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So I think for me the experience was community, family and just the investment that a lot of the teachers made. >> Hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College. I am your host Kelly Peiffer a vice president of marketing 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 is time for a segment

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of the show I like to call Blue Jay Spotlight. This week, we'll be highlighting Alexandra Simmons, a junior at Manor College from Cheltenham High School. Simmons is a member of the mental health club, Manor College's dance team, student senate, outdoor track, and a presidential ambassador. Simmons also is on the fall 2025 deans list. Learn more about our Blue Jay spotlight right here. Hi, my name is Alexander Simmons. I'm a psychology major at Manor College. I am currently a presidential ambassador, peer mentor, a

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co-captain on the dance team, a secretary for the mental awareness club, and I do track and volleyball. I chose psychology because I want to help guide people through life's challenges and difficulties. My favorite part about Manor is the community and friends that I've made so far along the way and staff and faculty that are always willing to help you. advice I would give for uh incoming Manor students would be to just take one step at a time and make new friends. Manor is a very much community-

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based college, so everyone's willing to help and guide you through the college experience. Manor College, you belong here. Today's episode is sponsored by the personal and social skills leadership certificate at Manor College. In today's workplace, social and personal skills are more than just soft skills. They are the key to your next promotion. Master the human advantage with Manor College's personal and social skills leadership certificate. This flexible four-course program is designed

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for working professionals who need high impact training without a high impact price tag. Courses are just $750 each. Or you can save more with a discounted bundle for the entire certificate. It's a small investment for a massive career leap. Don't just keep up, get ahead. Classes are hybrid and designed for your busy schedule. Apply today at manor.edu/leader. That's manor.edu/leader. Our guest today is a Philadelphian native and a proud graduate of Cardinal Dougherty who took his first major steps into the tech

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world right here in our backyard. While studying at Manor College, he didn't just sit in the back of the classroom. He immersed himself into the campus community, honing his leadership skills and getting his hands dirty as an intern in the IT department. After earning his associates degree in information systems in 2007, he took that foundation and headed south, transferring to the University of South Florida to further his knowledge. He credits much of his early trajectory to the impact of

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mentors like Norma Hall, proving that the right support system can take you from a local intern to a seasoned professional. Please welcome to the show, Joe Speziale. Hi Joe. >> Hello. Thank you for having me. It's good to be here today. >> Yes. Thank you so much for joining us from sunny Florida. I am a little jealous of your your climate um compared to the blizzard that we're having right now in the Northeast, but that's that's okay. I'm grateful that you get to enjoy

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it. Um can you start us off by sharing how did you hear about Manor College and why did you ultimately choose to attend? >> Yeah, so apologies in advance for the weather issues uh up north. You know, it is bright and sunny down here, so I apologize in advance for that. >> Rub it in. >> But uh >> yeah, sorry. Sorry. So, um, yeah, so Manor College, uh, first off has really been a major point in my career in just in my journey, uh, to where I'm at today. So, I definitely credit Manor for

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a lot of how I've gotten here today. To answer your question, when I was in high school at Cardinal Dougherty, there was a sort of program that you your senior year of high school, you could basically go to Manor College and take classes there. And it was an it was a chance to accelerate your two-year degree where essentially spend a few classes in, you know, your senior year of high school at Manor and then you go to Manor for a year, year and a half, get your associates quick quickly and then

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transfer out essentially. So for me, um, what I really liked about Manor initially was the opportunity to get out of high school and take some college classes, uh, before I was even in college and, uh, just kind of change it up and change a pace and, uh, you know, learn while before I got out of high school. So that's that's that was my introduction. >> That's awesome. So that's an interesting um we call that dual enrollment where high school students can take college classes and kind of kind of do both at

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the same time, get ahead in college but while obviously finishing high school. So that's really cool that that was kind of your introduction and and it it frankly it worked exactly as it's supposed to doing the goal of dual enrollment is to help the colleg's enrollment and get some really great students um taking advantage of that. So, I'm really excited to hear that it did that for you. That's that's really great. So, take us back. What was your Manor experience like? What were you

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involved with? What you know, what were your classes like for you? What do you remember from that time? >> Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing I noticed was just how small and how much of a community it was, right? When you when you hear the words college and when you, you know, think about taking college classes as a high school kid, you expect probably like a sprawling gigantic, you know, environment. And so what was really uh fitting for me was just coming in and just realizing the community and the small kind of family

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feel that you had from Manor from day one. I mean I think uh what I realized right off the bat that I really liked was just the sort of immersive nature of the classes whereas like I'm not in a room with you know 90 other students trying to get the teachers attention. I I felt what I really liked was it like everything in life, you you kind of you take what you give and you give what you take and so on. And I think um for me, I I wanted to learn as much as I could and in the sort of information systems world

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while I was at Manor and I think the teachers appreciated the that that sort of insight that I wanted to to learn and they spent a lot of time with me after classes and just giving me motivational conversations and you know what's the art of the possible. So I think for me the experience was community, family and just the investment that a lot of the teachers made uh in terms of you know guiding me, giving me advice and kind of helping me throughout the course of my career. >> Yeah, that that small hometown feel is

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something that hasn't necessarily changed in the last you know 20 or so years. Um it's still there. It's still very much who we are and what we like to talk about. We call it um are you belong here culture. You know, students get to know faculty, faculty get to know students. I always like to say that we we know way more than just your name because a lot of schools will say like, "We know your name." And I'm like, "Oh, we know way more than just your name." Um, we know your dreams. We know your

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any problems. We know any challenges we and we are working on helping you. So, it's great to hear that you kind of had had that. Um, tell me why did you choose to study information technology? Have you always been interested in technology? Was this something that you just thought was a good like business move? Um, what about technology really excites you and kind of made you want to choose that as your career path? >> Yeah, I think uh honestly I went into high school with uh literally my eyes

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wide open. I I had no idea, you know, when I was younger I was always like uh the traditional I want to be a doctor, a bus driver, like it was the most random stuff basically. But uh for me, I wanted to see what subjects and and and classes that I like actually enjoyed learning about. Uh so I remember distinctly in high school, I just really liked the co the computer classes. Like I I enjoyed learning about computers. I enjoyed learning about, you know, emerging technologies and all those other things

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that were going on at the time, which it's a long time ago at this point. Um, but in general, I think for me, I just I just really had a had a passion for those classes and that always stuck with me. So when I got to my senior year, I felt like it was a good opportunity to to marry the passion I had with a great career because one thing about me is I obviously am career driven and I want to make good money and I want to have a great career and at that time and even today honestly like computers it is is

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just one of those industries that there's just always going to be an opportunity to be successful and have a a long career. So, I would say that those were the things that were the most important to me as to why I selected that path. >> I was going to say, are you do you feel like you chose the right path being able to retrospectively look back and say like, all right, if I could tell um you know, 17-year-old Joe, like, yeah, yeah, man, pick technology. You're going to be okay. Do you think that was the right

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move? >> Yeah, 100%. 100%. I mean, I wouldn't be where I'm at today without it, right? So I think uh it was one like I don't think there's any path I would have changed in my journey from Manor to today. The only thing I probably would have changed is I initially transferred as a computer science uh major into USF and I would have probably changed that to management information systems. That's the only change I would have probably made from the from the get-go. >> Right. Right. Well that that's that's a

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fair there's always edits. You know what I mean? There's always always edits in life. So So let's talk about that. How did we how did we go from Philly and and kind of then down to to University of South Florida? And I guess like how how was it culturally going from like Cardinal Dougherty Manor very like Philly Grit kind of vibes to um transferring all you know down south to uh University of South Florida. >> Yeah, it was it was awesome. I mean uh so the thing that I was blessed to be

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validictorian at Manor College which I felt like opened up a lot of doors for me in terms of opportunities to transfer out. So uh that was I was blessed to be able to achieve that and like I said uh a lot of applications that I had were successful and I got some scholarship opportunities and so on from local you know schools like Drexel and so on and then you know to to schools like USF. I think for me, I love the warm weather if you can't tell. I mean, I'm still here in Florida all these years later. And I

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just remember as a kid growing up just really loving the warm weather and like the sunshine and all that. So, that always stuck with me uh as a kid. So, I wanted to I just knew I wanted to go to Florida of some some regard. So, I applied to every UF school there was. USF, UF, UNF, UF, UCF, USF, like literally every Florida school there was. Uh, and USF was one of those schools that gave me a scholarship opportunity out of state and it was it was actually a transfer out of state scholarship they had. So, um, when I

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went down there, I fell in love with the campus. Uh, I'm a lacrosse player and I I met some of the lacrosse guys when I went down there to visit. So, uh, it was kind of just a match made in heaven, you know, when I first stepped on campus and decided to to go there and it's been, uh, like I said, don't regret it all. Love USF and it's been quite the journey ever since. So, >> Oh, that's great. Yeah, that's that's awesome. Um, so it sounded like your sites were like Florida. I'm going I'm

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going where the warmth is where it's not going to have, you know, these these issues with snow and weather and we're going somewhere nice and that's that's awesome. I love that you also talked about a transfer scholarship. That's really a lot of schools either don't offer transfer scholarships or they just don't you don't know about them enough. So, that's really good to hear that like that's out there. That's real. and particularly for schools like Manor

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where we have a lot of programs that you do need to transfer out to continue your education. Um, luckily now in 2018 we started offering bachelor degrees. So a lot of our programs now we have an associate and a bachelor so students can stay here to get that. But um that's just really important to hear that there are transfer scholarships out there and that people should look into it because that could really be the difference between you know where you go. That's really good to hear. >> Yeah. And and like to answer your

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question you said about the experience how different it was right. It was a massive culture shock. Yeah. uh stepping into a campus where the two buildings were the school at Manor College to a USF is one of the biggest campuses in the United States, right? So I I went from you know 14 to 20 people in a class to like hundreds of people in the class, right? Uh, so it was really, this is a true story, my first ever, you know, experience at at USF. I got all my classes assigned to me, so I didn't do

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any research. Ra, my professor was really cool back then and everything. So, I didn't get a chance to do that. >> So, I remember my first class was pre-calculus with um, early morning, like probably 7 a.m. class, something crazy. And I remember my first exam I got like a 38 on the class on the exam and I I absolutely like panicked like I freaked out and I was like I just freaked out. Um luckily that was not the uh story of the rest of my USF career education wise. But like you know it was

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a good it was sort of like a reality check uh wakeup call and um you know I remember that distinctly and the feeling that gave me but it gave me motivation too to at the end of the day. So >> Right. Yeah, totally. Um, I would say like o there could not probably be more opposite type of institutions between Manor and USF. So, that's really neat that you were also nimble to like I'm going to manage both. I'm going to, you know, get out of my comfort zone and I'm going to make this work. That's really

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cool. So, let's talk about the work that you've been able to accomplish at Microsoft. You've been with Microsoft for the last 15 years. um I believe currently global customer success director. Can you kind of tell us in in layman's terms what that means and what has it been like working for such a an empire of a of an organization like Microsoft? >> Yeah, it's been it's been amazing. I mean um so what I do today is a global customer success leader in our downstream business. What that

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essentially means is I lead a team of AI and security cloud architects working with the largest global companies in the world basically right so uh that's really the the the best way to describe it so we are working with all the biggest global companies in terms of their AI deployments helping them with agents and co-pilot and chat and everything else in between so we're doing some really fun and exciting things right now with uh some of those companies u in terms of my journey Yeah, I mean what a journey it's been, right?

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15 years for me, uh on February 28th. So, uh pretty pretty proud of that accomplishment. Um you know, I came here as a college kid. I literally graduated from USF and I stepped foot into Microsoft literally a couple days later and I've been here ever since. So, the journey's been unbelievable and uh you know, the company's invested in me and my career and my growth and um you know, it's made me kind of who I am today. So, so I'm really grateful for the journey that it's been to this point and a lot

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of growth, a lot of changes, a lot of challenges, a lot of ups and downs, but you know, here we are today. >> That's that's awesome and so cool to hear. You know, a lot of a lot of people particularly nowadays don't stay, you know, at organizations for as long as they used to. And um so to have 15 years at a place is really special and something that you definitely should be proud of. Um, I like asking this question to all of our guests about their jobs. Um, what's like a myth or misconception

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about your work that maybe people assume that like you spent all day doing this thing and you're like that's not true or something that you just want to like debunk, something that um, we want to set the record straight. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean listen, I think everybody when they hear Microsoft, they assume that you just know everything about every technology possible from like the printer to the to internet to everything else in between. You know, obviously we're very specialized here.

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We try and uh know as much about the overall technology stack as a whole, but like in terms of our business in general, we're obviously pretty specialized in the areas we work on. But you know, when you hear Microsoft, everyone always says Bill Gates. Bill Gates hasn't he's like not even I don't even think he's on the board anymore if I recall correctly. But you know there's this like everyone just has their assumptions about Microsoft and what you do and like unless you really ask me

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what I do like you sort of did you probably just assume that I'm just like almost like a tech support kind of guy I'm guessing and that's what my parents tend to think still to this day. Right. God bless them. >> Right. Right. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So we're not just tech support we're we're we're not just like a sales a sales rep for Microsoft. where you had something, you know, else were doing. >> Have you met Bill Gates? Do we know Bill Gates? Is this something that we've

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we've seen him at a company picnic or anything fun like that? >> Um, or is he just kind of a figurehead? >> He's just a figurehead. I I have not met him. I mean, I've met a lot of like Satia Nadell, the current CEO. I've met him like in passing. U Steve Balmer, who's the Clippers owner, he was the he was the CEO before. Uh Satia, I've met him a few times. He's quite the showman. uh very charismatic, very energetic. So that he he brought the energy. So >> you know, it's it's crazy just how much

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change uh not just Microsoft's been through, but just the entire industry's been through in in the 15 years, right? From from literally uh bringing people and companies to the cloud, you know, from on premises to now this AI revolution that is front and center in everybody's mind. Uh it's been quite the evolution, quite the journey, and we're still kind of evolving, you know, dayto day. So >> Oh, yeah. It's it's it's insane. AI has really taken over um you know everyone's

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industry. Even in here in higher education we we are we use AI um and know in the marketing office here we use AI and in Photoshop and different softwares that we're we're making um you know designing things but then also our students are using AI. So, we know how to figure out ways to catch them using AI when they hand in papers and assignments, but also try to teach them how they can use AI to help them with their assignments. It's not just all bad. Um, trying to find ways to put in

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the correct prompts and and what's, you know, how to site AI and in your academic papers and stuff like that. So, it's it's definitely it is it is everywhere. Um so actually so you started as an intern at Manor in the IT department. Um what is something that you you're working with now that like your 2000 self would have been like this is science fiction. This is not real like you know what I mean? What's something that you're like no like we're we're not that far.

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>> Yeah. I mean uh yeah. So shout out to Paul Van Ryan. uh he he was a big inspiration for me in terms of my uh just IT computer career. He was the head of the IT department. I sat in sat next to him in the chair rolling around, you know, swapping out servers and things like that uh for for many years at Manor. Um I would say just the the access to information uh on a whim, right? So, like back then if you wanted to learn how to like, you know, run Cat 5 cable or or like swap out a disc, like Paul would have to sit

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with me. I would watch him. He would show me how it's done. You know, he try to memorize what it was. Nowadays, I literally can just open up my phone, type in anything, right? Show me how to become a an expert in in building a Cat 5 cable, for example, right? Like, and I can learn within, you know, five seconds or basically. where I can literally pull my phone out and, you know, source it while I'm doing the job, right? So, I think for me it's pretty awesome. Like Google was there and all that, but like

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it's just not the same, right? Context search is so different than like actual conversational search when you're actually just like getting right to it. So, for me, I think just the access to to information and knowledge and how quickly I can consume it and find what I'm looking for. I would say that's been the most mind-blowing mind-blowing thing for me. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think I think I agree with you completely. Like that would be for me too. Like I've never could imagine

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that like I could have so much so quickly, so easily, and also so tiny. Like the phones are small. They're not, you know, you don't need these giant, you know, things. And I remember like my my first like computer desktop, you know, it was a it was a whole thing. It took up a whole desk. It was large and I couldn't do much on it, frankly. So now it's so cool to have these little these little things in our pockets um for the most part. So that's really neat to hear. So Joe, what would be some advice

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that you would share with college students today, particularly Manor students today to kind of encourage them to keep on their their college journey as someone who's been there, done that, live through it, and can now kind of self-reflect. >> Yeah. I mean, without being too cliche, right? I think like you got to figure out what strikes a passion in inside your body when you're doing it, right? Like I would never tell somebody to chase something that they don't have passion about because then you're just

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going to be sort of miserable. Like don't chase something just for the money or chase something just for the the title. Do something that like when you're in it, you're like getting energy out of it, right? So for me, as I mentioned, um you know, I just always got energy out of technology and computers and all that. So for me, it was a natural progression to to to this to this career, right? So I would say when you're in school and when you're navigating like what you're going to do

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with your job with your career like make sure that you think about what are those things like wow in that one class I really enjoyed that topic or that I really liked learning about this I got an A in this one class because of whatever it was right so that's usually going to be sort of the the catalyst to to what you probably want to do and then you got to be very intentional with your time and with your energy. So, you know, in terms of like what you want to do, just go out there and and talk to all

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the people that have done it already. Uh, you know, find mentors in those spaces. Find, you know, listen to podcasts like this, you know, people that have been through it. Ask questions. I I think I'm always really impressed by the students that you go out there and ask questions. How'd you get there? What did you do? What was the, you know, what was the standout factor for you to break through? And so on so on, right? Like even at Microsoft, I was a kid from Philly, went to Manor College, you know, went to USF. I was

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competing with people that went to Harvard and I all the Ivy League schools, right? Like I still still to this day, I'm just a USF guy, right? Uh went to Manor for a couple years. So, you know, you got to figure out what your unique characteristic is in terms of your career journey and your college journey. And then the last thing I would say is you have to stand out from the rest. Um, if you're doing the same thing everybody else is doing, you're not really doing anything unique. So, like,

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you know, for me, I haven't talked about on this podcast, but I guess I'll get to it now, but I'm I'm gonna be actually starting a new career here shortly. Not a new career, but a new job at a new company uh where I'm blessed to be the head of customer success at this company. But anyway, how I got this opportunity was literally just a cold LinkedIn message. >> Just a straight up cold LinkedIn message to to to someone in that business. Uh, as I've been, you know, looking through

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other job opportunities, just as I got to this point in my career, almost 95% of the interviews I've gotten were just from cold LinkedIn messages, not through putting my resume out there on a job board. So, I give you that just as a a thing to think about in terms of like you want to stand out and do and be unique to everybody else because there's a million people trying to take your job, take that spot at that school you want to go to, right? And and you just gota you got to find a way to stand out.

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>> Yeah. Yeah. That's great. I love what you said particularly about um like asking for advice, asking questions, having mentors, and it made me think of we have a student uh I guess an alum. His name is Kareem. And Kareem graduated last year from Manor and he was an IT intern. And now he's working at at Manor full-time in the IT department. And when I think of someone who seeks out mentors, asks questions, really humbles himself, it's I think of Kareem. Kareem is someone when he walks around and

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being an IT guy, actually, he's kind of um we had him on the show and when I asked him the the myth busting question, he says, "People think we're basement dwellers in IT." He goes, "We're not. We're social butterflies. Like everyone in it, we have to go out. we have to go fix people's stuff and like we have to then talk to you and and and Kareem does that but every time he comes to like you know fix something on your computer or fix a printer or whatever you have

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little chitchat but he always asks you questions like how did you first find your professional style or how did you navigate a promotion or how did you like and it's so and he takes out his phone and he starts writing notes and I just love that and such good advice that you shared and it's in line with what I see Kareem living out. So, huge shout out to Kareem. But just like ask questions and write down notes and find mentors because um those people then are going to become your advocates and they're

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going to help you get that next job or meet that person. Um you know, college is really about making connections and then finding ways to use those connections to help grow your own, you know, your own career. That's really what it's about. So that's that's great advice. Thank you for sharing, Joe. >> Well, Joe, we wish you nothing but the best. Best of luck in your next endeavor professionally. I know I always enjoy following along with you on LinkedIn and seeing what you're you're posting and

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what you're doing. I'm sure it's going to be wonderful no matter where you end up there. Um, thank you so much and we wish you nothing but the best. And like I like to say to our alumni, you belong here always. >> Thank you for having me. Shout out to all the Manor family out there. wish you all the best of luck with your your careers and and college and all that good stuff. Thank you for having me. >> Thank you for tuning in today. If you like what you heard, listen and

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subscribe on Spotify or YouTube. Stay up to date with all new episodes by following Manor College on social media 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.