here um how can you see the value that your time at Manor brought to where you are in your career today you know for one thing um like I said like I I had a lot of difficulty being accepted where I wasn't have I had a low self-esteem when I first came to Manor um having been burnt out and having had all those experiences um I finally found my niche found my self-esteem found my confidence um and you know I went from going to a

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small firm in Master changing a couple times um trying to find where I really belonged to my husband finally saying "You can do this." Like I when I started mass tort at a different firm I was the only paralegal on three different mass tor cases but I had maybe 3 400 cases when it came time to finding a new job my husband's like "You can do this you can handle this." And I I basically jumped in jumped out of my comfort zone and said "You know what you're right i can." And the great thing about Gran and

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Eisenhofer was um they really let me grow in that field like I went from being what's called a client paralegal just basically doing the day and day day to day reaching out to clients reaching out going through medical records to they finally they're like you know what you can do this you can do the litigation and and I grew in that field like I started as a client paralegal and now I'm a litigation lead in multiple um and also when I hear from my clients and my attorneys you're doing a great job i really appreciate you that really

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really helps that um I literally have clients who love to reach out to me and talk to me and just tell me what's going on and that's actually it's interesting because that's where my therapy experience really helps in the matter is that um these clients that I have that I'm dealing with that I talk to every day they're going through it they're very sick they're going through trauma they're going through crisis and they feel comfortable enough to confide in me they reach out to me they're like "Hey I

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need to talk to you." Um I have reps uh who are representatives of clients who have deceased who call me and they cry to me and I feel honored that they feel comfortable enough to cry to me to talk to me that they're like I need to talk to you because this is what's going on yeah wow well I think that's it's so cool to hear that like you're seeing how your experience as a therapist is helping you serve these people now and that Manor gave you the confidence to take that leap and now you know with

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your husband cheering you on and your own kind of self hopefully self-esteem um you know you're feeling confident that like yeah I can do this I can help people and and I think as you're talking and sharing about what you do and how you help people and and Yes it's a job so obviously like you know you are making a living doing this and that's that's so great but also I think you are serving society in such a a really special way and like I was just thinking about how um our our mission at Manor College our mission statement the

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last line in our mission says that Manor graduates are prepared to serve society effectively and compassionately and I feel like you are just a walking breathing living example of that so um I'm I'm so happy to to hear it and see it and just hear your story and I hope that anyone listening is is feeling encouraged and inspired too because I think how can they not be you know it's so cool to see um as we wrap up here Rachel do you have any advice for current Manor students who are kind of in in student life and in college life

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right now and you're kind of on the other end of that any advice or encouragement for them yes actually I do um when I was in college I was so focused on the degree on the grades on everything and I missed out on like the the social life and finding myself and it took me till I was 35 36 to really find what I loved like take your time enjoy the social life get involved in the activities and you know what if you don't know what you want to major in that's okay like explore the classes i so wish when I was in undergrad that I

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had taken more electives that I had taken more classes to really find myself and the other thing is like you don't need to be focused on that it's great to have wonderful grades but in the long run what's going to matter is your development as a human being as a person finding your passions finding what you want to do for the rest of your life and focusing on that take that take your youth and take that time to explore yourself to explore everything that life has to offer because by the time you get to my

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age you're just you're kind of stuck in a you can get stuck in a rut and I'm actually so glad that I had that burnout that I chose to change careers at the time I did because I think if I would have stayed as a therapist much longer I don't know if I would have had that impetus to change careers so you know what man our students are mostly undergrads they're 18 19 take your time if you want to take four five six years to figure out what your major is do it there is no rush in this world take your

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time find yourself find your passion and when you're ready to graduate and become an adult do it because adulting is not all cracked up to be right but I think I think just your sentiment of like you know kind of enjoy your college years because they are fleeting obviously and like find your people find your niche find yourself is really important you know college is not just about in a classroom and and that's it homework and the studies it's it's kind of it's definitely a holistic experience and we certainly strive to be

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that here at Manor College where students are getting holistically growing in themselves and not just in their studies so well said thank you so much Rachel for being with us today i really enjoyed our conversation and I know our listeners will enjoy it as well thank you for tuning in today if you like what you heard listen and subscribe on Spotify or YouTube stay up to date with all new episodes by following Manor College on Instagram at Manor College and that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest stories about life after Manor

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College remember Blue Jays you belong here always [Music]

No Content

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[Music] hello blue jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College I am your host Kelly Peiffer vice president of marketing Communications and this is definitely the best part of my day my hope is that this podcast will encourage inform and inspire you making you feel like at Manor College you belong here always before we get to today's guest it is time for a segment I like to call did you know did you know that Ukraine's first president Leonid Kravchuk visited Manor College's campus on Mother's Day May

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10th 1992 the world remembers president Kravchuk as the man who led Ukraine to Independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union he served as Ukraine's president from 1991 to 1994 following his election in 1991 Kravchuk visited Manor College campus as part of a larger tour of Philadelphia on Mother's Day May 10th Kravchuk's visit was organized by Dr Leonid Rudnytzky a then Lasalle University professor and father of Manor College's dean of academic Services Nicholas Rudnytzky recently this past December Dr Rudnytzky

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passed away at the age of 89 and he is remembered very fondly here at Manor so this was really an exciting day an exciting time for Manor having such a pronounced and um just really important person in the world come to Manor's campus so here's kind of what happened following Ukraine's Independence on December 8th 1991 Dr Rudnytzky thought that it would be really good if we could have Kravchuk President Kravchuk visit Philadelphia and in the academic community that surrounds Philadelphia that is Ukrainian

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so as a professor teaching Ukrainian literature over at Lasalle um Dr Rudnytzky had contacts with some Ukrainian diplomats so three weeks before Lasalle's 1992 commencement Dr Rudnytzky spoke to brother Patrick Ellis and he received a go ahead to confirm an honorary degree to Kravchuk and then that left Dr Rudnytzky to organize a tour of Philadelphia in just three weeks because the president was going to come to Philadelphia so on this multi-day tour Kravchuk would see the Ukrainian cathedral in Center City he had traffic stopped for him on the

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Schuylkill to watch the boats on the river and um Dr Rudnytzky said that President Kravchuk left most Amazed by Manor College we are the only institution in the United States founded by Ukrainian sisters and that has such Rich Ukrainian Heritage Kravchuk's visit was well attended with an estimated over a thousand people here on campus to welcome him um he toured our Ukrainian Heritage Center which is currently called the Ukrainian Heritage Museum and he sat for a meeting with the Sisters of St basil the great um the entire tour

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received a lot of international press coverage Publications from even China and Japan covered the event so it was really an exciting time for Manor College um to have him on campus and we will always remember that now I am honored to welcome today's alumni guests someone who embodied is a spirit of hard work and continuous learning today's guest comes from Lviv Ukraine and then made their way to Manor College they pursued their passion for business focusing on Business Administration and general management they started studying

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towards their associate degree but the moment Manor College launched our bachelor's program they were right back in the classroom demonstrating their unwavering commitment to education and pursued a bachelor's degree graduating from Manor in 2020 today's alumni guest is currently a software developer Aztec Inc a software company in Bucks County PA please join me in welcoming to the show a proud alumni Zoryana Kaspryak Hi Zoryana how are you hi I'm good how are you I'm good thank you so much for being with us

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today can you start us off by sharing with us why did you choose Manor and how did you first learn about Manor College uh sure um so I got here like 15 years ago when I didn't understand the um college system like how it works like where do I start so my friend she recommended Manor College and I was like I wasn't sure at the beginning I was like I don't know if I can actually do it it was too complicated for me I didn't know how would I start like in like like just like studying in in the United States you know uh but she was

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like yeah Manor is like really good also because Manor has like Ukrainian Heritage like there are a lot of people who will be able to help you and explain you if you don't understand anything and I was like okay because like it's like we have too many nuances from the financial perspective from the transferring perspective so of course I didn't know any of this um so when I got to the manor the first time and I actually remember it I was like oh my God it's so so complicated it's it's it's probably way too much so I started

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like slowly um I remember I got like just one class my first class because I wasn't sure how it's going to go um uh because the even the the system is too different so I just didn't know and to be honest I enjoy it I was enjoying like every class and I was like wow it's so interesting like this is my favorite part to be honest because because I never knew that like to be a college student can be so interesting like every class you're learning like some real life examples like like real life it's

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not like something that you just like okay it was like 50 years ago and I just enjoy it and this is how I started oh that's great that's so cool I'm so I'm so grateful to that friend who knew us and recommended us and was like hey they're they're Ukrainian and you're Ukrainian and might you might fit in there and and and not be so complicated because I I mean I can't imagine moving from another country and then having to navigate the higher education process or any education process it's complicated

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enough when you've grown up here your whole life frankly um so major major Kudos and and really impressed with how how you did that so you started studying foreign Associates in business where does that passion for business come from and kind of why would you want to study business uh because I have associate degree from L Ukraine and it's in finance so I was a kind of like business person at that point and um like I said because I didn't understand like how does it work and what should I proceed

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actually I changed my major like two times uh because my friend she recommended me like maybe you can start like in like from like marketing degree and I was like okay and then um to be honest like I was I remember my class and even if I enjoyed so much like I don't know like I can just say like for every like Professor like teacher that I had I learned so much that I'm still using it like it's literally like that and but I was like I was scared to be honest like at that be like at that time I was like marketing like how can I do

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it and business administration was like okay it's like I have multiple path that I can go so maybe it's G it's just going to be like easier for me sure sure and that that makes perfect sense you know I didn't you didn't want to like narrow your focus you want to something more broad so then you can kind of get a general sense and then go eventually choose a pathway um makes makes perfect sense and that's really good I think strategic planning on your part to to look at it look at things like that um

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that that's so cool so it sounds like you really were enjoying your time as a college student um enjoying your classes that that's so cool so take me through um so you started doing Associates and then you stayed for a bachelor's degree kind of talk me through that and um we we became bachelor's granting in 2018 you started your journey in 2015 so you were kind of right in there when we first launched men I think you were one of our first students ever to get a bachelor's degree from Manor what when

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did you find out that we were going to offer bachelors and what kind of what was your reaction I remember as today like because it was so funny I was to be honest sad when I graduated um and and I got my associates I was like oh my God like I don't want to leave like I was I remember because I know my adviser he was the best and even when it was a time when I had to go to another one I actually asked Mark Minnick if I can stay with him and I returned back to him I'm like I don't want to change you you know

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and I was like I was I remember I was keep asking uh Mark I was like Mark I I knew that you were like guys like working on it like to get that like uh to launch the um bachelor's degree and I was like when is going to happen and he was like it's going to be soon believe me and I remember I was like I saw like probably on Facebook or I don't remember and I saw that you launched like the the bachelor's program I was like what so I was working and I was like actually I asked my manager I said like I have to

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go to like manner because I was so worried that I can't get you know what I mean in time and just like just to start like right away um I don't even remember what months it was but I was like I was like I have to be right now because if they GNA start without me this is not how it works you know so I got there and I was like Yay finally and Mark was like oh you got back I'm like yeah because I was so excited like to to continue with you guys I'm not just like I just can't explain how much how much I love and how

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much I enjoyed like saying in manner so it was just like so surprisingly I was like yes finally I can go so I to be honest like I knew that I want to get like Bachelors but I didn't even like look at any other colleges like I applied because I was the I remember the process and it was like oh you have to apply and I applied I got some scholarships but because I knew that like manner is gonna launch that this program I just decided like to wait like I was like just give me like couple months because I just graduated maybe I

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just can have like a little you know what I mean break from this and as soon as I heard that news I was like I'm in I'm gonna yes I like it I like it that that's so funny um wow I like how you were like dedicated and you were on the ball you're like I gotta I gotta leave work I gotta go I gotta go so really um wow how what what good perseverance you have there thank you for for doing that and my gosh we really appreciate that so much um so you graduated in 2020 with your bachelors in in business um talk to me about what has

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your career Journey been like and and kind of where have you found yourself out in in the career world uh it it to be honest it all starts from manner anyway uh because actually when I started like my bachelor's I got into business analytics and I enjoyed again every class to be honest and my last semester it was like with the president Perry and we had like it was like I don't remember the name it was like organizational leadership leadership something like and we had like multiple speakers and like I don't know like I to

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be honest it was pretty complicated for me because I was working full-time and I would take my my lunch to get to um Manor College to get my class with Dr Perry because I knew that it's like he had like just one class in this like uh from one to two I don't remember the time and I was like I I I enjoy it like to be like just a business person and from the perspective of business analytics I really enjoy it but when I started like looking into um job market I noticed that they knew they wanted a

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lot of companies they wanted like to have like me to have some a programming language language and I was like okay so how do I move what's what's my next step like should I just get like I was a little bit confused about that again I talked to my adviser and Mark was like okay you can you can get like business administration with the business analytics certificate so you're going to be like here and there and I also wanted to get um you have some it program I don't remember the name so I was ready

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to get this at program but at that time Co hits and I'm like okay it's like like all the stuff it was just on a pause and we were like we didn't know what to do how to move like what's going on what's going to be next and that's why it was like also because I literally graduated in like May 2020 it was just that Spike that nobody like just like knew what's was going to happen tomorrow to be honest you know what I mean and this is how I just actually at that time I contacted uh president Perry and I asked

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I was like okay what should I do like can you give me some advices and and by that I got my business analytics internship with John Krebs remember yeah yeah yeah I stayed from July 2020 to December 2020 as a business analyst um like this like internship program and again I enjoy it so much that like I just can't like express my feelings because it was like it was very interesting to be honest like working on it I would like work on I would help because at that time I I had like again my full-time job and I

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remember I was doing like different like um graphics and like just different like analytical just like using like analytical tools for the students like blah blah blah so I would do this like until 2 pm 2 am and my husband would be like like are you tired I'm like no I have to finish it I was like just so impressed and I just enjoy it so much um and after that right after that I just uh my friend she just introduced me to the it school and they were like it wasn't like even it school it was like

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software developer uh school so it was like super deep into like programming and when I started like I I was just like to be honest like I never like was thinking to leave like business analytics um you know what I mean I was just like okay since I got all this knowledge let me try to be a software developer so this is how I ended up but my backup is like always to be a business analyst since like manner that's awesome wow I I thank you for all of that backstory and I also think it's so cool how um you're you're

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name dropping lots of manner people and that's kind of what I always want to I always want to impress upon others like when you're a student at manner if you want to seize opportunities we have folks here who are are very open and very willing to pour into you like but students have to just kind of kind of let themselves let others help you you know so you mentioned Mark Minnick who is a former faculty and um Dean um you mentioned Dr Peri our current president you mentioned John Krebs our um current

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um director of institutional research and like you found opportunities to let people find you help you serve you and and and then then it serves you later on in life so that's really really cool to hear that those folks were influential with you and and kind of acting as mentors and advisers for you because I I always recommend students like get involved talk to people network with people we want to help that's why we're here it doesn't always just have to be your professors it could be staff members it could be others others here

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so that's so cool to hear and my gosh I don't know Zoryana I don't how you did it like working full-time being a student being a wife like all those things having a social life like that's just um you must not sleep a whole lot or you just have you have such an energy about you it's really it's infectious for sure so um So currently you're a software developer um what is that like kind of what are you working on and do you see is that an area where um you would recommend Manor students look into this

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as a career I would say it's definitely challenging it's not that easy um because usually you have to know like multiple languages and this field it's like it's it's it's you have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow you have to be super like Fast learn learner and you have to learn every single day it's a lot but I really enjoy it all also because my company uh we are like um working on the Epro tablet so what do we do it's like when it um Clinic they have a study for example they study like some um medication

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medicine whatever it is we like um basically developing the tablet or right now we have it's like app on the like mobile app so basically those patients can take the medicine and then they can fill out the journey like survey and after that the we they just like it goes back to the clinic and they know if the that medicine works or not so I'm literally helping people it's not like just like just like usually people saying like what's programming what does it mean what what like how does it work

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yes you do have like some weird like words and you've seen like some like screens yeah it is but the end product what you see that you actually can help people and usually this is what you do in like most of the cases it's like I don't know it's so exciting for me because some people for example okay they can develop games again it's so cool that you can actually because usually games they can just like teach something you know this and that you actually help it always you know and this is what like my like priority I

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don't know like I this is what I enjoy so I would definitely say like yes you like it's a great journey that you can just learn a lot you just like it's so much opportunities it's like we have so many this programming languangues it's just like whatever the person like would like to be and they can proceed that Journey that that's so cool and I think I think what you said about like how there can be misconception around people who work in programming or in um just computer science and just how like

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you're you're doing it maybe for a business or to make money um and you're saying like no actually I'm helping people yes obviously it's a business yes I'm I'm able to make money because it's a job but like it's serving others it's helping people you're helping with their medical um and there's tons of applications out there for that and it's really cool that you you've kind of aligned like a mission with it um something that I I always like to talk about when I when I find alumni who are out there doing really just great work

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is that you know Manor's Mission the last line of our mission says that we um we educate students to be prepared to serve Society effectively and compassionately and I feel like as you're talking as you're sharing about what you're doing in the world you definitely are doing that so just thank you so much for being a living breathing walking Testament to the mission of Manor College that is exactly what um you know when we have students here that we're they're going through their programs and education we

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want them to see them five years 10 years 20 years out of college serving Society serving others um and kind of just living that mission so it's really cool to see you doing that and I'm just super impressed with everything that you have you have going on um kind of as a final go ahead go ahead it's to be honest it it goes from manner because every my every Professor they were so like motivated people they would like motivate me to be a better person I I would like every after like especially because like uh Dr Perry he had like

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just my last class and I was like so impressed because we had like multiple speakers but when I like just like heard those people like speaking how they like would help like people and stuff it was all about like motivation like to make this like world like better I was impressed I literally like it was like I remember it was even a day when I talked to my HR in my credit union and I was like oh what can we do for like our employees like like it was like that that's why he just like led me to right

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now to this position and it's still because like yes my mission is to help people I'm enjoying like to make this work like better you know yeah that that's that's beautiful to hear and such a great Testament to to you um I'm often reminded of uh there's a proverb Proverbs 277 and it says as iron sharpens iron so one person sharpens another so like as as you are out there serving others and helping people that'll encourage others to do the same you know so I think it's really cool to to see you doing that so as we kind of

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wrap up my final question that I I ask our alumni is what advice would you give to Manor students um or even high school students who are considering you know their college options what advice would you give them about um preparing going to college preparing for the college search and what you've learned to be honest I would say just do it what I mean by that uh it's impossible to know like right away what do you want to do it's impossible to know like what do where do you want to go like what like

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Ma it's impossible it's like sometimes yeah there are people that can do this and it's like I don't know they have some some like inner world that is like okay I I want to be a doctor or I want to be this or that it doesn't matter you know what I mean but usually we just like so confused and we have no idea where to go and yes we should proceed to college we should go there and those people would be like amazed and impressed that every like if I'm talking about manner because this is my experience every person every employee

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and I mean like Financial ad advisors like every person like even this my advisor it was like every person just impacted me with like some little like puzzle you know what I mean just some piece of the puzzle and after that I got my whole picture this is only after that after I proceeded after I was listening my like professors and teachers and I was like oh wow wow they just impressed me so much that it was just like led me basically to where I am right now that's great yeah definitely and like just do

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it is always a good and simple advice but how you expanded upon um why just to do it and that every little person at an institution at a college played a piece of that larger puzzle which is you you're the puzzle putting it together and your career um and I I always I always tell other people this I know our missions team lives by this our marketing team um our Administration but like the students are really the hero in our story Manor we're just kind of the guide but the students are the hero um we're

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we're not necessarily the hero but we want to be obviously helping the heroes along in their journey and and be a part of that story so I I love talking to you today Zoryana thank you so much for being with us today and I wish you nothing but the best thank you so watching thank you for tuning in today if you like what you heard listen on Spotify and YouTube and make make sure you subscribe to never miss an episode stay up to date with all episodes and all things happening around Manor College by following Manor College

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on Instagram at Manor College that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest stories about life after Manor College remember Blue Jays you belong here always [Music]

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hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College i am your host Kelly Peiffer 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 making you feel confident that at Manor College you belong here always what I've learned from talking with hundreds of Manor alumni over my 12 years of working for the college is that everyone has their own story and that Manor's influence big or small remains

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this constant thread and connection to each other before we get to today's guest it is time for a segment called Did You Know for today's did you know did you know that over 60% of Manor College students are first generation college students this means that they are the first in their families to attend and graduate from college just so we are clear what does being a first generation college student actually mean what if your cousin or your sibling went to college before you are you still first gen these are questions we hear

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often and I wanted to make sure we all understand yes as long as you are in the first generation of your family that attends college you and your siblings and your cousins are all in the same generation so just because they are older than you doesn't mean that you are not first gen you still are and your cousins and your siblings are as well because you're in that same generation together this is a big deal and something that we talk about a lot at Manor um I love hearing stories from our alumni and our students who are first

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generation college students about what it means to them to be first gen because usually it carries a lot of weight so one of our Manor alumni China mckinney she graduated with her degree in pre-nursing in 2023 china is the oldest of 12 12 kids i remember China she was a work study in um our advancement office so we would see her often in the offices and I remember her saying that her brothers and her sisters would be really sad when she would leave the house to go to college and come to here to Manor and

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that she really felt this big sense of like responsibility to go to college to graduate to show her siblings like this is what you do this is what you can do these are the possibilities and um we did a story on China when she was a student and I I looked back at that story recently and one of the quotes that kind of grabbed me was was this she said "I went to college for myself but I felt like I had to go to college and finish for them too." Referring to her 12 siblings what um what an honor it was

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for China to go to college but really what an honor it was for us to have China as a student and now an alum who's um she's going through a nursing school i am honored to welcome today's alumni guest today we have a truly inspiring guest joining us Riley Stone Riley is a Manor College graduate who's passionate about early childhood education and giving back to her community she is a Northeast Philadelphia native and a Mass Charter High School alum while at Manor Riley earned her associates degree in early

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childhood education in 2020 Riley's story is one of resilience and dedication she was actively involved on campus participating in the early childhood education club and contributing to Rotoract Club work with the Eagles Autism Challenge perhaps most impressively Riley founded her own charity Funds for Families after experiencing a traumatic brain injury at the age of 11 through this charity she crafts various items to raise money for gift cards which are then distributed to families with children experiencing

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long-term hospital stays at the Ronald McDonald House these cards and crafts help families with essential expenses like meals gas and clothing during challenging times currently Riley is determined to work in the field despite challenges she's faced she credits Dr Cherie Crosby Weeks at Manor College for making significant impact on her journey providing invaluable support and guidance during her transition from college to adult life we are thrilled to have Riley with us today welcome Riley hello

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hi thanks for being with us today okay so Riley start us off by sharing with us why did you choose Manor College and how did you find out about Manor College i chose MA I found out about Manor College um my mom saw it in the newspaper and she thought it would be a good fit because it was small and easy to maneuver with everything that happened to me my cognitive um disability and um everybody was just so nice and easy to talk to and the professors were very um it was just very small and like I said I wasn't getting lost there and the

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professors were just very approachable and helpful that's great yeah we hear we hear often that um the size really does make a difference in our students lives and how they find out about us and they're really attracted to kind of the small close-knit feel so that that's good to hear that you also resonated with that so describe to me your Manor experience what were you involved with what was kind of a day in the life as as a Riley at Manor like for you well it was really um nice because something I

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always cherished was my pop when my grandfather was alive he would drive me to Manor and that was like his big thing of his day like it was a big fighting so um he would drive me to school and I was I was a commuter so um and then I was my my day was I would go to two classes and then I would do two classes online at home i I just go I just would go Tuesdays and Thursdays and then the other days I would just do like my exercises at home i had a pretty good thing going i could go out with my dad i could just like

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spend time with family and then um I was involved with the clubs the early childhood club um just got involved with the groups and helping out with Sheree sheree was very big on if you're going to be a teacher you have to learn how to give back and you have to learn how to help families and children so she instilled that in us and taught us that example and um the community engagement like the um student life was very good they taught us how to um they always had dances and events and kept us busy

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that's great that's great so it sounds like you had some family involvement obviously you were doing your studies and then you were also working on getting involved from a student perspective and giving back that that's really cool and I love the the story you shared about your grandfather driving you and how that was a real highlight of his day i'm often pleasantly surprised that I I see not not the majority but um a number of students who get dropped off by family members and I think of one student in particular she's a current

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student right now her name is Natasha Moore and her dad drives her to campus every day and and he seems to love it he seems to like that's a part of his day that's part of his Yeah so it's really nice how um we kind of have that you know it's it's a familiar family feel that's really cool to see so for you what what about education really um makes you passionate and and lights that fire in you that you want to be an educator um I'm an all around like I like to help people like I like to um just be

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involved with people and have my hand a very hands-on i like to um just be like a big brother a big sister kind of like a a mentor to people like I've been through a lot of people i've been through a lot of like especially it's hard being a girl and growing up growing pains so I try to be like a light to young people like to like you're going to get there it's okay it's just you know it's you're going to have it's going to be a better day your future you got a whole future ahead of you kind of trying to just

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teach them during these hard times like like I've been through it and you like don't give up don't give up always always good advice no matter what you're going through in life and that's that's great um so so tell me have you had a chance to work in an education setting or are you still looking for that opportunity um I work at my church a little bit and um I worked a little bit in education and then I got kind of a little bit sick again so right now I'm kind of like looking like that's why I kind of wanted

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to talk a little bit on like if you have like if you go one way don't stress like you can always go a different way and you can always um do things on your own time like you don't have to worry about like what everybody else does like there's no timetable on what everybody like what everybody's working or there's no like work will always be there and you can um do things you have to work you have to um take care of yourself first before you can help other people and that's why I am with everything that happened to me when I

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was younger I'm a little bit behind independence wise because I um so I'm working on managing my medications better and learning how to do my doctor's appointments so I'm going to a um pretty soon I'll be going away to like a residential rehab for traumatic brain injuries and they can help me with my independence and they can help me just be able to kind of like get to work and you know they'll help me with all that job support but I'll be living on my own but kind of like under some supervision a little bit until I'm ready

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to really fly so everybody goes everybody has their own path I believe and you know you get there when you get there absolutely i I couldn't agree more and I think it's really inspiring how you are um self-aware of kind of your own situation and that you know I'm sure there's times of frustration where you want to be maybe somewhere further along in your journey and you're not or just things like that but how you're kind of um being an encouragement to others and saying like it's okay don't give up be

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resilient and and kind of finding what works for you i mean that's that's wonderful and I think that resonates with a lot of people um and that everyone's path is different and you might think oh in two years I'm going to be here but life doesn't always work like that sometimes life is life and um you know we have to be flexible um but also you know positive so that's that's really good to hear thank you for sharing that so what would you say is um some advice that you have for current Manor students who are maybe you know

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they're in in their semester right now midterms are coming up soon and um some are you know maybe struggling with academics and just kind of going through college life what's some advice you would give as someone who's kind of been through it um I guess like what you said like struggling with academics like I really really the tutoring lab got me through it like I really spent hours and hours in that tutoring lab and um social socializing like um being involved with the groups helped me um just just being being on time to

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class and just keeping your hands involved keeping your hands in there cuz you never know when somebody like you're going to down the road like hey Sheree by the way like is there any um early childhood opportunities or you just want to keep your um networks networking and yeah definitely and not I always tell alumni students whoever you know not just networking with your professors while you're a student but keep those connections alive post graduation you know stay connected to them on social media LinkedIn

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Facebook um because you just never know when paths are going to cross or when opportunities come come to them and then they want to spread it to their alumni and students so making sure that that network is still strong but foster those relationships when you're a student obviously and you know seize your opportunities when you can because um you're only a student for so long so you kind of can can use those opportunities but that's but that's great Riley i'm so happy to hear that um you're you're

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you're working on things and you're trying to um make sure set yourself up for the future and looking for that job support and and independent living i think those are really big important steps for you and I'm I'm excited to kind of see where where things go for you is there anything that you're really looking forward to in 2025 i'm just looking forward to kind of like when like when I got sick and everything people kind of started I don't know not in a bad way in a help in a good way but people started helping me

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with a lot of things and wanting to be helpful and so I'm looking forward to kind of finding my own and I want to try to just figure out what I like and who I am and like like I said sometimes you go a different way sometimes what you went to school for might not be your thing or might have got like just noted for I did like early I am very good with children children but I'm also very passionate about people with disabilities i help with a camp every summer it's called ability tree and it's just amazing amazing camp and it's just

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they they instill in you like people with disabilities are just people it's not rocket science how to get along with them you just got to talk to them it's like one of my passions one another thing I'm very passionate about sure of course and I think it it totally makes sense that um whatever you studied in college that might not be where you go in the future and that's that's probably more normal than not I would say honestly I think a lot of people you know they studied business and then they

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end up being a teacher or they studied education and then they end up going into nonprofit or you know just um but I think some of the core skills that you learn in a college setting and some of those core memories that you make can still apply to many different fields and and focuses so that's really cool to see well thank you so much for talking to us today Riley i really appreciate you taking the time thank you thank you for tuning in today if you like what you heard listen and subscribe on Spotify or YouTube and stay up to date

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with all new episodes by following Manor College on Instagram @ Manor College that's a wrap on another episode of the nest stories about life after Manor College remember Blue Jays you belong here always

00:00
[Music] hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College I am your host Kelly Peiffer 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 making you feel like at mayor College you belong here always did you know that mayor College now offers a practical nursing degree program started in 2023 the 70 credit program leads to an associate of science degree in practical nursing and prepares

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students to take the National Council lure Examination for practical nursing this program can be completed in 15 months and combines Hands-On lab and clinical experiences with general education courses it equips students with the knowledge and skills needed to work as LPN's or pursue a registered nurse RN degree l PN provide basic patient care under the supervision of RNs and doctors in various Health Care settings including hospitals nursing homes doctor's offices and so let's talk about what is

01:11
the demand for an LPN so the demand for an LPN right now in the Greater Philadelphia area is pretty strong driven by factors such as an aging population the ongoing need for health care services numerous facilities including hospitals nursing homes healthcare agencies are constantly seeking out qualified LPNs and according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics the employment rate is projected to grow 3% from 2023 to 2033 projecting that about 54,000 openings for LPNs will remain open on average year over-year over the next 10

01:51
years so there's certainly a lot of Need for LPN out there in the Philly area and at Manor we're really excited and um grateful to be offering an LPN program to hopefully fulfill some of those workplace um needs out there so having a career as an LPN lends itself to a lot of flexible work there's flexible shift options there's per diem work so this is a really good career if someone is looking to um have a flexible job with their life maybe they're a parent or a caregiver or they have other things going on in their life where they they

02:24
need some flexibility in their job so being an LPN is one of those jobs that really has a lot of options so if you or someone you know wants to learn more about Manor's LPN practical nursing program I recommend you visit manor.edu and look into to get started today now I am honored to welcome today's alumni guest today's guest embodies dedication perseverance and the power of Education born and raised right here in Philadelphia in the Cheltenham area Our Guest is a proud graduate of Cheltenham high school earning an

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associate ass of Arts degree in Psychology from Manor College in 2012 while at Manor she found herself busy helping other students as a tutor and was a finalist for our prestigious mother josephat medal award after Manor she continued her education at Chestnut Hill College and we'll talk about further other education that she pursued now they are making a difference in the lives of Young Learners every day currently is a first grade teacher with the school District of Philadelphia working at Northeast Community Propel

03:33
Academy please join me join me in welcoming a true Testament to the transformative power of Education a proud Manor College alumni and a passionate educator Janay Watts welcome Janay hi thank you for having me you are welcome it's a pleasure to talk to you today so kind of start us off by sharing with us how did you first find out about Manor College and why did you choose to attend so I found out about Manor through my sister who I believe at the time was a coach so her name was Sharia Sharia Watts she used to work at Manor um

04:10
I think she was a cheerleading coach and I was having trouble um just going to school in general um I had a really rough time at Lincoln University for the first year and I dropped out so um and then I started working and she found Manor and she said you know what I think this would be a really good fit for you it's small um she said they they tend they cater to their students and I was like okay well I'll try it um and when I started I think I started my first class I absolutely fell in love with how small

04:43
it was how um easy it was to get help when I needed the help because most big universities are kind of like figure it out you know and I'm I come from Cheltenham high school where it's it's small but it's not that small um so that's how I got there and I just I loved it I excelled there once I really started taking classes oh that's great that's great to hear that you felt you felt like it was like nurturing and if I needed help I could find help um and it wasn't too overwhelming so I think that's a really big area of concern when

05:17
students are first going to college they like am I going to be able to find help and not feel bad about asking for help that's a really important thing that's great so you said that you started working and then came to Manor um I think that's actually pretty common for a lot of students to to take we some might call it a gap year couple Gap years if it's more than one but just like get your feet wet start working a little bit make some money and then go to college um is that kind of what what happened for you you kind of got out in

05:44
the real world a little bit working yes um that's that's kind of what happened so I started working at Macy's and then it it wasn't no actually I'm I'm telling a story I worked at Best Friend's pet care for a good five years so best friends was over on ojk road or Eastern Road where Urban Air used to what Urban Air is now um so I worked there for 5 years and then um I got hurt and I ended up getting fired so um while I was working there I was also working at Manor um when I started going to Manor that's when I

06:21
really started working at Manor as well but um I wasn't I wasn't fulfilled when I was just working at Best Friend's pet here um I was missing something and I wasn't really happy and that's when my sister told me about Manor and I decided to go so I Contin to still work there while I was going to school and then picked up another job at Manor sure sure yeah well that that's great that you um not great that you weren't fulfilled but great that you were able to like see that in yourself and realize it and be like okay

06:53
what can I do how do I how do I better myself and how do I kind of scratch that itch a little bit um and and so many of our students work while they're in in college I the stats around 85% of our students are working while being a student and we believe close to half of them are working full-time so it is super common for students to you know school's not the only thing going on in their life right which kind of makes sense you know um so so talk to me about what was it like being a Manor student

07:23
What were what was kind of take us back what was it like for you what would a day kind of look like in in your life during that time time um let's see when I started I had to take the computer science class that was one of the first classes that I had to take and when I started taking the class I'm like okay this could be easy I'm pretty tech savvy this isn't hard but then I realized once she started um her name was Carolyn Wilson I believe um once she started teaching us about Excel everything my grade started plummeting

08:01
and she looked at me and she said it's not as easy as you thought it would be huh and I was like no it's not um but she ended up like really showing me how to I'm still horrible XL it it didn't change anything but um she ended up like helping me and then um my grades went back up but that's how it was in every class if you needed the help and your professor saw that you needed the help they helped they didn't just let you sink um and then the next semester she asked me if I wanted to tutor her kids and that's I became a

08:38
tutor oh that's cool yeah definitely I think um I think there's a good lesson there from Carol Wilson talking about how like it's not as easy as you think and if you need the help we're going to get you the help but obviously you must have did pretty well if you're able to be a tutor so don't beat yourself up too much but um Excel is hard but it's a good life skill to have you know everyone kind of uses it at some point whether you're making a spreadsheet for work or making a budget for your own

09:05
personal finances it's something that we all kind of should have some kind of working knowledge in so uh talk to us about what was your relationship like with Manor professors and kind of what influence did they have on you they were very friendly um very motivating a lot of times they could a lot of times they saw something in me I didn't see in myself so um my psychology professor she would see the work that I would turn in and she would just nudge and say you can do a little bit better you can do a little

09:39
bit better and she was right I could do a little bit better um but they were very they were your cheerleaders they were always your cheerleaders and I think that's kind of that that's what helped a lot that's what pushed me a lot that's what motivated me a lot to finish because I didn't think for a long time that I would even finish school at all that's great that's so cool so now I mean you're able to kind of reflect back on professors that you had who were en encouraging you and motivating you and

10:15
seeing those things in you and now are you able to see that in your own students and kind of are you able to kind of you know talk about that a little bit that's kind of a reflection um are you able to kind of take that forward with you yes so right now I teach first grade um I looped with the students that I had last year in kindergarten so um when I see my kids struggling like we're doing well this really hard math and if you know math now it's not the math that we learned when we were younger um and a lot of times you I see

10:49
students that feel like they can't do it so you know all students need is just a little a little cheerleader they just need a little nudge a little love and a little push and they can do it so I think what I got from Manor the motivation the push the cheerleaders that's kind of what I embody now because I've realized as an adult that's all these children need is just a a cheerleader that's it right little love little push but um having that having you there you know you were a kindergarten teacher last year now

11:21
you're a first grade teacher so having those kids have like two years of uh Miss watts is pretty cool you know like that that's really neat and pretty too I would say a lot of students probably don't have the same elementary teacher two years in a row and that's going to have an impact on them that's for sure going to have an impact on their life which is really cool for you to to see that so talk to me a little bit about what was it like um going through you graduated from Manor with an associates

11:46
and then you transferred and kind of got more education what has your education Journey been like and as you kind of think back what um how did how did Manor play A Part as the foundation to more education and more degrees and Stu so Manor showed me that I I can accomplish things um and once I got that push I just for the first I want to say like two years I just tried to keep going but you know life happens things happen and I had to stop I had to take a break um and so I graduated from Manor I went to

12:21
Chestnut Hill um Chestnut Hill was really hard it was hard it was also like okay I'm back at a bigger school they're not as um nurturing as Manor so that was something that I had to adjust to um but once you know life happened I had to stop going to school I ended up working again full-time and I became a early childhood education teacher so I worked in child care for a very long time until after I had my son and by the I think once he was two I went back um but then it was it was a online platform so it

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wasn't in the class so that was kind of like a different um setting for me so it was more so teach yourself but um as long as I knew that I could accomplish my goals and I I knew that I could do it because I did it that's all I needed was just to keep going because I know I can do it right that's that's such good sometimes like that self motivation like self talk to yourself like um you were saying how like everyone need a little cheerleader in your life but like you also need to be your own little

13:32
cheerleader you know um so that's really really cool to hear that you kind of knew I know I can do it it's just a matter of like the timing the finances the you know you need a little bit of um space in your schedule to like go online and and do classes and do some readings and all those things because it it takes a lot and you know you had a you had a baby in that time too so like obviously give yourself Grace for how much you have accomplished over um you know these these 12 years or so it's it's really

14:02
impressive and major kudos to you for for earning earning three degrees and coming so far in your journey it's really cool um so talk to me about just you're you're obviously a passionate educator why why do you think um why do you think education is so important especially for the little guys that you're teaching I think you know we talk a lot about higher ed and college and um I don't often get to talk to elementary school teachers so talk to me about you know why is it so important for for the little ones to be pouring

14:35
into them like you are there our future those are who are going to be responsible for taking care of the world when we're older um not only do I pour into them I pour into my son I pour into any child that comes into my path because it's so important that these children get the nurturing they get the love they get the education they they get whatever they they need to be successful adults um not only that but they need kindness they need to learn like the social emotional piece um nowadays you see a lot of violence going on and even

15:14
in schools um and we don't you don't see now you see a lot of more you have you see a lot more schools teaching the social emotional piece because they have emotions just like we do so I feel like that's why it's it's important to pour into them and to make sure they get what they need because they're responsible for us when when we get older well they get older I'm sorry yeah we get older and they also get older so you're right there certainly our future um and I think teaching them like social

15:46
emotional kindness and respect and dignity and ethics is really important particularly when they're little because like that's the foundation they're just going to build from when they get to high school and middle school and um when when the education gets harder but if they have those core kind of values to them that's really important you know a big part of our our mission at Manor College is the last line in the mission it's uh to serve to to educate our students who are going to serve Society

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effectively and compassionately and I just as I'm hearing you talk I'm like Janay is doing that she is she is literally living out the Manor College Mission you're serving others you know first graders kindergarteners your son whoever's in your path really and you're preparing them to to serve society and kind of pay it forward with compassion um so thank you for doing that thank you for kind of being a Living testament to our mission here at the college that's really cool to see um that your story

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got intertwined with ours back in 2012 so kind of as we we finish up here Janay what advice would you give to Manor college students who are right now they're on Spring Break um you know hopefully they're catching up on their rest and any assignments that they're missing but you just kind of need that extra push to get to the end of the semester who might be feeling a little little weary um what advice would you give them be kind to yourself give yourself some Grace things happen for a reason you can do

17:22
it those were the key things that I needed to accomplish my goals and to still accomplish my goals I still have to give myself Grace I still have to understand that things will happen when they happen um is this is not a race we're not running a race we're not on anybody else's time um be your own cheerleader it's good to have people around you that celebrate you and push you and cheer you on but you have to be your own cheerleader for most of the way um that's that's pretty much it because those are the things that I live by

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every day yeah that that's so great and I think spoken so true and regardless of what like your situation is right now if you're a college student if you're um a new parent if you're a working professional wherever you are in life like that's good advice in in general so thank you for sharing that with us um be kind to yourself really I think struck me the most and and also like it is run your own race you know we're not competing against others it's on your own time life happens it might take you

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longer you might get there shorter you know just give yourself the grace to to still get get to goal in your own time that is that's really good to hear um Janay thank you so much for being with us today I've really enjoyed our conversation and I hope our listeners also enjoyed and we inspired by you like I was oh thank you 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 of The Nest by following Manor College on Instagram at Manor College

19:02
that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest stories about life after Manor College remember Blue Jays you belong here always [Music]

00:01
[Music] hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College I'm your host Kelly Peiffer 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 making you feel like at Manor College you belong here always before we get to today's guest it's time for a segment I like to call did you know where we will share some fun facts about Manor that you may or may not have known did you know the story behind The

00:36
Manor College mascot Manny the blue jay Manor College has been home to the fighting Blue Jays since the 1980s and due to the high volume of blue J birds that can be found around the woods that are backing up to our campus property we have Alverthorpe Park and we have Manor woods and there's a lot of blue jays in those woods but Manny our mascot was founded in 2017 and created as part of a college-wide Rebrand that we did so Manny was created by the same company that creates a lot of professional sports and athletic mascots and funny

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enough when Manny was shipped out to us Manny came from Canada the company sent us the wrong head so I remember opening this giant bag this giant red bag had this big zipper top and remember I was so excited we designed this head and we've gone back and forth with colors and fur and all these different details about Manny and um instead of this beautiful blue jay head in this bag was a St Bernard head at the time I did not know what team this head was tied to but I found out it was the Colorado

01:51
Avalanche and ice hockey team and it was Bernie the St Bernard so of course I had to try it on there might be some footage of a me wearing it and then I shipped it back to the company back to Canada and kept waiting for our Manny to arrive so the day finally came Manny arrived and was born on campus we officially debuted him in 2017 at new student orientation um we had a mascot training that summer with um this incredible person his name was Dave Raymond he was the original Philly fanatic and he really invented like

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mascots having such personality and character and movement um and he taught us about the values of mascot how to build a mascot program how to give your mascot personality and different tricks and tips for performers um we learned that when you're inside a mascot it's you're called a performer and not just like the guy in the mascot so trying to give that more value and obviously respect because it is really hard work to to be in a mascot costume so we created a backstory about Manny that we continue to use to

03:06
this day um some of Manny's backstory is Manny was an abandoned egg next door in Alverthorpe park and some of the Sisters of St basil were on a walk one day and they found this egg and cared for him and nurtured him and taught this uh baby blue jay everything that he needs to know from math to science to Ukrainian language to how to make a free throw um Manny loves to play with our vet tech teaching horses that we have and he has a really soft spot for lavender the pony at any given moment Manny can be found

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on campus tapping trees for maple syrup greeting students dancing eating chocolate chip cookies from Manny's market and cheering on our Athletics teams Manny's favorite color of course is Manor blue his favorite song is can't stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake and it has rumored that Manny has found pieces of thread that Betsy Ross who used to live on mayor's campus for a short while I'll have to do it did you know about that later used in her sewing of the flag that he keeps with him I love Manny I have a really soft spot for

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him as I think he is lovable and fun and charismatic and exactly what a mascot should be and I hope you do too now I'm honored to welcome today's alumni guest her journey started right here in Philadelphia at Saul High School Our Guest path and education is truly inspiring a testament to dedication and a passion for helping Young Learners she pursued her degree in early childhood education earning an associates degree from Manor college in 2014 following her time here she transferred to Chestnut Hill College

04:51
continuing to build on her Educational Foundation while at Manor she was an active member of the campus community and she credits much of her foundation time to at Manor specifically to the impact of faculty member Dr Cherie Crosby weeks she making a real difference education teacher for students in kindergarten through sixth grade with autism at Master Charter please join me in welcoming Bridget gray Moss welcome Bridget hi thanks for having me you're welcome I'm so happy to to have you and to hear your hear your

05:28
story so can you start us off by sharing why how did you hear about Manor College and why did you choose to attend um I think I heard about Manor um I was at Community College of Philadelphia and it was just too busy for me and I was looking for another 2-year education program and Manor probably was on the back of a septa bus or maybe I found it online um but once I found out about it it was just a better fit for me being in the suburbs versus being in the middle of the city that's great I love I love that and I

06:02
mean obviously um everyone's different in their Journeys but it's cool that a suburb campus kind of fit fit you better obviously um that's really neat and obviously you know I I I'm our VP of marketing so I love hearing that you found us either through our septa bus or our website those are both channels that we spend a lot of time and effort to make sure that people can find us in those ways so it's great that you were able to to do that um so take us back what was being a college student at Manor like for you it was amazing

06:36
especially from coming from the um City The Busy the city to go on the suburbs it was amazing and it was real really tight in it so all of the friends I made at Manor in the education program I'm pretty much still with friends with today um every day was fun it was never a boring day at Manor and I felt like I wasn't just the number um if I needed something I was it was always somebody I can talk talk to um I knew all my professors I could talk to them anytime it wasn't like I was just a number and

07:06
it was like the education program wasn't just textbook textbook it was more Hands-On so oh that's great that's great to hear that you're still friends with some of the this you know classmates that you had I always love to hear that that's kind of what college is all about you know yeah it's pretty cool because when we started we all just wanted to be teachers and now it's like we've been to each other wens we didn't had kids people didn't like worked in different schools we'll keep each other posted

07:32
like you know in the education world but it's like all of us kind of grew up and we came in Manor at different ages so people came straight out of high school some people were like already adults so yeah yeah and now you got to you know go through life together um and all that I absolutely love that I have the same experience with my own college and my own friends and they they're your best friends you know get to be moms together and and that kind of thing is really powerful um so what I mean how do you

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feel that Manor prepared you to then transfer to Hill um and kind of what was that transition like it was at the P um after I left Manor I opened up at home daycare um so I was really I was really ready because I took all the skills I learned and everything I I never learned anything at Manor that I didn't need when I was at different schools I felt like I'm just taking classes and I'm just taking out loans I'm just paying I'm just another number but everything I took at man or I actually needed and I used and I applied

08:30
so after Manor I opened up my home daycare for a couple years and then at the start of the pandemic I went to chest the hill and it was a good fit for me because Manor was so laidback and you know your professors um and you're going to use that work in Chestnut Hill was the same way but I always still had like a more special place for Manor right because like that's where I started and it was just like my favorite school I learned so much but um both schools are great for education I feel like mhm so

09:00
it was a good like combination like get your Foundations at Manor and then move on to Chestnut Hill um so you ran an at home daycare how was how how was that it was great especially coming straight coming straight out of college it was great how many how many kids would you have at one time I had six to eight six to eight okay and what like what ages Early Childhood so it was like I just had got my degree from early childhood education um and then that's when I opened up the daycare so I didn't go

09:31
straight into my bachelor's program and at the time Manor didn't have the four-year program right great okay well that's cool and I think a lot of students are attracted to I mean obviously at Manor we have two two-year degrees and four year degrees but I think a lot of students um they do like the two-year because they can like get something that's like tangible and in a short amount of time and then apply it so it's really cool to hear that like you got a two-year degree you applied it right away started a home daycare kind

10:00
of reassessed and saw yourself okay and then so what made you want to go into get a a bachelor's um at that time I was closing the um home daycare and I was working and I was like you know right now everything is going online so it's the best time to go back to school right so it was like the pandemic a lot of people made a lot of changes so it was the best time to go for sure for sure so did you get certified um what's your certifications um in special education nice nice but because I want the Manor

10:34
first um I was so used to it being a small classroom everybody talking and being so comfortable that when I went to Chester Hill I was able to participate and talk so much in class and share and if anybody else was sharing a lot it was like you kind of knew they were from Manor too and you were connected out like hey did you go there because we came from Manor with so much hands on experience and like we had the opportunity to to always share so we were never quiet in class in Justus that's funny that's funny you can

11:06
like pinpoint like oh you must be for Manor because you know you're kind of acting similar that that's pretty cool like a signature trademark kind of thing yeah um so so tell me how did you start then in teaching in in a in a school setting with special ed and kind of what what's that like um it's great I I started because right when I left Chestnut Hill um when I was in Chestnut Hill I did student teaching kindergarten gen er and then the rest of the year I did special ed but I knew I wanted to be a

11:37
special ed teacher and right when I graduated um I worked at Philly school district for a little bit but then um my friend told me about Mastery Charter School and then that's when I came into Mastery Charter School and this I've been here ever since for second grade for second grade wow yeah at first last year I had fifth graders but now I'm second graders okay so where does your where does your passion for special ed come from and kind of what's what's the story behind that um somebody asked

12:05
me that this morning I would say when I I used to babysit my younger cousins and I was a kid myself so I was between ages of 10 to 16 starting so young babysitting and one of my cousins had autism and he was the only person in our family with autism at the time he was the only person I knew but my aunt was working on getting her Nursing degree so I was her babysitter but she never took it easy on him so she would leave work on Saturdays and be like he has to do multiplication he has to do um all of

12:35
his English homework don't do it for him so I didn't grow up with this mindset of like you know you have to like scale back just because you have a disability so working with him and pushing him to like do all the work he did it just like set me up for the rest of my life so by the time I got older I just sped came normal you know came very normal to me and I never I just continue to model how I teach that same way like you know not just seeing a student as a disability right right they're they're

13:07
able to do things just in maybe in a different way um and that that's so cool I'm sure that you have such a you sound like you have such a big heart for for that and you kind of grew up with it so it comes really natural to you yeah it was pretty normal yeah that's that's awesome I'm so well thank you so much for doing doing what you do I know it's not hard and I I know it's not easy and um you know I really appreciate kind of just the love that you give to those students I'm sure I'm sure that they

13:35
that you're well- loved um especially with second grade what a sweet what a sweet age you know that is so so talk to us a little bit about um when you reflect back and think about like where you are now like you've been graduated for almost 10 years now from Manor for a little bit more than 10 years um any Reflections that come to mind or any things that come to mind that you're like wow I'm really glad I did this because I can see where it LED or any just kind of Reflections um I'm extremely glad that I want the Manor um

14:08
because I feel like the way I teach is still lessons I learned from Dr Crosby and just being in that atmosphere and then it was like when I was at Manor I never wanted to slack off I didn't even have room to slack off because you get to know everybody and your professors went the best for you so every every um semester I was getting like straight a and great grades so when I look back I'm like pretty and if I drive by the school I'm pretty still proud of myself oh that's great that's great to see to

14:39
think back like where you were and where you are and kind of make that connection I think that's pretty special and I think that's something that a lot of our students today still resonate with and and are going through you know um and and they don't quite they don't they don't know where they're going to go in the end but they are hoping to obviously kind of get there and be able to say that Manor was their Foundation um are you a first generation college student I am yeah what do what does that mean to

15:07
you and and kind of explain kind of what that because that's a whole another thing too and we have a lot of our students are it's pretty cool because my um grandparents they worked really really hard and my parents worked really hard and I didn't really reflect on how hard they worked until I just recently became a parent like in a year but um it's great because they they really push me and they always want me to continue to go to school so it's good and then it's like I have a niece she's at um

15:35
Chestnut Hill so it's kind of like I can like tell her like you I can't tell her but I can encourage her to do stuff and I can say well I did it and I did it this way and you know I believe in you and if it gets hard just let me see your grades let me see where you at what's your your study schedule so I feel like being you know a first generation it can trigger down to different generations to come to like help out and stuff so it makes my parents pretty happy right you're like the Catalyst like okay now because I did

16:05
it like your niece can do it she's seen someone do it um and she has an example you know I think I think that's so powerful to see in your own family you know it might sound cheesy but like you really are changing your family tree and and it's really cool that you were the first one to do it and what a what a great example you're setting for um you know your your children and your family and and also so it's it's incredible for your parents to see and rewarding for them to know that like my my daughter

16:34
did that and as a parent you want the best for your kids so that's totally reflection on them as well so Bridget as we are kind of closing up here what um what advice would you give to current Manor students who are kind of in the thick of their semester maybe not feeling um you know high energy and they're kind of it's it's hard being a college student what advice would you give them I would say don't take take your school work serious but don't take take life as serious meaning don't be hard on

17:06
yourself and think that you have to have it all figured out because it will come just focus on getting good grades and self-care and also don't be scared to meet people network with people go out in the field so when you have to get your hours in don't just think I have to get my hours in because my major says I have to get my hours and no make sure you meet the principal or you know managers supervisors other people that work there get you some little cards made up if you have to make you a vision board

17:36
make you a study schedule but don't beat yourself up thinking that you have to have life figured out actually enjoy yourself while you're at Manor um and network and understand that you know you're working towards something really like special that you're going to apply in life yeah so kind of like be in the moment you know enjoy card but um don't take it it too seriously don't take it too serious it goes fast right it does and and build relationships with people because those that those relationships

18:07
are going to get you you know through some tough times to come you might think oh college is so hard right now Finance is so hard right now but knowing you get out in the work field you're going to need people that you met at Manor teachers professors um classmates peers to get you through the tough days and or also help network like you know help with jobs and help grow as um educator or whatever your major is yeah that that's great I love that so much and I think I think it's so true like don't take yourself too seriously

18:39
but also don't slack off like you know um take self care yeah that's really important well Bridget thank you so much for being with us today I've really enjoyed our conversation and I hope our listeners have as well a special thank you to Bridget for joining me today in our episode thank you to all of you for tuning in if you like what you heard listen And subscribe on Spotify or YouTube stay up to dat with all new episodes by following mayor College on Instagram at Manor College and that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest

19:11
stories about life after Manor College remember Blue Jays you belong here always [Music]

00:02
hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College I am your host Kelly Peiffer 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 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 called did you know for today's did you know did you know the meaning behind our podcast has some symbolism in its logo yes often

00:36
times logos are designed to communicate a message or an idea to an audience sometimes designers use hidden messages also known as Easter eggs and little things can be subtle imagery or clever word play um and you might not see it at first glance so when our team was designing the nest logo for this podcast we obviously wanted the logo to look like a bird's nest because it was called The Nest our mascots of blue jay so that's kind of naturally made sense but we wanted there to be some symbolism that we could point to as well so we

01:11
wanted there to be feathers in the nest and the feathers really convey that a bird was once there and these are the feathers that remain so it's a symbolism for our students or blue jays who are in our Nest when they're students and they're on campus and they're they're in our you know they're in our area and then when they graduate they obviously fly away and they leave the nest but pieces of their feathers always remain with us that you know are alumni and our students no matter where they are in the

01:40
world they always remain and they always have a home in our Nest at mayor College so I I love that symbolism that we created and if you look at the words Ness the E looks like a sideways decibel levels symbolizing volume and sound intensity um which kind of made sense because we wanted obviously the nest to be podcast where Audio and Sound is the main medium that it'll be conveyed I am now honored to welcome our alumni guest of the day today we have a wonderful guest joining us who was a true Testament to the power of hard work and

02:14
dedication she's climbed the latter in the corporate world always staying true to her Roots she hails right from here in Philadelphia and is a proud graduate of Samuel Fels High School her journey took her to Manor College where she pursued her passion for business administration in 2017 she earned her associate in science degree in Business Administration and was an active member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society she then transferred to Lasalle University to earn her bachelor's and masters in accounting

02:44
and finance now she's Making Waves as an in senior internal auditor assistant VP of internal audit at Wells Fargo she credits her success in part due to the impactful faculty and staff that she had at Manor we are thrilled to have her with us today to share her story and insights with all of you welcome Deborah Turner hi everyone hi Kelly thank you for that intro yes hey hey Deb so let's start at the beginning how did you hear about Manor College and why did you choose to attend so I heard about

03:20
Manor through Word of Mouth actually um I was actually at another school and the school that I was at the program that I was studying and was no longer uh available for me to continue my studies with so I needed to kind of think of where else to go and do it fast so one of my family members brought up Manor and I actually came in to see Manor and applied got in and the rest was history so September 20 15 I started classes and I finished in May of 2017 I love that I think that's great and I mean obviously uh one school

04:10
closing one door closes another door opens kind of situation but I'm so happy that Manor was somewhere that you found and and could call home for a couple years to get your degree so so tell me what was it what was like a day in the life of being a student at Manor like for you um kind of take us back so very different um from anywhere that I've ever been um like you said I grew up in the inner city of Philadelphia so I always was accustomed to being in classrooms where there were a lot of students a lot

04:47
of people a lot of movement um never really in an intimate learning environment until I got to Manor so Manor for me was the place where I kind of got to meet people um of course from all different cultural backgrounds but also I got to know my professors in a way that I think if I would have continued down my original path um I probably would not have taken some of the things that I've learned and acquired uh from Manor to other areas of my life understanding the importance of you know raising your hand

05:28
being being community oriented in a school environment most of us don't look at school as a place where it's it's Community oriented but college for a lot of us is the place where you kind of go to learn how to build your community outside of the community that you've already been given or your family has cultivated for you so Manor was definitely influential in that uh respect for me of course and I think um talking about like Community style learning and Community being a community in a college

06:08
setting is different than maybe a high school or an elementary school where like it's more school and you just kind of have different conceptions about it um so it's cool that you came to Manor and you were like oh because like people live here you eat here you study here you you maybe work here there's like everything's kind of in one so that's really neat to hear um what were your kind of what were your classes like and how do you feel that those classes kind of prepared you for then more schooling

06:38
and getting a bachelor's and a master's and kind of giving you that foundation so my classes were very very again you'll probably hear me say it a lot but it was very intimate right I had people from all different ages people just beginning College people coming back to college making a career change or studying something that they might have wanted to study many moons ago and now they have an opportunity to kind of come in and learn in an intimate environment the professors that I had were really

07:12
really great they were people who have had experience in the field or they were still in the field and they were bringing real world experiences right to your classroom but furthermore they were actually rooting and invested into your success uh they wanted to see you do well and I think that's that really speaks to um my experience in class in classroom but outside of the classroom too right um everyone I would say every Professor that I had was really really invested in in My Success overall whether it was at Manor or wherever I

07:58
went they were right there cheering me on providing opportunities whether it be advice or um making sure that I knew that I had options or opportunities and and it was just a matter of time yeah I love that I love um how you said like their your success was their success and kind of you know I think that that speaks so true and obviously as a college and as a college professor you know however well the students do is kind of reflection on on you as a professor and as an institution so obviously we want our students to be

08:35
wildly successful um so it's really cool to hear that they were giving you that opportunity and kind of iron sharpens iron you know like you were you were doing things and they were helping you do that so that's really cool to hear so so obviously you know you work in the you got your degrees in accounting um started off in Business Administration and then kind of move into accounting how would you say that transition was was from business administration to accounting and why would you recommend

09:04
accounting as a degree Focus for other people so uh business administration is a very broad um major or field or industry you have the option to either go into marketing Finance accounting uh for some people Information Systems data analytics because it's such a it gives you variety of everything so you're taking a number of different business courses um within one program I chose accounting because it was something that I was extremely passionate about before I um chose business administration so business

09:48
administration was the test for me to see if I could not only academically keep up but if if it was something that I really wanted to continue pursuing and happened for me to be something that I kind of stuck with I recommend accounting as a major or a field to go into the opportunities are vast and many people have a misconception about the industry at large they think that Most accountants are tax professionals or we're and it's not the truth not all of us are tax professionals I've had the wonderful experience to kind of be in a

10:28
lot of different areas within the accounting industry whether that be tax uh audit which I'm currently in now and the bulk of my career has been in advisory as well so Consulting and accounting has been an opportunity where I've met people from all walks of life but also it's something that's taken me around the world um and continues to be something that is important not only for me as a person of color but as a woman too as as well where you're in a male-dominated industry and you don't see many people like you but there is a

11:06
real need for more of us to be in the industry but also in the room we can't effectively create change if we're not there yes 100% yes um I love that and I think I think it's so cool and inspiring to see you know you as a first generation college student from Philadelphia African-American woman kind of breaking barriers and getting into those so do you feel like you've had a seat at the table in some of your roles that you've had in your career and how do you feel um how is the outlook on that going do you feel

11:41
like we're making progress or is there still a lot lot to be done um I do feel like in my current role out of all the roles that I've been in and I've been in a lot of different areas I feel that I've been really fortunate and blessed to be and I think I charge this to my upbringing and just being a Philadelphia native most of us are very um outspoken and growing up in the city and realizing like hey if sometimes you have to take the the initiative you have to kind of manage up you have to be the one

12:23
that kind of speaks up so that people know that these things are going going on but also people are aware of what's going on people are just afraid to speak out about it or they don't speak out about it because it doesn't affect them so what I've been doing my entire career is to leave the door open like I I don't benefit from being the only uh and and let me preface that I'm I don't benefit being the only black woman at the table or the only black person in the room uh I don't benefit from that at all so it's

13:00
important that I lift as I climb and also when I see other people that look like me even if they don't look like me too right my job is to be a collaborative team member so you are only going to be as good as your weakest link and your weakest link may not be because they lack skill or or tenacity or or the will to do it it just may be someone didn't think enough to pull them by the hand or pull them along with them so I do think we have a way to go a ways to go in respect of diversity and inclusion and what we can do to make the

13:44
environment especially Corporate America as inclusive as possible uh we we got to start having the tough conversations and also being aware of what our implicit biases are what our l spots are and how so much of where we come from and where we go to school and our financial standing and all of that plays into how we treat one another on a daily basis when we come into the workplace or we're going into a school so but I do see that in some some some respects we are making progress right you you will find uh

14:25
Partners um in particularly in my field you will find Partners you will find senior managers you will find people um who want to know what's going on and want to try to make it better for someone that doesn't look like them and they understand the importance of you know this being an environment that is accepting of of all people whether you're black white uh a Asian a Pacific Islander a woman train transgender whatever you are you know we need to make sure that we we make it inclusive for people to come and feel

15:07
like it's okay to be them definitely I I love how you said um I need to lift as I grow or lift as I climb I mean definitely not just um you know growing yourself but also bringing others along with you and mentoring them and that's really neat to see so have you have you found in your career Journey um moments where you've kind of reflected back and thought like wow something that I I learned at Manor or at Lal or in my higher ed years did help me in this career thing or in this project or in this experience

15:45
I'm doing right now absolutely absolutely I would say um a few of those things and I will say Dr Perry has really been influential in this respect not only as during my time there he was the president but just as a mentor or someone that you can you can talk to about not only college but real life things I remember when I was a senior in college at Lal coming from Manor going to Lal and having to make a decision about where I was going to spend the next few years of my career professionally and I had a phone call

16:28
with him that day and he shared with me some insight around you know it's a tough decision no matter where you go you'll land on your feet but one of the pieces of pieces of advice that he gave me was when you go off to be widely successful in whatever you do don't forget to reach back it is extremely critical not only to your success but to someone else's SU to someone else's success to pay it forward sometimes it's not that people haven't done the work they're waiting for the opportunity they're waiting for someone

17:12
to show up to open the door for them so as you get these as uh Tony Morrison says too and Dr Perry said in so many world words as you get these jobs that you so brilliantly trained for don't forget about the other people who will will come behind you and if you're not focusing on equity and equity in people right if you're not focusing on that then all you've done has been for nothing you need to be mindful about how you're treating people how you are making people feel but also realizing that you're not responsible for that and

17:56
there will be people who just don't get it right but don't focus on that make sure you leave the door open leave the light on so as someone is traveling around along their Journey they have a safe house to stop by right and I think that's that's such good advice um so good kudos to Dr Perry who's our our president current currently too but just you know remember those who can benefit from from what you've gone through and can kind of learn and and like you said um lift as you like I think you know that's really

18:31
kind of is a nice kind of tie in there so so so Deborah what um what advice would you give to current Manor college students about you know who are going through it midterms are coming up soon um you know maybe they're maybe they're feeling a little unmotivated right now just what advice would you give them to kind of encourage them as someone who's kind of been there done that and kind of on the other side uh piece of advice I would give them is twofold one none of it's permanent how you are feeling right now

19:09
today in this moment whether you're overwhelmed with studying or life and having to study working whatever it is it's temporary this feeling that you have will pass however remember your why while you're going through midterms and you probably probably are ready to just throw the towel in or feeling like oh I don't need to study as hard or as much remember your purpose for why you're doing this and so many of us at Manor are not there just for ourselves so many of us are first generation graduates and we are becoming now we're

19:48
becoming the role models for people coming behind us and we want to make sure that they look at our path and say that they can do it because we've done it so do the work nothing beats the work but the work there are no shortcuts study hard um do your best and as long as you do your best then you've done you've done all that you can do I love that I love um working hard obviously is is a crucial part of of college life but also being reminded that like this is temporary you know you're not always going to be in in a

20:28
grind studying for something or working late at night or you know what I mean it's temporary it's a maybe a temporary sacrifice for absolutely something some fruit to be to you know come later on so that's that's really good and a good reminder because it can feel when you're in it like oh my gosh I'm just I'm tired or I'm exhausted I'm over it I'm done um but you know that it'll it'll it'll be worth it in the end you'll be grateful that you did it in the end um thank you so much Deborah for talking to us today

20:57
I think your your story is one that will resonate with a lot of our students and certainly it's it's really inspiring and encouraging to hear how your life after Manor College has been so thank you so much for being with us you're so welcome thank you for having me and as always it's a pleasure uh I love coming back and getting to do these types of things is really important to me it's also a part of um why I get to do so much that I do is by paying it forward and remembering that it's not robbery don't

21:30
don't find it robbery to to come back to the places that um have poured so deeply into you and have invested in in you and your a success and Manor has been influential and my start and and as a major part of My Success too 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 following Manor College on Instagram at at Manor College and that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest stories about life after Manor College

22:05
remember Blue Jays you belong here always [Music]

00:00
[Music] hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College I am your host Kelly Peiffer vice president of marketing Communications and this is definitely the best part of my day for those of you who are familiar with Manor College thank you for tuning in and being a loyal Manor College Blue Jay I love that for those of you who are new listeners welcome my hope is that this podcast will encourage inform and inspire you making you feel like at Manor College you belong here always so

00:35
why are we starting a podcast featuring Manor College alumni well that's a great question I'd love to tell you people remember stories up to 20 times more than they remember facts as someone who thinks a lot about Manor College our brand our perception our marketing uh our incredible marketing Communications team we focus a lot on storytelling telling our students our faculty donors and alumni stories has always been integral to our strategy and frankly I wanted to do more storytelling so in 2021 in the

01:07
midst of the pandemic I started interviewing alumni on zoom and live streaming those interviews to Facebook and YouTube kind of did this randomly one day and it kind of had a few set up but I realized that connecting with alumni for just 20 minutes and hearing about their time at Manor their career journey and any kind of life lessons that they are taking from them since graduating it quickly became my favorite thing to do so I kept doing it and over the last three years I've interviewed over 50 alumni and each month I would

01:41
have a different one that I'd focus on but without fail the most valuable part of each interview was the advice that they would share at the end to current Manor students things like network with everyone you can or enjoy your college days soak it in meet people to help you find internships be true to yourself all of this was great advice that stood the test of time whether it was an alumni I'm talking to from the 1960s or from 2010 something cool was really happening that when students and faculty were

02:15
watching these interviews and reconnecting with alumni that they saw maybe they had them in class or they really enjoyed seeing where their life has taken them a lot of times also I would hear back from a current student that they saw an interview and they got connected to that alumni and they connected on them through Linkedin or social media because they're from the same high school or because that alumni went into a field that that student wants to go into and they were inspired so what I've learned from taking so you

02:46
know hours and hours of my time to talk to all these alumni um is that everyone has a story and that Manor's influence whether it's big or small whether you were here for one year or you were here for four years remains a constant thread and all of us are connected to each other through Manor College our Manor college experience I personally have been so inspired by our alumni and I am honored to continue bringing you more alumni stories right here on the nest so before we get to today's guest I

03:19
want to introduce a segment for the show called did you know this is where we'll share a fun fact or two about mayor College that you may or may not know we've been around for 78 years so we have quite a few fun facts to share so for today's did you know did you know that mayor College was a filming location for the movie Hustle starring Adam Sandler that came out in 2022 yes that's right back in 2021 our Manor College gymnasium was hired to be a filming location for the movie and if you've seen the movie The Parts where our gym

03:56
is involved it's one of the most pivotal scenes and kind of in the plot it's a turning point in the movie so it's a really cool thing to be a part of it was a crazy time when the cast and the crew were here they were here for over a week it was still pandemic time so we had to do a lot of precautions they took up most of our parking lot and the parking lot across the street at St Basil's Academy they repainted our entire gym top to bottom a different shade of beige and then when they were done filming

04:27
repainted it back to our shade of beige um um Adam Sandler Jay Wright Anthony Edwards and a lot of other big NBA names were all here and it was just crazy to think that all these people were here at 700 Fox Chase Road so if you watch the movie you will see the iconic blue jay padded basketball chairs that were used um the film is on Netflix and it's definitely worth a watch I am now honored to welcome our alumni guest for the day having graduated with not one but two degrees from Manor College his

05:00
associates and his bachelor's degree in Business Administration in 2019 and in 2021 he was the mother josephat metal winner in 2019 receiving Manor's highest student award involved with just about every student activity or Club you can imagine everything from Rotaract to student Senate and also a student athlete for our indoor and outdoor track and field teams currently he is an assistant track coach for Manor College works at Chick-fil-A also works at Buck County baseball in Bristol PA and volunteers with

05:36
transformation to recovery a faith based addiction recovery nonprofit in South Philly an avid Philadelphia sports fan and a good friend of mine I am honored to welcome will rodebaugh hi will thanks for joining me today Kelly hi hi thank you so much for uh for uh inviting me on the podcast I'm I'm very excited to have this conversation with you and answer any question you may have so thank you again thanks for having me you you are so welcome will I'm the one who's honored for sure I absolutely love

06:05
talking to Manor alumni hearing their stories so let's kind of get into it starting off with how did you choose Manor um and how did you first find the college that's a very that's a very good question very interesting story too so I actually started hearing about it I didn't know what Manor what what Manor College was until 2015 to to be exact the date was March 7 2015 my dad got an my dad got an email from Manor College um and I was I was so far in 10th Grade so I wasn't really thinking about college yet but I was

06:42
kind of like I knew I was going to start thinking about it in 11th grade and at that time I wanted to be a Vet Tech actually I wanted to uh because I was very interested in animals specifically marine life I wanted to be a marine biologist so I thought um I thought Manor College would would be a good step in that direction and backing up my dad actually heard about Manor because he was at Manor at the at the at the library actually he had a work meeting there and then since he went there he's he kept getting a lot

07:13
of emails and and that and that was how I heard about it so in July it was my birthday present I turned 16 so it was a big age so my parents had a big present for me and I went to the actually Manor College had a whole week summer camp for vet tech students and and then I was there and then um even though I found out that after after a couple months after that VCH was my thing I was still very interested in the college so I decided to apply in Spring of 2016 uh on March 12th of 2016 I went to my very first open house where I met a

07:55
man named Mark Minnick who used to work at Manor College he became a really good friend where we're still very connected a very good friend and mentor and I met him that day and after meeting him and meeting some of the other teachers I was like man I really want to go here so I decided on March 12th that that um one of the colleges I wanted to apply for was Manor College so that's kind of how I got my feet wet I even went to the Founders Day in 2017 so I went to a bunch of events I went to the the the orientation too in

08:24
2017 for the new students so yeah it was it was a lot of fun wow I I love that will and I feel like um I've known you for a while now but I never knew that you were first interested in vet tech and then I remember that summer camp we did that for a few years and it was pretty neat it would bring high schoolers to this like kind of week long um and got you know got high schoolers interested in in animals and I didn't know you were part of that how cool um good what a good gift also from from a parent

08:57
perspective giving your kids like a cool experience like that that's a really that's that's really cool I'm I'm so glad that you had that I'm so glad that your dad um had that work meeting in the library and then got a few emails I mean as someone who obviously uh Works in marketing the the power of email marketing is not dead so always reassuring to hear about that thank you so much wolf for sharing that that's awesome so um just describe your Manor experience what what was it like being a Manor student what were you involved

09:29
with and kind of kind of take us back to what was it like for you very good question um I could really go anywhere at this but uh I think I have a good path I want to go on so I was very I was very excited my first day at Manor College was September 5th 2017 and I took I had one course that day that's where I met Mary Sims another person I'm very very uh Professor Mary Sims someone I'm very connected with uh I took legal environment at business still probably one of my favorite courses I ever took there um and um I remember I knew that I

10:05
knew that I belong there from that first class because um I remember I went up and I just thought she was she was such a nice teacher I remember after that I would call I I thanked her for the class I was like I was so I was so inspired and it was such a small class I knew everybody's name I met some very very good people and I'm like man after day one I really thought I belonged here but still I don't think anyone would have recognized the William Ro to ball the will Road ball from the first year to

10:36
the second the first year I was still like I was always I always found myself as a very extroverted person who love talking to people but I have not been in an in-class environment since 2012 so it was all it was kind of all like I was restarting I was homeschooled for a lot of my years it was it was definitely the best the best way to learn um I'm autistic so I thought so so um it so like homeschooling was very helpful for me but then I realized that I was extroverted and then at the same time I

11:12
saw the workload and I'm like okay so let's just so I'm kind of mapping this out on myself because I'm a very planned learner like I'm very organized so I'm like let's just let's see so I'm going to so how about this first semester I I won't join any clubs but I'll just I'll I'll just be always set on school and we'll see how it goes um it it went well and everything but I didn't realize like how short the classes were and everything and I was realizing I was coming home really early there wasn't

11:40
really anybody at home at that point so I'm like so so I'm like okay maybe I should change this a little bit and then Mary Sims uh the second semester she she invited me to come to rotaract she said I would be a very good fit I should come they were having like an open house meeting so and and and um and um it uh was with like free food I mean free food why why you that free food at May I'm like okay I'll I'll come and check it out and then when I was there I'm like man I love this like I should like try

12:12
to be the vice president and it happened like that and I I uh I um I ran for vice president my pinning ceremony was March 1st and then I I was really into it and then later I would become the president and we we would start doing a thing for the Eagles autism campaign so that so that was a couple years later but yeah that first year rotaract was really the only thing I was involved with but the second year I realized my classes were really spread out I had a couple classes with Professor JP Lutz and other mentor of

12:44
mine who who who I work for right now and he um and and the uh there was some there was like a class at 3:45 there's a class at 2:30 so I'm like all right so let's see um um maybe I should involve myself with some more things and then I I I joined one of my favorite groups the campus Activity Board it was awesome I I loved like because like I have a very marketed mind so I loved coming up with great ideas for events ways we could approve them and really I loved like listening to the students and talking to

13:18
them so that was fun and then a Dream came true earlier that summer when when um the the uh cross country and track clubs opened up and I had so much fun uh I had so many coaches that that I was under like so many there were so many assistant coaches who I'm still connected with now so many uh teammates I had and it was just a great experience like I loved I loved just like expanding what I was doing um I won a lot of great Awards like I won the MVP one year I won the coaches award it was so fun like it was

13:53
it it was such a great experience um so yeah no no I loved I really loved being involved at Manor and then um and then I people started calling me Mr Manor because I was just so involved I was helping them and it just became my tagline and everything and I I I I really I really ran with it you know yeah I think so I think after doing all those things you better be called Mr Manor I think earned certainly earned that title and and wore it very well I um I remember the the Mr Manor of uh so that that's really cool Will and thanks

14:28
for sharing a full picture of of what it was like for you um if you don't mind talk to me a little bit about what was it like going from like a homeschool environment you know being autistic to you're just you're in a classroom you're in a college setting with lots of other students who have very different backgrounds than you what was it kind of like and and how did you feel that you were accommodated for anything that maybe you needed assistance with thank you thank you um that's a good question so

15:02
all right so homeschool I really enjoyed homeschool um because it helped me really like I could take my time on stuff and I and like when I was this backs up to even earlier when I was in third grade no even second grade I I didn't think I wanted to go back to school because like I was so I was so comfortable um I had a very hard time in first grade um I think I did okay with like work and everything that that that go M sure I had some learning issues and that kind of stuff it was more I think then I had more more issues with like

15:37
with like the the teachers and everything that the teachers didn't really see me the way that the class me saw me everybody loved me at that school that um that um I was at but like I I just had some issues with teachers but then I went back because I realized that I really love talking to people and I was a people person so I'm like you know what I want to go back I cuz I even love talking to people then but then I'm like you know what I think like um and and there was like clubs but I wanted to do it

16:11
full-time so in sixth grade I went back I actually did did something challenging I did two schools in once I did a cyber school work and I did a couple and I did all the work too except for a couple things for the uh one school I went to so I did two for two years I did that and I was very impressed and I was still involved in a bunch of clubs so um so yeah and then and then and then um and then after that I for high school I was homeschooled again and and um I went to a school called I think Keystone

16:45
it was called and and it was it was it was really good it was correspondence school it was um you'd get everything in the mail you'd fill it out You' fill out all your tests and You' get the results back and you'd have to do all the work in a year there was no deadlines so that that's what kind of like um and then when I was doing High School I was strongly considering College I'm like you know what I really want to go to college and when when I went to college um when what when I went to college I just

17:20
I loved it because because like it was a small college and even and and I I wanted to go to college was small I was thinking about like colleges like Temple and Drexel and that kind of stuff but I wouldn't I wanted to really meet people and get to know them and when I heard about Manor it's like no-brainer if I get into the manor I I'm accepting so I didn't think I was going to um hear back for a while so I did my SATs and everything I did everything I had I I did everything I had to do um I didn't

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realize the ACT wasn't not required for man Manor so like I was happy I was so nervous about when I was taking the ACT twice I was so nervous scary it was a scary experience but like yeah that is a nerve-wracking thing for sure yeah if they see your phone yeah so it sounds like um you know you definitely went you went through a lot of different types of schooling and education you've been through you know um a normal like a traditional classroom setting a cyber setting a homeschool setting a college

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setting that that's pretty cool to show that how adaptable you are to different settings regardless of you know age and situation um that's neat so let's kind of talk about your career and kind of you you went into business and and marketing particularly so kind of talk to us what was it like transitioning from I'm a college student and kind of in this secure familiar homey environment to now I got to go get a job I got to go make some money uh what was that like kind of transitioning into like a first job

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after being a college student all right so so I graduated in 2021 and then I was even looking for jobs even before that even before I graduated I wanted to like you know I want to know what I was getting myself into I have I have a degree in business I can do anything yeah great great so I H I had my fir I had my first interview it was kind of cool my dad um he he mentored this this one guy got him his first job and that guy he uh he interviewed me then for a job and I got further than I thought I

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was going to in the process it was like a finance type job so and I think I did really really well in that first interview like I think I was very confident and then I found out a few weeks later I went into the second interview I didn't after the second interview I didn't go any further but I was still very impressed because I'm like fresh out of high school and and this was like a big like Finance type job and the fact that I gotten the the second one I was just so proud of myself so I was yeah thank you so I had so many

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interviews and then um I really learned that summer that who you know is really important because for about two years what the first job I ever had I I worked a lot of it is um a very oh what's the word a confidential job but it was a researching data entry job uh it was like it was like 40 30 to 40 hours a week I could do it whenever I wanted and um I call the week of August um of August 20 23rd one of my favorite weeks of all time because after weeks of searching I found out I got the job in August 20th after weeks of searching and

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it was it was going to be temporary but then I ended up working longer than I thought because they were very impressed by how good my researching was how good like how attentive I was how like whenever they wanted a phone call I was there I was I was very um they they thought that that I was very dependable and then it kept me going for longer but then um but then like I stopped working there not because of what I did but just because of the the Thea direction of the company but then that week I get a text

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from uh my coach an email from my Coach Jeff McCann wonderful guy I got a uh uh the track coach he says hey um there there's a position opening up for assistant track coach if you want to um if you're interested we'd love to have you and no brainer I I said yes right away like I think I probably said yes before I told people I'm like because like I didn't want to I didn't want to miss it so I was already going to help out at that orientation but I didn't realize that I was gonna I was going to be at the orientation as an

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employee of Manor I mean this was four months after I graduated so it was it was awesome yeah so cool wow well that that's great it sounds like you um you know had a good experience with some interviewing processes and then had the the data entry job which is like that's a good kind of like earning your stripes kind of like college kit job that's a good thing to learn everyone should kind of have an experience doing that and then getting a call to come back to be an assistant coach is is H seems like

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serendipitous you know it's really cool yeah so tell us kind of what are you doing now in your career and how do you find that your Manor education kind of is inter interwoven with what you're doing now in your career good question question so now I'm pretty much doing the same stuff um I have a couple more jobs um people call me the renaissance man because I do everything yeah I do I like to do a lot of stuff so now I'm working for well as you mentioned before I'm working for Chick-fil-A I'm just it's I what I like

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about working there is I get to talk to people like I get to talk to a lot pretty much that job is like it's very like you get to talk to people and like you get to help them out and that's what I love doing I love helping and talking to people and then I work for another company uh called trans TR to recovery which is a nonprofit company that deals with people who struggle with you know like alcoholism and and that kind of stuff and um I I I've been running that that social media site since uh October

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of 2023 and I've been helping with the finances and I've been writing articles and doing interviews it's it's really a great job it's just a fun job and I'm getting more and more involved with the church because um I'm I'm a person of faith and I'm really um and and I'm really and and um I'm really big on like you know reading the Bible I listen a lot of Christian music I'm very I I try to live that kind of Life Style too and it's um and and um it's very important to me so having a job where you know you you get

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to help not only like like like uh post stuff on social media and check the boxes off but like you know a job where you can further the kingdom of God by like you know by by spreading the gospel and that kind of stuff is is is great and it's when when um when um I was asked to to serve for my church and that kind of stuff I was so happy and um a cool thing about that job is uh there's another side of it called just La I work with a Philadelphia a former Phil Philadelphia Phillies player named Larry

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Anderson and and um and um it's he's such a nice man and uh he just really has a heart for the Lord and and um I've got to talked to him so many times and I've got to build a friendship with him so so it's just so cool and I love working there there's some very great people my dad works there too so it's just it's it's it's awesome and and he was definitely a big part in helping me get there so yeah that's one thing I'm that's that's great um so it sounds like you know your your career path so far

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has been faith and sports kind of kind of coming together I would say you got some sports things going on you got some Faith things going on you got serving others and honestly well as you're describing all this I'm just envisioning the The Manor College mission where the mission in the last line of our mission it says um our mission is to prepare students to serve Society effectively and compassionately and as you're talking and I'm like this is what will is doing he is in society serving people

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compassionately and effectively and obviously Manor College is founded by The Sisters of St basil the great they are um you know we're a Catholic institution and you know they obviously are Faith folded women who wanted to further the kingdom by educating Ukrainian orphan girls when it first started in 1947 and it's just so cool to see here we are 78 78 years later and will is kind of doing the same thing you know so thank you so much for kind of that 360 full circle moment of um of uh living out the Manor College Mission

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it's it's really empowering and inspiring to see so I can't I can't leave you without talking a little bit of eagles we're coming up on the Super Bowl Sunday and I know you are a fanatic sports fan all Philadelphia how do you think it's going to go what what are your thoughts on the Super Bowl coming up awesome well first of all I I just gotta say I can't I I love that story you were saying I can't I I can't leave without being being remiss and thanks so much for saying those kind words I I love that and yes

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yes fly goes fly let's go uh I got to tell you um I was telling people back then even in So at the beginning of the year I was really worried about how we were doing I knew we were going to be a good team and um I think in the week of the Cleveland Browns game where we played where we barely beat the Cleveland Browns I'm like I'm like oh man so I think we can make the playoffs but I don't I don't know is it gonna be a glass year but when we after that we went on a 10 game winning streak we never had that we we never won so many

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games in a row Saquon Barkley is is him he's awesome amazing Saquon Barkley is like one of the best Duos I think I've ever seen in sports and um and I'm just so confident I think we're going to win I think I think we got this in the bag um and I actually I think it's going to be people say it's gonna be a close game I I see us winning by 15 points I I very I'm that confident in our team I think we went four to 25 and um I'm just very excited the energy and Philly I'm just seeing so and so happy everyone's

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confident about it it's like I don't think I talked to one person who said I'm not confident we're winning that we're winning this thing I I think we're going to win this thing and and I hope you're right I hope that score is right that's a great score um I uh I read something recently that said um the word Eagles appears in the Bible 33 times go birds and I thought you know what I love that here we go here we go well thank you so much for joining me I have one kind of final thing I want to end this

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on just what advice would you give to Manor college students who are you know they're in it right now they're going to classes hopefully being their own versions of Mr Manor what advice would you give to them as a someone who's been there done that and now can can reflect upon you know I'm gonna give I'm gonna give very very basic advice but this basic advice helped me so much you know don't stop being you be yourself you know do what you love be get involved just like you know make friends all that

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kind of stuff it's going to serve you well not just in college but in life trust me I'm 25 years old now and I I couldn't agree with that advice even more so you know what go Blue Jays go Eagles let's go go Birds is a good thing because we're Blue Jays we're a bird go Eagles they're Birds just go Birds um but I love that so be authentic be yourself and not just in college but in life and you know stay true to you I think that's that's great will thank you for tuning in today if you like what you heard

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listen And subscribe on Spotify or YouTube to stay up toate all new episodes give a follow on Manor College Instagram at Manor College that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest stories about life after Manor College remember Blue Jays you belong here always [Music]