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[Music] Hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College. My name is Kelly Peiffer, vice president of marketing communications and this is the best part of my day. It's hard to believe it's already summer here at Manor College. Campus is quiet as we get ready for the return of our students in the fall semester. We are running some summer sessions, so there are students around, but certainly not to the full effect as a normal campus community. It's also hard to believe that this

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podcast, The Nest, has reached our 15th episode recorded. We began this journey back in February with the goal to tell the stories of Manor College alumni and I've personally just been having an absolute blast getting to know so many of our alumni and telling those stories to all of you, our listeners. In those past 15 episodes, it's been fun to learn about the career paths of our alumni. From teachers to nurses to vice presidents, CEOs, lawyers, and even a priest. We have finished every podcast

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since February by asking the same question to our guest. What is some advice that you would have for our current Manor students? We do this because it wasn't that long ago that these alumni were sitting in Help Hall or the library or right here on Fox chase Road working towards their own degrees. Our students can relate to these alumni not only because of their ties to Manor but because of their own upbringings in the area. and a lot of them have very similar life stories and journeys. So with that in mind, we wanted to take a

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moment to have some reflection on some of the best advice we have received from our guests on the nest. So whether you listen to all of the episodes or you've joined later, we love you and we're appreciative for you being here as a listener and we're sure there's some information and hopefully this advice that can help you along your own journey. Thank you for listening and I can't wait to continue to share the next set of stories we have for you as you're listening to the nest. Hopefully on a beach somewhere or while you're on

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vacation this summer. Bring the nest along with you. Our first bit of advice comes from Deb Turner, a 2018 accounting graduate who joined us on our second episode back on February 21st. Deb is a senior internal auditor and associate vice president of internal audit at Wells Fargo. 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 learned at Manor or at Lasalle or in my higher ed years did help me in this career thing

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or in this project or in this experience 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 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 Lasalle coming from Manor going to Lasalle and having to make a decision about where I was going to spend the next few years of my career

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professionally and I had a phone call 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 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 s to someone else's success to pay it forward. Sometimes it's not that people haven't done the work. They're waiting

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for the opportunity. They're waiting for someone 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

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you are making people feel, but also realizing that you're not responsible for that. And 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 along their journey, they have a safe house to stop by. Right. And I think that's such good advice. Um, so kudos to Dr. Perry who's 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

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learn and and like you said, um, lift as you climb. Like I think, you know, that's really that kind of is a nice kind of tie in there. 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

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other side? Uh, piece of advice I would give them is twofold. One, none of it's temper none of it's permanent. how you are feeling right now 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 you're going through midterms and you 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

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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 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. Caitlyn Rampone,

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one of our young alumni in these first episodes, but she really hit the ground running since leaving Manor three years ago. After graduating with her associates degree in pre- N nursing, Caitlyn went on to Jefferson University and obtained her bachelor's degree in nursing. today. She is a nurse for Jefferson Health in Philadelphia in the emergency department. Caitlyn, as we kind of wrap up here, what advice would you give to like current Manor students um who are currently, you know, we're almost we're about like a three weeks

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away from finals week, kind of at the end of our semester, but what advice would you give them in order to like encourage them and to um just really lean into to their college experience themselves like you did? I would say definitely my first thing is just find what you're passionate about. Like it doesn't I feel like no matter what anybody thinks, no matter what you think the right path is for you or what somebody else might be telling you is the right path for you, passion is really just the core in my opinion of

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what you should be doing for the rest of your life. What's going to make you happy for the rest of your life? Like I'll use my dad as an example. He was working as like he did numbers for windows and ordering windows for all of his life. And then during COVID, he actually up left his job, started his own food truck company, now does like food catering. Like it just I feel like you have to find what you're really passionate about and just go with that and run with that because that's really going to what's going to make you happy.

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Um, and I believe happiness is just it's what everything is should be about. It shouldn't be about money or work, whatever else you want to say, but I think just finding what you're passionate about and really sticking with that. Um, and I would also say is give yourself way more credit than you think because you just getting through a semester of college, no matter what you're going for, no matter how well you think you did or if you should have done better, just give yourself a little bit more grace that you're going through so

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much in just in our lifetime. everything that goes on around outside of school. Everybody has their own challenges in life as well as just sort of the general challenges that everybody goes through on a day-to-day basis that everybody should give themselves just a little bit more grace because you're doing the best you can and that's really all that matters. Everyone's favorite athletic director JD John Dempster joined the podcast in May. After graduating from Manor College in 1999 with his liberal

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arts degree, John worked in Manor's admissions department until he became the athletic director for our Fighting Blue Jays. So, let's talk a little bit about what was it like you are a graduate from the college. Obviously, you're you're really involved as a student and then you go away for a little bit and then talk about like coming back to coach and then coming back um as an employee and kind of what was that transition like because that's pretty interesting. It it was it was amazing for me because um I always said

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I wanted to give back but I just didn't know how. Um you know I I have friends that are mechanics and you know they can help you with your car and I just I just didn't know how I could help. And then I realized that I loved working with people and I loved sharing my experience that I had here as a student. So when I came back to Manor to work, I worked in the admissions department for 17 years and I absolutely loved it because I got to work with potential students all the time and I got to share my stories and

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my experiences. Um, and then with coaching, uh, my former high school coach, uh, Mr. patent at Abraham Lincoln High School. We still talk to this day. Um he inspired me when I was a player there. And um all of the good things that he did for me and my family uh I wanted to um incorporate if I ever got the chance to coach. And um he was more than a coach. And that's kind of what I thrived to be. not just an X's and O's guy, but someone that um was going to be a part of my players lives. Um not just

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the two to four years that they were here, but beyond that. So, when I got the opportunity to coach, um, it wasn't about wins and losses for me, although I do love to win, but it was really just getting our guys from point A, you know, they're here as a freshman to mature and learn, become a good person, and uh, succeed um, and graduate. I mean, the ultimate goal is to get their degree. Yeah. So, yeah, that's great. Yeah. I mean, you spent a lot of time in admission. So, like not just recruiting

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athletes or recruiting soccer players, but just recruiting students to come in come into the the door and share your story. And I like how you said you wanted to give back. You just didn't know how. But, um, obviously working for the college is a great way to give back because I mean it's we are a nonprofit and we are I feel like we all are serving students and each other frankly in some some way. Um is there any particular stories or years where you remember um you know students maybe like reminded

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them of yourself and you saw yourself in a lot of students or a lot of players and then you saw them get motivated and they weren't maybe the best academically but then they turned it around and like do you kind of have any any stories about that? I mean, honestly, Kelly, every year there's someone like that and um it's great to see them grow. Um as a again, as a coach, you see these players come in or you see these students come in and they just don't know. Uh they're they're a lot of them are just clueless

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about college and and and and why they're going to college, but they know they should go to college, right? So I was in the same situation where hey I was lazy in high school. I had a lot of fun. I played a lot of sports. I had a lot of friends. But the academic piece was the one where if it wasn't for teachers like Jane and Mike Landis and John Stoa um you know we we just wouldn't know and and you might drop out or you might not get that full experience. So, what I try to do, Kelly, is share that story and say,

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"Listen, I've been there. I've been right where you are. there's tons of help here. There's teachers here that'll help you. I will help you." And I think me being here full-time and letting them know that it's not just all about sports that that I'm here for you. And there's other coaches that are here for their players as well. But, um, yeah, I have students that come and go all the time. that are in the same situation and it's just so cool to see them just mature and and and get through

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it, you know. Um our one of our seniors this year, uh Maximo Chavez, Maximo Chavez was in the same situation and it's just so cool to see him through his personal battles, his educational battles, his social battles, just get through it. I mean, he would come in and we'd talk and uh you know, we we'd actually um we'd pray together, too. Wow. And um it was just great to see him just become that man that he is. And now he's going to get his bachelor's degree from Manor College. So, I'm really happy about that. Rachel

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Friedman graduated from Manor College in 2018 with her paralegal certificate. Today, she is a litigation lead paralegal for Grant and Eisenhoffer in Wilmington, Delaware. She joined the podcast on April 18th. 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 right now and you're kind of on the other end of that and any advice or encouragement for them? Yes, actually I do. Um, when I was in college, I was so

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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 had taken more electives, that I had taken more classes to really find myself. And the other thing is like you don't

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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 age, you're just you're kind of stuck in a you can get stuck in a rut. And I'm actually so glad

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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, Manor 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 time. Find yourself. Find your passion. And when you're ready to graduate and become an adult, do it because adulting

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is not all cracked up to be. Crystal Esmond was our first dental hygiene graduate to join the podcast. She completed her associates degree in dental hygiene from Manor College in 2002. Today she's the dental program coordinator for the Ann Silverman Community Health Clinic in Doylestown, PA. So kind of my last question for you is what advice would you give to current Manor students whether they're in dental or or not um to kind of encourage them in in their own college experience and college journey. Um, I guess the advice

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I would have is keep going. No class, you know, even if you're forced to take a class that you don't think it, you know, like dental hygienist, you have to take a course in philosophy, or at least I did. You know, there's classes that I Yeah. that aren't quite related to your major, you're still going to learn stuff from that. And just keep going. Even when you have that instructor that you're like, I swear this instructor hates me. They just keep, you know, killing everything that I turn in. You're there to learn. They're there to

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help you learn. and they're there to help you grow. So, just keep going. Listen, be open-minded. Take the uh the uh advice that they're giving you and don't be so quick to say, "No, that's not, you know, no, they're wrong." Like, listen, listen to what they say. They've got some life experience and just keep working hard, keep going, and you can do it. You can definitely do it. Lastly, we had Dominica Hathcock join the show in May. After a career in veterinary technology, Hathcock joined the Manor

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College faculty in 2025. She is currently the large animal coordinator in our own vet tech program here at Manor College. What would be some advice that you would share with Manor uh students, either vet tech students or just a Manor student um to kind of encourage them to continue and pursue their education? Yeah, definitely. I think the biggest thing is, you know, kind of put yourself out there. Um whether it's you want to try something new, join a club, even just talk to somebody and become friends. Like just really putting

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yourself out there kind of gets you seen um not just by your peers but kind of everybody. And it also will give you a better experience. You'll have a lot more fun, discover more about yourself um and you know have a better time. I think it's the really important to just put yourself out there and go for it. If you that's what you want to do, go for it. And that's it for the show this week. Thank you for tuning in today. If you like what you heard, listen and subscribe on Spotify or YouTube. Stay up

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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 College. Remember, Blue Jays, you belong here always. [Music]